Christians, Hindus, Whatever

Dr. Al Mohler posted on his site concerning the American propensity to believe in just about anything. He linked to a Newsweek article from which the following comes:

"...Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me."

Americans are no longer buying it. According to a 2008 Pew Forum survey, 65 percent of us believe that "many religions can lead to eternal life"—including 37 percent of white evangelicals, the group most likely to believe that salvation is theirs alone. Also, the number of people who seek spiritual truth outside church is growing. Thirty percent of Americans call themselves "spiritual, not religious," according to a 2009 NEWSWEEK Poll, up from 24 percent in 2005. Stephen Prothero, religion professor at Boston University, has long framed the American propensity for "the divine-deli-cafeteria religion" as "very much in the spirit of Hinduism. You're not picking and choosing from different religions, because they're all the same," he says. "It isn't about orthodoxy. It's about whatever works. [emphasis added] If going to yoga works, great—and if going to Catholic mass works, great. And if going to Catholic mass plus the yoga plus the Buddhist retreat works, that's great, too."

My post yesterday didn't mention the small side-discussion I had with a member of our Church about McLaren's leanings toward Islam wherein this person thought there was nothing wrong with showing solidarity by participating in Ramadan with Muslims. After all this person said, "Paul told us to be all things to all people."

I commented that by doing so, McLaren was not being scriptural about his witness. In fact we are commanded to avoid those who will not listen to the Gospel message. Muslims are forbidden to listen, therefore it is very difficult to "be all" to them. Participating in their religion is not what Paul meant. That is why he told the Athenians he would tell them about their unknown God, not celebrate their ignorance with them.

Christianity is a verbally based religion. God set it up so that His "Word" is primary not what our feelings tell us. McLaren obviously "feels" he is doing good. But, words are how humans identify the evidence of sensory inputs. It is through lamguage we form concepts, which means we have to think about what we are doing. McLaren apparently doesn't care one way or the other since his notoriety sells books and that appears "to work" for him. The pragmatic/Hindu concept "works for me," is based entirely on feelings and has nothing to do with reality and the human role to identify it in a God ordained manner. Why else would God have made Adam name the animals - he had to correctly identify the evidence of his senses and demonstrate to God that he could.

But, the idea "works for me" is so pervasive today, even some Christians get caught up in it. For example, many seem to be unable to articulate the role of faith as God explains it in the Bible. Too many of the Christians I know believe that "faith" is a matter of personal choice and that God really doesn't have a role in our beliefs other than He has to accept our statement that we have "accepted Jesus as our personal Savior." This they believe grants them a ticket into heaven because most believe "it works for them." We seldom talk about the part of Scripture that commands us to acknowledge Jesus as our LORD (read slave- master). This idea just does not sit well with our American democratic ideals.

The Newsweek article goes on to say that 24% of Americans now believe in reincarnation. That pretty much ends any idea of Resurrection for those folks. If you die and come back as something else, a monkey, or a cockroach, for example, what need is there for belief in the God of the Bible, let alone accepting Him as slave-master (Lord and Savior).

The article ends with this:

"I do think the more spiritual role of religion tends to deemphasize some of the more starkly literal interpretations of the Resurrection," agrees Diana Eck, professor of comparative religion at Harvard. So let us all say "om."

Meditation, in the Yoga sense of chanting "om," is not something I need. Not since I had to take a "Transcendental Meditation" class in college. So I will say Praise God, and thank you very much, but I will not be fasting in solidarity with my Muslim neighbors. I will, however, tell them that God through His son Jesus can fill the void they are trying to fill through rituals, if they will listen and not kill me for being an infidel.