as small as a world and as large as alone

5:43pm January 28, 2014

karalianne:

I have an instinctive dislike for contemporary Christian culture. Primarily of the Evangelical type, but then again what are the other options these days anyway?

I wear a cross, I go to church on Sunday, I try to do daily devotions and I want to get into the practice of praying the Daily Office (at least morning and evening prayer - that’s all that’s required of Anglican priests, after all), and I hope that my faith informs my life decisions.

But contemporary (Evangelical) Christian culture would have us buy into the idea that we should turn to God for every decision we make. And I just don’t think that God cares one way or the other whether I have McDonald’s for dinner or make a pot roast instead. He cares that I eat, but that’s about it. God’s in it for the long haul, not the short-term. He wants us to look after ourselves and he wants to look after us, but he doesn’t want to micromanage us. And I think we’re selling ourselves short when we ask or expect him to.

I really like it when I find out that a celebrity I enjoy (e.g., an author, an actor) is a Christian. It makes me feel more connected to them. I also like it when I find out that a celebrity has a religion that they try to follow carefully (e.g., Mayim Bialik is an observant Jew). It makes me respect them more when I can see how their faith has influenced their work and their life.

But I don’t like it when every single thing a celebrity does is wrapped up in contemporary (Evangelical) Christian culture. It reeks of falsity and makes me feel slimy and dirty for having touched it, even a little bit. It’s dishonest. All too often it isn’t realistic about life; it’s all about quick fixes, things like “trust God and everything will be roses and sunshine” and just… no. That’s not how things work. That’s not how life works. There aren’t quick fixes for everything. You can trust God with all your heart, love him with all that you are, and you can still become clinically depressed and suicidal or otherwise mentally ill, and all the prayer in the world may not help because you need to take a pill (literally).

I prefer a quiet, unassuming faith. Faith that’s secure in God, that isn’t ostentatious, that doesn’t feel this need to draw attention to itself, that doesn’t go around proclaiming the Good News as if it’s only about avoiding the fires of hell (it’s so much more than that!), that accepts that a lot of life is about doing for oneself, not about God stepping in. And I don’t think it’s just because that’s what my personality is like; I don’t see a lot of examples in the Gospels of Jesus doing the kinds of things we see in contemporary (Evangelical) Christian culture. For the most part, he is quiet and moving in the background, among the poor and disenfranchised. He gets in people’s faces (rather than them getting in his face) only a few times, and one of those times is the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which immediately preceded his death and resurrection.

Not sure where I’m going with this so I’ll stop now.

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