Winging It

Christianity Without Christ

Wasted On The Young

Young people think they will always be young, that they will live forever. They bet their lives on ridiculous assumptions based on absolutely nothing. I have met, in my entire lifetime, maybe a handful of 15-25-year olds who actually live their lives according to strong convictions. Whether those convictions be Christian or Islamic or Buddhist, or, as they usually are, just some cartoon they invented in their heads, I’ve encountered very few young persons whose do-it-yourself, paint-by-numbers doctrine does not collapse the very moment an opportunity to get high, get paid, or get laid presents itself. The ninety-nine, so popular a term these days, simply have no core. You dig and you dig, but there really isn’t anything there. And they bring these empty calorie assertions into their adult life where we see what we see today, tens if not hundreds of millions of Americans simply turned off to Christ.

Some of that has to do with the religious right and how ugly they are, how smug they are and how reactionary they are. But a large part of it is due to the erosion of the American family, the anything-goes divorce-on-a-whim disengagement with strong bonds. It is in the household that faith is given birth. Through stories, yes, passed from one generation to the next. But faith is most often passed one by modeling a strong adherence to core values. As the church has become increasingly politicized and identified with political ideology, she has also grown more commercialized and, thus, disengaged from the community. Lights, camera, action, worship becomes something we observe more so than participate in. In far too many households, there is no family devotion time. Why? We’re too busy. Or we’re too lazy. Or we don’t want the fight with the teens to drag them to the table. Or we don’t know our bible and don’t know where to start.

Or we’re just phonies, allowing our children to hear us cussing and see us mistreat people, cheat, steal, get drunk, get high. We’re paying that cable or satellite company to beam the filthiest, most degenerate, antichrist nonsense right into our son’s bedroom. We’re downloading porn. I am persuaded a great many families skip devotion time because they know what huge hypocrites they are. Because God does not reign in their lives and, therefore, cannot reign in their households.

So, in place of actual spiritual knowledge, we have all of these people simply winging it. The Church Of Me. This is Oprah Winfrey—but I defend Oprah to this extent: I believe her conclusions to be informed ones. I don’t think she just woke up one day and made up her own Oprah Theology on the spot. I do not agree with Ms. Winfrey, but I defend her right to believe whatever she believes and presume she at least invested herself in the journey toward her convictions.

The average guy I run into has given this no thought. None. When asked, he just starts winging it. Oh, I believe God is in all nature. Oh, I don’t believe in hell. Oh, God is a grapefruit. Winging it. Ask him again tomorrow, he’ll have another version. It’s all crap. These people believe nothing. The entire dimension of spirituality has a “For Rent” sign on it. They are living their lives as two-thirds of a person.

So are, in my opinion, the vast majority of Christians. I believe that, of the billions, there are a precious remnant, a divine percentage, of Christians who actual give much thought to their faith. Christianity is, for the rest of us, simple tribalism; a culture embedded in our DNA. We are no better than the do-it-yourselfers. We don’t study, we don’t pray, we don’t hold family devotions, block devotions, community devotions. Beyond the Sunday pulpit, there is no truth revealed to us. Truth, for us, remains locked between the covers of a book we forget to occasionally dust off.

This is American Christianity. Which is not to suggest European Christianity or Asian Christianity is more sincere: much of that is deeply entrenched in ritual, and there is a great falling away going on globally, as one generation fails to model authentic convictions to the next. Christianity is not unique in this: there is a growing restlessness among younger generations in Islamic nations as secularist ideology gains increasing momentum.

Whatever Things Are True: Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. --Philippians 4:8

Is Faith Dead?

Hard to say. Well, pastor, who are you to say I have no faith?! I’m not saying evangelicals and Church Folk have no faith. I’m standing back to see the fruit we’re producing. I’m trying, with all my might, to understand how you can call yourself a Christian and continue to pay someone to broadcast filth into your child’s bedroom and, therefore, her mind. How you can call yourself a Christian and preach hatred toward gays, towards doctors who perform abortions. Beloved, at the end of the day, only you know if you have faith. But the presence of faith creates a kind of fission—a molecular reaction—that leaves evidence that faith is there. It’s like welding rivets with a blow torch. The best welders put out the fewest sparks: the sprinkle arc of glowing embers is actually the mark of a poor welder. But, good welder or not, there will be sparks. If you have faith, there will be sparks; there will be some evidence of it. Not of your religion. Not of your church hat or Church Folk crazy colloquialisms (“We are gathered on tonight…”).

Authentic faith produces love. It really is that simple. Without love, you are nothing. I am nothing. Without love, you obviously have no faith. Without faith, you cannot please God. And this is what I am seeing: the empty shells giving me this made-up crap about God is in the air, and “Christians” with the phony smiles who demonstrate pettiness, selfishness, meanness and hate. Christianity Without Christ.

Each day that God gives us should begin and end with an honest self-assessment about which one of these people we are.

Christopher J. Priest
6 November 2011
editor@praisenet.org
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Existentialism

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Existentialism is a term applied to the work of several 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual. In existentialism, the individual's starting point is characterized by what has been called "the existential attitude", or a sense of disorientation and confusion in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world.[5] Many existentialists have also regarded traditional systematic or academic philosophy, in both style and content, as too abstract and remote from concrete human experience.

The early 19th century philosopher Søren Kierkegaard is regarded as the father of existentialism. He maintained that the individual is solely responsible for giving her or his own life meaning and for living that life passionately and sincerely, in spite of many existential obstacles and distractions including despair, angst, absurdity, alienation, and boredom.

Subsequent existentialist philosophers retain the emphasis on the individual, but differ, in varying degrees, on how one achieves and what constitutes a fulfilling life, what obstacles must be overcome, and what external and internal factors are involved, including the potential consequences of the existence or non-existence of God.[15Existentialism became fashionable in the post-World War years as a way to reassert the importance of human individuality and freedom.

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