BAD RELIGION
How We Became a
Nation of Heretics
By Ross Douthat
Free Press, 2012
352 pages, $26
To order:
books.simonandschuster.com
Few would dispute that traditional, orthodox Christianity of all denominations used to be the dominant religious influence in American culture, serving as the social and moral rudder for the whole country. Even well into the 20th century, Christianity stabilized and guided America as it emerged from the trauma of a devastating economic upheaval and two world wars and began to navigate the choppy waters of civil-rights reforms.
As recently as 50 years ago, Christianity was mainstream, intellectually respectable and unshackled to any particular political party. Today, few people of faith would dispute that Christianity has been supplanted as the dominant cultural force in America, but New York Times columnist Ross Douthat asserts that it’s not because of widespread apostasy.
Instead, he writes, we have been living through "the slow-motion collapse of traditional Christianity and the rise of a variety of destructive pseudo-Christianities in its place." Douthat calls these pseudo-Christianities "heresies," and by the phrase "nation of heretics" he means that even though a majority of Americans still self-identify as religious or even Christian, "a growing number are inventing their own versions of Christianity, abandoning the nuances of traditional theology in favor of … distortions of traditional Christianity, not the real thing."
The developments leading to the decline in orthodox Christianity surfaced in the 1960s, but they had their roots in the late 1800s, with the heresy of modernism, which Douthat describes as "a theology that made human aspirations rather than the biblical God the measure of all things."
After mounting two very different responses to the fruits of modernism — accommodation and "culture war" resistance — the dust has settled: Orthodox Christianity has ceased to influence the larger culture in any significant way. Instead, there are four great "pseudo-Christianities." The first such heresy is the fascination with "alternative gospels" and the quest for the "real Jesus." The second is the "health and wealth" gospel of prosperity. Douthat calls the third heresy "the God within," in which the god who speaks to you is nothing but your own ego enabling you to feel good about any choice you might make as you follow your bliss. Finally, Douthat concludes with the heresy of "American nationalism" and its two very different expressions, utopian messianism and apocalyptic doom-saying.
Douthat admits to being a Catholic, yet he’s candid about the Church’s missteps and weaknesses, especially in describing how "spirit of Vatican II" accommodation and capitulation weakened the Church and led to some of its worst moments. His retrospective summary and analysis of the clerical sexual-abuse scandal is one of the best I have ever read.
I came away from the book sobered and worried, but Douthat offers this final word of encouragement: "It is not enough for Americans to respect orthodox Christianity a bit more than they do at present. To make any difference in our common life, Christianity must be lived."
Clare Walker writes from
Westmont, Illinois.
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In post 1919 19th amendment America, quoting 3:16 is heresy, Um that’s Genesis 3:16, btw. Why, considering Genesis as scripture in todays “educated in evolution” society, is nearly as outrageous as calling Foxes book of Martyrs** the “Benchmark Publication of Christian History”, on a Catholic blog!
Foxes was published before the KJV Bible, and can be read free here:
** http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22400/22400-h/22400-h.htm
I am not sure America would boast any particular religious tenet it could be well identified with. The use of the term ‘traditional orthodox Christianity’ is fraught with instant confusion for we know what the well-known orthodox Christianity means and its origins and even in areas it freely abounds with its jurisdictional influence. Unless the author would want to tell us that the traditional orthodox Christianity should be otherwise called traditional American Christianity, we take it that this name is just a misnomer. Having said this, his mention of heresy and apostasy brings to mind the association of these with his so-called traditional orthodox Christianity whose fundamental credo down the centuries had been nothting to write home about. A religion that espoused human slavery and further along the line encouraged racial segregation with its attendant deprivations of certain members of the society of their rights could not be said to be a religion that has actually come from God. The Bill of Rights of 1964 could not be said to have been at the instance of this religion as we all know. Then came the pentecostalism that the author aptly described as religion of health and wealth. This, in essence, brought with it the attendant religious boisterousness with ecclectic activism that was neither here nor there other than to state that it was just a quintessence of brazen disobedience to the teachings of Jesus Christ and His True Church that He established before His Death and Resurrection and aptly kickstarted and nurtured by the Holy Spirit - The Catholic Church. Then there is the group of so-called Christian Churches under the banner of protestantism, some of which have now come up with the bizarre and ungodly recognition of same-sex relationships as an addition to the sacramental marriage between a man and a woman, recognized in Christendom! The reason for recognizing this type of odd and unnatural relationships that abound amongst the gay and lesbian communities is that God loves those people also and so their actions must be blessed by God! If we are talking about heresy, then this is a clear-cut example of heresy! Yes, God loves gays and lesbians in the sense that they are human beings made in the image and likeness of God. However, God detests their actions, their sins! And if any Church would want to show that love or charity as Jesus Christ emphasized many times and echoed by St. Paul in Corinthians I, Chapter 13, then such a church must have to, in the least, divest such people of any recognition because such people’s actions would sure lead them to Hell, if they persisted in them. But recognizing such people and granting them the rights of marriage in such a church places such a church as being in a position of effectuating those evils and as such accomplices in such evil acts. So what we have in mainstream America today is ecclectic Christianity with the Catholic Church making every effort to rise above the rancorous din. We hope and pray earnestly that the Catholic Church, that Church of Christ founded on Saint Peter, would one day triumph in America and, indeed, the entire world so that the entire humanity would see in the Catholic Church the only Gateway to Salvation and Eternal Life. Any other Christian denomination and, indeed, any other religion outside the Catholic Faith are gullty of gross disobedience to Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, The Triune God. And disobedience is at the root of all evils.
The American people have finally realized that Christianity is BS and consequently want nothing to do with it.
The Church is partly responsible for this as they do a pathetic job of teaching their members what they actually believe. We recently moved to Florida and we are trying out different Catholic parishes to see where we would like to belong. Today’s Mass featured a priest who added so much of his own wording as to make they prayers unrecognizable and a chior that sang 10 verses of the Lamb of God. How can we follow Christianity when the Catholic Church can’t get it’s own priests on the same page.
Where are the comments?
It’s called bad catechesis.
In many USA Diocese, Bishops have not actively promoted the reading of the “CATECHISM of the CATHOLIC CHURCH, Second Edition”.
On the internet Search: ” What Catholics REALLY Believe Source ” for quotes from Blessed Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict about the CCC, and more.
Including the quote that the CCC is for everyone.
If the Bishops and Priests do not teach the CCC in entirety, Catholics will continue to fall into relativism and secularism, etc.
When Catholics have not formed their conscience properly, they will continue to vote for immoral politicians at all levels of government.
The first question/answer on the recommended web site tells us what we can do about this problem.
It’s poor catechesis !
There will continue to be heresy and schism on a large scale until all USA Bishops and Priests actively promote the reading of the “CATECHISM of the CATHOLIC CHURCH, Second Edition”.
For quotes from Blessed Pope John Paul II and Pope Bendict about the CCC on the internet search: ” What Catholics REALLY Believe Source “.
It includes that the CCC is for all of us.
And in the answer to question #1, it tells what each of us can do about the problem.
And when were Protestants orthodox? If they were they’d be Catholic. lol
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