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إلهة زائفة #3: إختبار

يكتب ب [مرك] [فن] [ستينوك]: يونيو - حزيران 11, 2006

هذا إلهة [أفرلورد] إلى نزعة استهلاكيّة, وفي القلب الفردانيّة. يعبد نحن أمريكيات, ربّما أكثر من أيّ شخص, الحق أن يختار. هذا يجعل طاعة إلى إلهة, [أر فن] [غسب] الكنيسة تقريبا مستحيلة. يوقن يركّز يوقن, كثير [إفنجليكلس] لاهوتهم حول الإختبار أن يقدّم إلى إلهة, غير أنّ هو تقريبا وكأنّ نحن نحافظ واحدة يد خلف ظهرنا مع أصابع يعبر بما أنّ نحن نتمّ هكذا, لذلك يفيد: "يختار أنا أنت, لورد. غير أنّ يحجز أنا الحق أن [أون-شوس] أنت. يكون هو أيّ عجب أنّ الأمريكيّة كحول [برووفس] أن يكون تربة خصيبة ل أنّ أشكال المسيحية أيّ يؤكّد إختبار ([إفنجليكليسم], [مثوديسم], [بنتكستليسم], [إتك.])?

أنا قد كتبت كثيرا حول نزعة استهلاكيّة, لذلك لن يذهب أنا داخل كيف نزعة استهلاكيّة يكون أكّدت على الإعتقاد أنّ [شوسرس] فرديّة [بورشس جنت] مسيطرة. نزعة استهلاكيّة التسويق من ال [شوسر-فريدوم] الإختبار على صدع. إن أنت تريد بعض تحليل جيّدة على كيف حديثة مستهلكة رأسماليّة يتلقّى جذور في [رفيفليسم], يوصي أنا أنت يحصل [كلبّ] ال يستهلك عاطفة ويقرأ الفصل متأخّرة.

[شيس-بسد] روحانية أمريكيّة. نحن نقدّم صف ضخمة من روحانية أدوات ويشجّع نحن كلّ فرديّة أن يجعل هم خاصّة [لغو] قصر يجعل وفقا ل هم خاصّة نزوات وذوق. كنائس يتوسّلون الناس داخل يختارهم. نحن نفترض أنّ يقدّم لا أحد حقّا إلى تقاليد لاهوتيّة بعد الآن و [أس ا رسولت] نحن نتمّ كنيسة في طرق أنّ يستأنف إلى لباد حاجات [إينستد وف] يعطي الناس ماذا نحن نعرف هم حقّا يحتاجون, [ثيولوجكلّي] يتكلّم. نحن [نو لونجر] نفكّر من مسيحيتنا كعمل من يصحّ خضوع, غير أنّ جادّة نحو تعبير روحانيّة و [هبينسّ]. But worship is always about submission. The fact that this paragraph may have made you feel a tiny bit anxious shows how deeply engrained our sense of choice truly is.

But we worship Choice–that shimmering God that never asks us to submit. And we tend to affirm those traditions which affirm choice, and castigate the ones that don’t. Damn those Catholics, who are so oppressive. Curse those Calvinists that don’t really believe in free will. Shame on those extremist churches that have high membership requirements. Whether you like Catholics or Calvinists is beside the point. We simply dislike those groups that deny the freedom to choose. We tend to think that the person who grew up in the faith is less of a Christian because they didn’t choose it for themselves. We tend to believe that sermons based upon the lectionary, prayers read from a book, or fasts during Lent are less meaningful because they are prescribed rather than optional.

Optional. That’s what it comes down to. When Choice is worshipped, the way of Jesus becomes a set of options. No wonder we see Jesus as the kindly inviter into an optional spirituality, rather than the Lord who challenges us to lay aside everything before we can really be a part of his Kingdom.

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Comments

3 Responses to “False God #3: Choice”

  1. Chris on June 11th, 2006 8:32 pm

    This post seems a little monolithic and a bit imprecise to me. It seems to me what you are really bothered by is not choice but that the range of choices in America can create in us a capricious lack of commitment. Choice is an inevitable facet of human existence, I hardly think attacking it as a phenomenon is really getting at the issue. And after all, maybe to some degree we must accept that American Christianity will inevitably manifest itself as choice-based, or, more precisely, prone to capriciousness. Even those parts of the church you use as examples of “denying the freedom to choose” must be chosen by the individual in the first place. Even a choice to submit is a choice, where should the locus of submission be, in what is submitted to, or in the submission of the subject?

  2. mark on June 11th, 2006 10:46 pm

    I think you’re starting with a faulty premise: that I’m attacking choice. I’m not attacking choice (nor the end of suffering in my earlier post). I’m attacking the worship of choice. I’m attacking the way it has been deified.

  3. TT on June 13th, 2006 11:22 pm

    I agree that America has a crisis of “have it your way” Christianity, but we are still in better shape than, say most of Europe, for example. The churches of Africa, Asia, and Latin America look at us and are oftentimes disgusted by our . . . how should I say it? I guess bloated spirituality would be a good way to put it, and yet what many find reprehensible, others are drawn to that and are modeling their churches on this biggie-sized “Christianity.” There is no doubt that the American church is in crisis right now, and I personally believe that the only way for us to get back on track is to follow the lead of the Non-Western church right now, because they are getting it right.

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