I liked this blog post by Heather McDonald about the essence of 21st century American Christianity: it's total lack of self-awareness."Today’s religion advocates sometimes evince an almost child-like ahistoricism...The differences that separate an American believer and non-believer today are barely perceptible compared to the gulf that yawns between today’s cheerful Religion-lite, which has been defanged, homogenized, and told to mind its manners, and the monopolistic, crusading Christianity of centuries past."
"The religious superstructure of centuries past has been dismantled. Rising in its place is a remake of religion 'in the image of mass-consumer capitalism,' according to a sociologist of American religion at the University of Notre Dame. That remake offers up easily digestible bits like the '5 Minute Theologian' and '7 Minutes With God.'”
Needless to say, I'm quite happy about this transition from pre-modern Christianity (hyper-serious, imperial, and deadly) to contemporary Christianity (which has made peace with commercialism and religious diversity). Clearly, I don't want to be burned at the stake for religious heresy. So what's the point of this essay?...Well, I just wish other Christians understood that their religion has changed substantially over the last two millenia; it's changed so much in fact that, at least in terms of how it's practiced, it's almost unrecognizable.
Consumerism has managed to co-opt Christianity, much to the benefit of both. But in the long-run, can this marriage last? That remains to be seen.
-Todd
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