Why do you worship at your present church? Most of us, I think, would say, because I was born and raised Lutheran, Baptist or Catholic, etc., and so that’s where I’m most comfortable.
But your response might not be correct. Jeffrey MacDonald in his Thieves in the Temple writes about a huge problem facing Christianity today: Faith has become a consumer commodity in America. People shop for congregations that make them feel comfortable.
In 2008, MacDonald writes: a whopping 44 percent of Americans had switched religious affiliations in their lifetimes, compared with only 4 percent in 1955. Churches have fed this shopping around trend, MacDonald says, by seeking to attract customers by watering down core values and offering convenience, comfort, and guilt-free affirmation.
He goes on: Churchgoers no longer have to put up with components of religious life that they find distasteful, difficult, or less than gratifying in the short term. These consumer-driven churches offer parishioners the spiritual equivalent of spending all day on the couch, eating cupcakes for dinner.
Thereviewer of this book in The Christian Science Monitor of May 10th wrote: “MacDonald supports his provocative thesis with voluminous evidence garnered from years of research, including countless interviews, multiple visits to churches all across the nation, and his own experience as a minister. He visits burgeoning megachurches that feel like malls. Many of these churches come with Starbucks cafes, Subway restaurants, or bookstores."
At Max Lucado’s megachurch in San Antonio, MacDonald is offered a noquestions asked baptism and later hears Mr. Lucado tell the thousands assembled that honoring God could be as easy as volunteering to take out the garbage or letting another driver claim a parking spot in a crowded lot. MacDonald comments that a lower standard for the Christian life would be difficult to imagine.
The reviewer goes on to say that MacDonald does outstanding work in describing how sacraments like baptism, communion, and marriage have been watered down to satisfy customer demands. MacDonald relates his own efforts as a minister to raise the standards for receiving communion. His parishioners responded with anger, demanding that no preconditions be placed on receiving.
Consumer-driven churches, MacDonald argues, have chosen to downplay biblical teachings about self-control, the need for sacrifice, and delayed gratification: A strong correlation has emerged between the consumer driven religious marketplace and the decay of Christian moral character.
MacDonald describes a growing loss of self-control that has led to a national boom in obesity, materialism, financial overextension, and marital infidelity. Pastors may still have a strong sense of what’s right and wrong, but they’ve learned to keep it to themselves.
This is pretty strong stuff and we church-going people have to ask ourselves if we’re following similar trends. The Christian way is very hard. Jesus Himself says: Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple… In the same way, anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:27 and 33).
And Paul’s whole ministry might be summarized in this: For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. (1Cor. 2:2)
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. For September, our contributor is Father Seamus Walsh of St. John’s Catholic Church in Grand Marais.
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