American Christians have the belief thing down. We like doctrine. Doctrine allows us to be completely individualistic in our faith. If our faith is about proper doctrine, then we don't need anyone else. We can be lone ranger Christians. We don't need to live in community with other believers. We don't need to follow Jesus' radical commands to love the poor. We don't need to change much about our lives. We just need proper doctrine. Individualism leads to a life of proper doctrine, not a life of love lived in our workplaces, our homes, our churches, and the communities that we live in. Here are some quotes from an article entitled
The Christian Paradox that inspired my thoughts.
Three quarters of Americans believe the Bible teaches that “God helps those who help themselves.” That is, three out of four Americans believe that this uber-American idea, a notion at the core of our current individualist politics and culture, which was in fact uttered by Ben Franklin, actually appears in Holy Scripture.
Just so we're using the same definition when I talk about individualism. From the beginning of the article on individualism at
Wikipedia: "Individualism is a political and social philosophy that emphasizes individual
liberty, belief in the primary importance of the
individual and in the virtues of self-reliance and personal independence. It embraces opposition to
authority and to all manner of controls over the individual, especially when exercised by the
state or
society. It is thus directly opposed to
collectivism. It may derive from a belief in
solipsism." My anti-individualism still leaves room for people to make individual decisions in their faith. It is against exalting the virtues of self-reliance and personal independence.
Back to the quote. I think the quote shows how much individualism has permeated Christian beliefs. Individualism is rampant in our culture, and it runs counter to Christianity. We need to make sure that we keep our defenses up. If we don't, we will soon find ourselves falling prey to individualistic thought. We won't find a need to be involved in a church community. We won't care all that much about loving those who aren't as well off as ourselves. It is their fault after all. Individualism is the greatest threat to Christianity in our times because it is so prevalent in our culture and can slowly tear the church and Christians down from within.
I remember the scene in the Count of Monte Cristo where the main character takes little doses of poison in order to make his body immune to it. Sadly, we have been taken little doses of individualism since the day we were born. We think we have become immune to it like the Count was to poison. We think that it runs paralell to Christianity. However, there is no immunity to individualism. We have to either choose to get sucked into it or deliberately live lives that make us radically different in our culture. Individualism runs contrary to the beliefs Jesus taught.
Depending on which poll you look at and how the question is asked, somewhere around 85 percent of us call ourselves Christian. Israel, by way of comparison, is 77 percent Jewish. It is true that a smaller number of Americans—about 75 percent—claim they actually pray to God on a daily basis, and only 33 percent say they manage to get to church every week. Still, even if that 85 percent overstates actual practice, it clearly represents aspiration.
What if we chose some simple criterion—say, giving aid to the poorest people—as a reasonable proxy for Christian behavior? And it’s not because we were giving to private charities for relief work instead. Such funding increases our average daily donation by just six pennies, to twenty-one cents. It’s also not because Americans were too busy taking care of their own; nearly 18 percent of American children lived in poverty (compared with, say, 8 percent in Sweden). And it’s not because we were giving to private charities for relief work instead. Such funding increases our average daily donation by just six pennies, to twenty-one cents. It’s also not because Americans were too busy taking care of their own; nearly 18 percent of American children lived in poverty (compared with, say, 8 percent in Sweden).
On the GLCC alumni forums we decided that the measure of church health could be viewed most objectively by viewing a church's budget. What a church chooses to spend their money on as a group will more than likely show what they cared about as a group. You can check to see how healthy your church is by looking at how it spends its money. Does your church love the poor? Does your church stand up against the individualism of our culture or do they involve themselves in the lives of those less fortunate? Every church professes to do those things. Sadly, they don't. Look at your budget. The numbers won't lie. Are you in a church that exalts individualism or Christ?
And I wish that people would stop saying that the United States is a Christian nation. The church has a hard enough time living up to the title of being the nation (or kingdom) of God.
I'm still dwelling on the comments about education from the post I made a while ago. I haven't ignored it. I'm just still contemplating.
Watch out for the potholes.
