Is the Church the Cause for the Moral Degradation of American Values?

           

Choosing to live a new lifestyle is often a conscious decision.  There are many areas in which a person shifts away from the established norm to partake of the fruit, forbidden or not, that is perceived as superior.  These paradigm shifts are not arbitrarily made.  At the least, a responsible adult capable of making rational decisions would be well-informed about the lifestyle they wish to adopt before they begin to think about whether that lifestyle would be beneficial to them.  This same principle can also apply to those that choose to follow a particular religion.  In order to have a full understanding, they should not only seek to understand the moral life that particular religion demands, but the context of the religion, the basic theological underpinnings of its texts and the way in which it evolved over a period of time.

Those who identify themselves as fervent disciples of Christianity often take for granted the logic and reasoning that have been worked through to rationalize their belief.  Knowing what your religious texts say means nothing if you do not understand the basic moral rationale for which it stands.  Knowing the parable is useless if you don’t know its purpose or the context in which it is written.  In order to determine its context, there must be an evaluation of the text.  This is the foundation of a subjective analysis which can ultimately lead you to develop an argument that holds up to the scrutiny of peer review.

It seems that Christian theology has lost this today though.  If there is a dispute, then it’s suggested that the disputers break off and start their own denomination.  American Christianity is often plagued with this denominationalism.  This lax of focus on publically debating the truth is what has led to the Christian’s over-acceptance of pluralism.  The over-acceptance of pluralism that spurred from denominationalism has made the Christians of today complacent in their desire to evaluate the logic behind their religious and political beliefs.  This negligence of striving toward truth in the church has now seeped into the political realm through the Christian church’s adoption of the political conservative movement.  The ideology of political conservatism has set its very strong roots in the Christian church, allowing a focus on practicing doctrinal truth to be muted by the screaming of the politically conservative news hosts.

This political activism that Christianity has become a part of states that the cause of the increasing immorality in this country is with a government that passes laws which support the granting of freedoms for lifestyles outside of Christian morals.   This, they say, is the cause of the degradation of the American moral values which were originally supported by the Christian principles of our founding fathers.  But is the issue really with a government that passes laws which allow the expression of a lifestyle a person chooses to live?  If not, can all civil views be given the right to practice and the country still be a country that lives by Christian principles?  Although the current conservative thought disagrees, it is hard to argue with the fact that it would be a better measure of how holy a country is if the country abides by Christian values even when rights are given to those whose lifestyles are contradictive to Christian belief.  That is, if the primary goal of the American Christian church is to truly honor God with their actions.

The God Given Freedom of Lifestyle

All the major theologians including Jean Calvin, Martin Luther and Augustine of Hippo, believed that we have freewill in our decisions, not considering salvation.  The freewill debate that started with Pelagius and Augustine of Hippo in the 4^th century was about the ability to choose one’s salvation and not the ability to choose the actions which please God.  As a matter of fact, the bible says that after salvation we are a new creature.  Therefore, since we are a new creature we begin to make different choices.  Consequently, new believers change the way in which they choose in order to reflect their understanding of God, seasoned believers consciously work to continually make choices that reflect their better understanding of God, and sanctified believers work to make choices that reflect a complete understanding of God.

Knowing that there is a change from the old to the new creature and that the choices we made after salvation are made from our own freewill, can we really say that mandating others, against their freewill, to obey theocratic-like laws will lead this country to honor God?  Moreover, are we so ignorant to think that the law directly reflects the holiness of a country?  Or is it a better measure when the holiness of a country is directly reflected in the actions of its citizens?

The conservative movement that America has experienced has demanded that laws be in place in order to honor God.  But was the law not formally written after the fall of Adam?  Did the law not always pertain to a nation of people as opposed to a people within a specific geographical space? And was the New Testament not written and canonized after the Jews and gentiles decided to adhere to the idea of Christianity?  The disease that’s leading us into immorality has not to do with the lack of laws which glorify God.  It is simply a symptom of the bigger problem.  The disease is with a faltering Christian force that is more concerned with political action which mandates others to live like a Christian instead of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that society can truly accept.

Congregational Complacency

A common belief of the conservative movement today is that society’s work ethic has diminished.  They believe that we are lazier today than those who were our age now, a decade ago.  And ultimately, this is seen as the poor, more so than those who aren’t, taking advantage of government benefits.  But why would those that claim to be Jesus’ followers be so concerned with assisting a population for which he so adamantly taught us to care?  It is simply because the conservative ideology has forced the Christian to become so complacent in their own political view that they refuse to question whether those views parallel Christian theology.  Moreover, their energy is spent more on nurturing the plants of the bad ground than sowing the seeds and fostering the crop of the good ground.

This same church is itself knee-deep in slothfulness.  A good example of this can be seen in 2^nd Thessalonians.  The Thessalonians became lazy.  Because of a misunderstanding of Paul’s first letter to the church, they believed that the second coming was in the very near future.  They ignored their jobs and actively looked for apocalyptic signs.  This, ultimately, led to the entire town being filled with what Paul considered “idle busybodies.”

So, is this any different than the current Christian church in America?  I don’t believe so.  The primary example being in the way the church is so overwhelmingly concerned with the second coming that any military action of the US government is justified only if the US supports Israel.  But even if this is the eve of the apocalypse and the US continues to support Israel, does that necessarily mean that all the actions of the government are justified?  No, because nothing, country or individual, is morally exempt.  The preoccupation with the second coming isn’t the only similarity to the church of Thessalonica.  The church has become dangerously complacent. 

