{"id":1394,"date":"2009-02-23T00:05:20","date_gmt":"2009-02-23T04:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/?p=1394"},"modified":"2009-02-22T18:37:53","modified_gmt":"2009-02-22T22:37:53","slug":"caught-by-surprise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/archives\/1394","title":{"rendered":"Caught by surprise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every once in a while I hear something in church that catches me by surprise. It\u2019s usually not a good surprise, admittedly. More often than not the surprising comment reveals a disconnect between my perception or assumption of church and faith and people\u2019s experience or interpretation of those. But they are helpful reminders that there often is a great divide between what clergy assume about church compared with where their members are in matters of faith, membership, beliefs, doctrine, or practice. As I say, \u201cThings look different from the other side of the pew.\u201d <\/p>\n

Where I tend to be most caught by surprise is the pragmatist approach to faith many church members seem to hold. I remember one church member during a pastoral counseling session who expressed no qualms about lying in court if it meant it would keep her husband out of jail. Christianity and church membership is good as long as it works. And when it ceases to work, it\u2019s no longer good. <\/p>\n

Here is an excerpt from \u201cWhat American Teenagers Believe: A Conversation with Christian Smith,\u201d interview by Michael Cromartie, Books & Culture<\/em> (Jan\/Feb 2005) in which Smith describes well the pragmatic Christianity that often catches us by surprise.<\/p>\n

The instrumental good has what you might call a public health justification. If I get my kid involved religiously, he will be less likely to do drugs, he\u2019ll get better grades, and will wear his or her seat belt. And I think a lot of parents are very interested in that, quite understandably. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the United States we have a competitive religious economy. And I think a lot of religious organizations\u2014consciously or unconsciously\u2014make that instrumental pitch to families: we\u2019ll be good for you. Now it\u2019s an empirical fact that religious kids are doing better. There\u2019s nothing wrong with celebrating that. But when that becomes the key legitimation of what religion is all about, then that\u2019s a whole different matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on our findings, I suggest that the de facto religious faith of the majority of American teens is \u201cMoralistic Therapeutic Deism.\u201d God exists. God created the world. God set up some kind of moral structure. God wants me to be nice. He wants me to be pleasant, wants me to get along with people. That\u2019s teen morality. The purpose of life is to be happy and feel good, and good people go to heaven. And nearly everyone\u2019s good.\u201d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sometimes I\u2019d like to be surprised for different reasons. For example, I\u2019d like to be caught off guard overhearing\u2026 <\/p>\n

10. Hey! It’s MY turn to sit on the front pew!
\n9. I was so enthralled, I never noticed your sermon went over time 25 minutes.
\n8. Personally, I find witnessing much more enjoyable than golf.
\n7. I’ve decided to give our church the $500.00 a month I used to send to TV evangelists.
\n6. I volunteer to be the permanent teacher for the Junior High Sunday School class.
\n5. Forget the denominational minimum salary: let’s pay our pastor so s\/he can live like we do.
\n4. I love it when we sing hymns I’ve never heard before!
\n3. Since we’re all here, let’s start the worship service early!
\n2. Pastor, we’d like to send you to this Bible seminar in the Bahamas.
\n …. And the number one overheard comment that would really surprise me:
\n1. Nothing inspires me and strengthens my commitment like our annual stewardship campaign!<\/p>\n

galindoconsultants.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every once in a while I hear something in church that catches me by surprise. It\u2019s usually not a good surprise, admittedly. More often than not the surprising comment reveals a disconnect between my perception or assumption of church and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congregational-life","category-humor"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1394"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1396,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394\/revisions\/1396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}