- to disregard religion altogether under the aegis of an "I'm ok, you're ok" touchy-feely-ism that doesn't actually require effort of the individual
- to discredit contradiction by a religious orthodoxy that defines some individuals or 'non-negotiable' behaviors as anathema, such as bastards (once upon a time), divorcees (more recently) or gays (currently, in much of the country)
- or to simply flout the beliefs "of the great mass of their fellow men", a la Screwtape
I suspect that part of the seeming anti-religious stance taken by those who would seem to be the types of persons who would embrace religion comes from looking at the landscape of religions, and, for lack of a better way of saying it, "not seeing God there". We do have two American religions, though, that one might suspect would fit the bill. The most widely known is the ex-Baptist post-Protestant evangelical fundamentalism practiced by most Americans who call themselves "Christian" without further qualification (none other being necessary because of course all other varieties of Christianity are by definition in error). The other American religion is the syncretic claptrap that people call "New Age" spirituality, being mainly a smorgasboard of Western divination & esoteric yoga welded to a believe in "higher powers" (or "Ascended Masters" or "guardian angels", &c) that help the willing along a path of learning that constitutes spiritual growth. Neither cauterization nor anesthesia fit the bill though--most "spiritual" people are nauseated by both of these home-grown options.
Of the list above, numbers 1 & 3 are clearly diseases. Number 2 is a disease if you embrace a contradictory morality. I think a lot of folks who superficially look like they belong in this list really don't, though, and that there's more afoot than I used to suspect.
1 comment:
re + ligio = a thing that binds together. Religions by definition bind a community together and regulate the conduct of that community, either through prescription or proscription. In this way, the power of religion is similar to the power of government. However, religion may define a community and guide its conduct in a way and in such areas that civil laws cannot reach.
All communities, whether they are aware of it or not, have a religion of sorts. For some it is a civil religion; for others a transcendent one.
The two you describe--Pentacostal Dispensationalism and the Convergence Buffet-- are neither, but pretend at being both. Viewed together, they appear somehow related. Perhaps the relationship between these two should be explored.
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