Disposable Jesus

Another relevant re-post from 2011.

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Stephen Prothero published a thoughtful blog on our culture's "disposable Jesus."

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/11/my-take-poll-on-bin-ladens-death-reveals-a-disposable-jesus/?hpt=C2

One of his examples is the "Golden Rule:" most Americans say they believe we should treat others as we would want to be treated ourselves (though that's not just a Christian teaching).  Even when specifically applied, a small majority agreed that we should not do anything to enemies that we would not want done to American soldiers.

But less than half of white evangelicals agreed to that belief.  "In other words," observes Prothero, for a majority of white evangelicals, "when Jesus said, 'So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets' (Matthew 7:12), He didn’t really mean 'everything.'  He thought there should be an exception in the case of waterboarding your enemies."

This is what Prothero calls our "disposable Jesus:" the operative attitude that Jesus is not so much the sovereign Head of the Church as a useful pawn for OUR opinions...and can be ignored when He contradicts them.  I'd add that this attitude also manifests itself in the treatment of truth (who Jesus said He IS), particularly among followers of the politicized Church.

I have limited interest in heresy-hunting, and the conspiracy-mindedness that goes with it.  Heresies and conspiracies are certainly both "out there."   But time spent searching them out seems to me a complete waste, and conspiracy-mindedness is forbidden to us (Isaiah 8).

I doubt that conspiracies, even those which are real (most aren't), mislead and destroy anywhere near as many Christians as does "disposable Jesus" thinking.

It's again a question of thinking in Kingdom terms.  In the Kingdom, the King's word is law.

Amen !!

Where We Shop

Chuck Colson's remarks about Ayn Rand raise a question.

I'm appalled at where many Christians "shop" for ideas.  We have Jesus' Own endorsement of scripture: that God's word is truth (John 17:17).

. . . Why would CHRISTIANS shop anywhere else ?

Yet many "Christian" websites and e-mails endorse and promote ideas from controversialist and partisan sources.  The general run of "Christian" information pressed on me daily as "the Christian view" traces back not to the Bible, but to Ayn Rand, Glenn Beck, Fox News, WorldNetDaily, Rush Limbaugh, Breitbart News, anonymous "conservative" bloggers, and even less Godly sources (if such a thing can be imagined).

In the nature of our form of government...more importantly, in the nature of spiritual warfare...it's a given that manipulative lies will exist.  In the nature of mankind, there will always be those who CHOOSE to believe and promote such lies.

The question is why so many CHRISTIANS are among them ?

Ultimately, the only answer is because they choose to.  Receiving "the love of the truth so as to be saved" (II Thessalonians 2:10) is a choice.

When we want shoes, we go to a shoe-store.  We go to a candy-store when we've decided we want to buy candy.  We shop in a place where we can find what it is we want to buy.

Christians who "shop" for their operative ideas someplace else than the Bible show they're not really looking for Truth.   When they CHOOSE instead to browse the shelves in places where lies are sold, it's because they want to buy lies.  They will find what they are looking for, and they will "buy" it.

God guarantees so: "For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false..." (II Thessalonians 2:11)

Chuck Colson on Ayn Rand

The next two posts are from a former blog.  Posted in 2011, they still seem relevant today.

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Several years ago, Chuck Colson was already warning about the attack on Christianity in America represented by "conservative" leaders' embrace of Ayn Rand's "philosophy:" a warning he posted on a hard-core "conservative" website. That attack continues: most recently embodied in the 2012 budget formulated by Representative Paul Ryan, an avid follower of Rand's ideas.  Ronald Reagan, the "conservative" idol, also testified to Rand's influence on his thinking, as have many other "conservative" leaders.

Colson's remarks are worth re-reading.

http://townhall.com/columnists/chuckcolson/2007/10/16/the_legacy_of_ayn_rand/page/full/

"In his new memoir, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan reminds us that author Ayn Rand is still influencing the world. He credits her with turning him into something more than a 'math junkie.'

"Greenspan is not alone. A 1991 Book-of-the-Month Club and Library of Congress survey asked members which book had most influenced their lives. As expected, the Bible finished first. Unexpectedly, Rand’s most famous book, the novel Atlas Shrugged, finished second.

"Fifty years after its publication and 25 years after Rand’s death, Atlas Shrugged is still read everywhere from college campuses to Wall Street. Given its popularity and its impact, Christians ought to be acquainted with Rand’s work and, especially, her worldview.

"As theologian John Piper puts it, Rand’s work manifests a 'complete rejection of a divine or supernatural dimension to reality.' The absence of God causes Rand to get human nature wrong as well.

"In Atlas Shrugged and her other writings, Rand articulated a philosophy she called 'objectivism.' Among other things, objectivism teaches that man’s 'highest value' and 'moral purpose' is his own happiness.

"By 'happiness' Rand meant 'rational self-interest.' For her, 'virtue' consisted of doing what 'secured' your life and well-being.

"Where did that leave altruism and self-sacrifice? As vices. For Rand, altruism and self-sacrifice represented a betrayal of what should be a person’s 'highest values,' that is, his life and well-being. Similarly, justice would be possible only where you never sought for nor granted unearned or undeserved results, 'neither in matter nor in spirit . . .'

"But without altruism and self-sacrifice, how do people relate to one another? Ayn Rand says through exchanges that promote mutual advantage, what she called a 'trade.' In other words, as if each of the parties were businesses, not people.

"Rand’s inversion of biblical norms had predictable results: Scott Ryan, who wrote a book on Rand’s philosophy, called objectivism a 'psychologically totalitarian personality cult that allowed Rand . . . to exercise personal power over [her] unwitting victims.' He cites, for example, the way she manipulated 'her own unemployed and dependent husband' to get him to agree for her to have 'an adulterous sexual affair.'

"We’re not talking here about personal flaws or merely human weaknesses. As Ryan puts it, these abuses are 'demonstrably connected to Rand’s own "philosophical" premises'—that is, her worldview.

"Rand and her followers, you see, lived in a way consistent with her worldview. But you can hardly regard a philosophy that exalts selfishness and condemns altruism as the basis for a good society.

"That’s why it is so important for us as Christians to understand our Christian worldview and to be able to contend for it, because it gets God right, and it gets human nature right, as well. You can find that worldview in the one book that out-ranked Atlas Shrugged."