Some broad areas that seem to encompass what has been mentioned:
Gender Issues
Gospel of Prosperity (call it what is it, capitalism, not evangelism)
*Mega-church critques fit in here
*All money issues
Magic Spell Doctrine
*Evangelical "all you have to do is invite Jesus into your heart"
*Catholic mechanisms of "faith"
Sin, generally
*Selfish behavior, as it applies to modern life. I got dibs on this section.
An overarching theme, methinks, is what Mike hints at when he says "a complete disrespect for people." I think the church has come to think that (1) core values are unattainable by people, and therefore (2) not worth teaching. Rather than teach people what is undeniable Christian revelation applicable to their own lives (sacrifice, not selfishness) while recognizing that no one is capable of truly honoring it, the church compromises its theology in an effort to get more people into the pews. Consequently, most people have lost the internal/communal dialogue on "what's right?" and instead spew out stock answers fed to them by the church. "Compromise theology" might be a good term for everything wrong. Kinda has an aggressive edge to it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
As long as we're calling dibs--can I call Magic Spell Doctrine? The fracturing and oversimplification of Christianity is something that really bugs me. The whole idea that you can pull random verses from random books and string them together using modern-day american allegories and ways of thinking... Very few evangelicals want to study the Bible for what it is: An Ancient Middle Eastern (and mostly jewish) collection of books written across many centuries.
To reduce Paul's writings to 4 verses pulled out of context and say, "you're going to heaven now," is just BS.
There's a bit of overlap between "magic spell" and "prosperity," in the whole idea of, "just pray more, read more, or go to church more and God will bless you," etc. All the "if, then" statements about how God will react to what you do.
I mean, really. How is the Prayer of Jabez different than Dumbo's magic feather?
Sure. Ats54 should be able to offer some theology school insight, too.
I'm in favor of the whole shebang --- going after protestants and catholics.
Post a Comment