I've written about moralistic therapeutic deism before (and having just reread it, have to say I think what I had to say back in March stands up pretty well).
The subject is in the news lately thanks to CNN and the good folks at Get Religion have some typically insightful commentary. Reading the pieces that Get Religion links, however, I wonder if some Christian critics aren't overdoing the criticism. For example, Terrence Mattingly quotes sociologist Christian Smith's definition of the central principles of MTD and adds that these principles are "mushy".
Mushy? Pardon me but as a certified crypto-Catholic libertine (it even says I am in my profile so it must be true) I smell a hairshirt in the bushes here. I don't think the problem is that the principles are mushy. The problem is that they aren't quite right. That's right, they aren't quite right, meaning that they are partly right. MTD has its flaws to be sure but it's tending in the right direction.
Which raises an interesting question: Is moralistic therapeutic deism really all that different from what mainstream protestant Christianity has always tended to be?
I won't answer that but here are the five principles from Christian Smith with my commentary:
BUT aren't problems a form of grace? Don't we tend to come to Jesus when we are troubled? Would we disdain someone who spent years of their life coming to God with their problems and then forgetting about him when things started to go well? Because that sounds a lot like me.
Well they do don't they.
I know, I know, you want to say that no one comes to the Father except through the Son. But isn't that what good people do?
I'll grant that no amount of "goodness" will counteract a life spent dismissing Jesus and the Holy Spirit but can anyone who does that be called good? And someone who did that could be forgiven, Saint Paul for example.
Am I saying that God will save anyone who is good and that having faith and the Church is not necessary? No I am not. I'd advise anyone who wants to be saved to get themselves to Jesus as soon as possible and I'd tell them that the way to do that is to get to the Catholic Church but I wouldn't presume to set limits on whom God will save or suggest that there is anyone he cannot save.
My prayer concerning Christopher Hitchens, for example, is that God will bring him to his kingdom not that Hitchens will have some sort of death bed conversion and announce his error to world. That might happen but I only pray that God bring Hitchens to himself and I trust God completely as to how he gets him there.
The subject is in the news lately thanks to CNN and the good folks at Get Religion have some typically insightful commentary. Reading the pieces that Get Religion links, however, I wonder if some Christian critics aren't overdoing the criticism. For example, Terrence Mattingly quotes sociologist Christian Smith's definition of the central principles of MTD and adds that these principles are "mushy".
Mushy? Pardon me but as a certified crypto-Catholic libertine (it even says I am in my profile so it must be true) I smell a hairshirt in the bushes here. I don't think the problem is that the principles are mushy. The problem is that they aren't quite right. That's right, they aren't quite right, meaning that they are partly right. MTD has its flaws to be sure but it's tending in the right direction.
Which raises an interesting question: Is moralistic therapeutic deism really all that different from what mainstream protestant Christianity has always tended to be?
I won't answer that but here are the five principles from Christian Smith with my commentary:
1. A God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth.The problem here is a lot of extraneous detail that implicitly applies qualifications and limits to God. The truth is much simpler: "God created the world and watches over human life."
2. God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.Well no, not as taught by most world religions but as taught by Jesus Christ. As I said in my previous post, the Golden Rule is no rule at all. It is a vague principle that needs a lot of content and stage setting to work. The person who fills that out is Jesus Christ by his presence as the word and through the Holy Spirit.
3. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.This is quite simply true. I know, we all want to rush in and qualify "feel good about oneself" so that nobody gets the notion that if it feels good it is good. But surely we as Christians have arguments to counter that. Surely our argument is that the harder work of faith allows us to feel better about ourselves than a life of transient pleasures would do.
4. God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when he is needed to resolve a problem.This is the big problem with MTD. The correct Christian response is that we need to involve God in our life and we need to do that all the time.
BUT aren't problems a form of grace? Don't we tend to come to Jesus when we are troubled? Would we disdain someone who spent years of their life coming to God with their problems and then forgetting about him when things started to go well? Because that sounds a lot like me.
5. Good people go to heaven when they die.
Well they do don't they.
I know, I know, you want to say that no one comes to the Father except through the Son. But isn't that what good people do?
I'll grant that no amount of "goodness" will counteract a life spent dismissing Jesus and the Holy Spirit but can anyone who does that be called good? And someone who did that could be forgiven, Saint Paul for example.
Am I saying that God will save anyone who is good and that having faith and the Church is not necessary? No I am not. I'd advise anyone who wants to be saved to get themselves to Jesus as soon as possible and I'd tell them that the way to do that is to get to the Catholic Church but I wouldn't presume to set limits on whom God will save or suggest that there is anyone he cannot save.
My prayer concerning Christopher Hitchens, for example, is that God will bring him to his kingdom not that Hitchens will have some sort of death bed conversion and announce his error to world. That might happen but I only pray that God bring Hitchens to himself and I trust God completely as to how he gets him there.
