偽の神#3: 選択
MarkヴァンSteenwyk著書かれている: 2006年6月11日
この神は消費者運動へOverlord、個人主義の中心にある。 私達はアメリカ人、多分だれでもより多く、選ぶ権利を崇拝する。 これは神に従順、また更に*gasp*を不可能な教会ほぼ作る。 本当に本当に、ほとんどのevangelicalsは選択のまわりに神に堤出するために神学を集中させるが従って私達がそうように私達が指によって交差させる、宣言を用いる私達の背部の後ろの1つの手を保つようにほとんどある: 「私はの主選ぶ。 しかし私は国連選ぶ権利を確保する。 それは選択(福音主義、Methodism、pentecostalism、等)を断言するキリスト教のそれらの形態のための肥沃土のアメリカの精神のprooves驚異であるか。
私は消費者運動についてたくさん書いた、従って消費者運動が個々のchoosersは主権購入代理業者であるという確信にいかにに断定されるか私は入らない。 消費者運動はひびの選択のchooser自由の商業化である。 現代消費者資本主義にrevivalismで根がいかにのあるかよい分析がほしいと思えば、私は得るClappを推薦する 消費の情熱 そして最後の章読まれる。
アメリカの精神性は選択基づいている。 私達は精神性用具の広大な配列を提供し、個々のそれぞれを彼らの自身の気まぐれおよび好みに従ってなされる彼らの自身のlegoの城を作るために励ます。 教会はそれらの選択に人々に懇願する。 私達は誰も神学的な伝統に実際にもう堤出しないし、その結果私達が私達が知っている何をフェルトの必要性に人々を与えるかわりに訴える方法で教会をすると仮定し実際に必要とすることを、神学的に話す。 私達は本当の服従の行為として私達のキリスト教、精神的な表現の方の道およびhapinessについてもはや考えない。 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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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?
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.
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.