Here's the problem: I can't play churchism anymore. Sunday worship services, no matter the format--contemporary, liturgical, traditional, "contemporvant"--are all the same. They exist to make the people in the seats feel something, to experience "God." But it's not God they experience.
Usually what these good church-going-people (churchists) feel is sheer subjectivity. The voice of God sounds familiar because it is their own voice. Feuerbach was right that most believers are merely projecting their highest ideals--unconditional love, acceptance, order, ultimate meaning--out into eternity and naming it "God." We have created God in our own image and likeness. This fact plays out even more so in the protestant movement in North America with its inherent bent toward individualism and subjective experience. (Which by the way are signs of sin in the scriptures). Where is the line between the "voice of God" and pure subjectivity? Scripture? We usually interpret that through the lenses of the template of our tradition. The Church? There is no "Church" with a big "C" to separate truth from fiction--no real biblically mandated authority among protestants. No. The judge of whether or not I am hearing the voice of God is the highest authority. Me.
Someone used to say to me "feelings aren't truth." What that person meant was "other people's feelings aren't truth, but my feelings are the movement of the Holy Spirit in my life." That person used to use churchism code words to disguise subjective feelings--words like "confirmation," "resonating," "leading," "discerning." What I have learned is that if people regularly claim God's leading or a "word from the Lord," it's usually self-inspired b.s. How many times is it recorded that Abraham heard directly from God? What about Paul? What about Jesus? A few at best. And that was Abraham, Paul and Jesus, for crying out loud.
Another disturbing aspect of this subjective churchism is the constant desire to reach people and the remarkable failure at doing so. If it is true that each believer has a call to reach the world, that each believer is empowered by the very presence of God Himself indwelling the individual, and that each believer has been radically made new, where is the evidence? There is none. 1% of churches grow through new converts. 90% of churches are in decline. That's among protestant "evangelicals." The divorce rate, the rate of addictions, the suicide rate, the rate of child abuse, etc. are all identical to the "world."
The problem is that what churchists have experienced, in the adapted words of the old song, is "more of me. More of me." The God they claim to follow is really themselves in a mirror wearing the god-mask.
Funny thing--and this is probably an issue for a separate blog--is that I have been hearing a lot of excuses for God lately when He seems less than perfect. It's a totally subjective interpretation of events. It's something like Leibniz old argument of the best of all possible worlds. God allows or even causes evil, but it's for my good. Really?? God can only make good from evil? I think God might be able to make good from good. He's God after all. He can do anything. Perhaps when something bad happens, it's because we put ourselves in that position, or because bad stuff just happens sometimes. Perhaps the problem is with the interpreter of the events, not with the events themselves. If the universe revolves around me, then what happens to me is of ultimate importance. And, in the protestant, American churchist tradition, we are each the center of God's universe.
A last observation...the entirety of the Good News in the subjectivist world of the churchist is "Jesus loves me" or "if you were the only one, Jesus would have died for you." How incredibly arrogant. Isn't there a whole universe with billions of people who need reconciliation? And the churchist is comfortable thinking God's entire plan developed over the entirety of created history revolves around their individual sin and forgiveness. Not only is that egocentric, it is a complete misunderstand of Jesus' perception of his own work. He said he came that "the world may know" Him. Not just the selfish pew sitter. Perhaps there is more to the message of Jesus than an individual encounter.
As for me...I will not contribute to the subjectivity any more. God is bigger than that...I hope.
Interesting article and quite true. Thanks for your honesty. I would like to say that I think when people say that if you were the only one in the universe Jesus would have died for you is not an egocentric statement. It is merely trying to convey how far God would reach down to save us,like Abraham's request, if there were ten, if there were five, if there three.
ReplyDeleteGod Bless