We, as Christians, have become complacent and lazy in our ministry.  It’s not that we are lazy and resist working to support our families.  The American worker, on average, is not lazy and takes tremendous pride in earning the money to support his or her family.  The American Christian isn’t afraid to work for money and that’s the issue.  American Christians are not willing to give up their time to serve others unless they earn a wage.  This has led to the fact that they have become lazy in their ministry.  Instead of being consumed with ministering and serving our communities, which necessitates a personal accountability, we are consumed with passing legislation which makes it appear that our society exudes Christian values all the while basking in our ever-available leisure.  We have justified a trade of local community ministries and personal accountability for global ministries that offer little personal accountability.  The American Christian has traded a week’s worth of God’s work for a week’s worth of something else we would rather be doing.  We have traded the message of humility for a message of national religious pride.  We have shifted from an intimate person-to-person witness for a dull impersonal message from a televangelist.  We have switched progressivity for complacency.

It is hard to believe that with the passion the church has in serving God that the contradictory life we lead is intentional.  It is as if the church has been misled.  There has been such a break from the foundation of Christianity – love – that it has turned into hate.  This hate is justified by the church’s delusion that denying civil freedoms and mandating people to accept the Christian lifestyle is somehow a step toward holiness.  But passing laws that reflect Christian values is not the answer.  It does not correctly represent the way in which the nation is truly living.  In fact, it makes it easier for the Christian individual to live in society and it gives the Christian individual a social status.  Consequently, this oppresses non-believers, forcing them to consent to a lifestyle against their freewill.  This process is the literal converse of how God created the world to operate.  God gives believers the freewill to choose their lifestyle and does not force us to serve Him.  The establishing of a theocratic-morph only supports the claim that the church has become and is becoming dangerously complacent.

So, how could a country give its people the freedom to live the lifestyle they want and also honor God at the same time?  This can only be done with a complete paradigm shift of the Christian community.  First and foremost, the church needs to educate their congregations in logic, the interpretation of biblical languages, the interpretation of biblical context, theology, history and other subjects which demand critical reasoning.  This is the largest deficit the church has to overcome. Secondly, there needs to be an intense focus on the community which would require the joint effort of each and every church within that community.  Finally, there needs to be a new focus on the striving for doctrinal truth by means of inter-congregational, inter-church and inter-denominational debate that is civil.  This country’s focus on Christian values will only be truly shifted when the work of the Christian church and individual has impacted America with the gospel in such a way that it is truly accepted.  And if we are honestly concerned about being a country that honors God, the decisions that are made to follow Christ by those with lifestyles contradictory to Christian values must be made without any essence of forced conversion.  It is only when people have truly chosen to live by Christian values that society will begin to reflect the acceptance of Christianity and not by the establishment of any law.

On the Education of the Congregation

The dire need for Christianity to step up education especially applies to those who wish to be socially or politically active.  As Christians, we seek to proselytize the gospel.  Knowing what the bible and other religious texts say is important.  But if you want to argue with those who don’t believe in its authority, it’s just a waste of both of your times.  Using the logic behind the bible is the key for Christians, but it is impossible to do if you try to use the bible as a literal interpretation.  Literalism should immediately be discounted once the creation story, and the multitude of support against it, is considered.  The bible’s literal interpretation is not only disputed by science, but, interestingly, all the major Protestant theologians, including Arminius and Zwingli, of the Reformation.  Moreover, the majority of the early fathers, which provided the foundations for Christian theology, did not believe in take all scripture literally.  Further, even Ancient Judaism saw the first six chapters of Genesis to be strictly used for theological purposes and not as a historical reference.

Biblical literalism is what separates the evangelical Christian from witnessing and debating in a logical and rational manner.  And because there is more evidence that the bible should not be taken literally than there is that supports it, as well as ongoing findings in science which also supports it, this topic would be a good starting point to truthfully and subjectively address in a debate.  Generally speaking though, the debate is an important component that the Christian church of America has never used to the extent of its European counterparts.  Why have these debates stopped with the establishment of America?  Are we so proud to think that we have reached a true interpretation of the Word?  Why have we quit questioning our theology or setting it up to subjectivity?  The Reformation was a turning point in Christianity, but it wasn’t the ending point of theological truth.  Not questioning existing doctrine and positing new approaches is just another way to keep a church already complacent in ministry complacent in understanding its own theology.

Conclusion

It is often thought that the degradation of America over the years is because the government has become tolerant of lifestyles that contradict Christian values.  But the lack of focus on the part that the American Christian church plays in the moral degradation of the country should, itself, be seen as a red flag.  I can’t help but think of the message in Matthew 7: 5 – “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.”

We, church, are hypocritical, comfortable and lazy.  We are afraid to allow those of society to choose the lifestyle they wish to live because we are too complacent in our locality, not wanting to put in the effort that matches those efforts that came before us.  We have gotten too used to justifying our own ministry as the supporting of others who minister in our stead in faraway lands.  Aside from the controversial debate with salvation, the only way for anyone to truly choose the daily actions a Christian lifestyle demands is when they have the complete freewill to do so.  And ultimately, the only way to know that a nation has truly chosen to honor God is when they do so in an environment that allows them to do so willfully.  Therefore, legislation that gives others the freedom to choose lifestyles which contradict Christian values should be seen as progress for the Christian because it is a step in the direction to ensure those who decide to follow Christ do so freely.  And it is only when the nation, as a whole, freely chooses to adhere to Christian values, and is seen doing so, that it can be accurately said that this country truly honors God.