The American Jesus?. Douglas Johnson

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СКАЧАТЬ we are called to suffer because we are Christians, and we are sometimes called to take stands and act in ways that are counter to our culture. Old Testament prophets were often rejected. Jeremiah was called “the weeping prophet.” Jesus himself was crucified by the powers that ruled. He admonished his followers to take up their cross, and told them that he would bring not peace, but a sword. Paul, a persecutor himself, was then himself persecuted. Many early believers felt the wrath of Rome. In our own day, believers who feel that their faith puts them in opposition to their cultural zeitgeist of the day have found suffering in their paths: witness Christians under Stalin and Hitler, as well as Americans who have fought for equal rights, and on and on.

      It is wonderful when believers can live out their lives honestly in their culture, but all too often belief brings antagonism with society, and the accompanying suffering that attends it. On the other hand, many of us may avoid suffering for our faith by being all too willing to turn our eyes away from the false gods and the injustices around us.

      A second aspect of American thinking that is observed by almost all is pragmatism, a philosophy that is uninterested in theoretical musings, but only concerned with what works. We are a practical people! In fact, we totally reject as impractical any abstractions that offer no worthwhile results.

      It is interesting that America has until recently never adopted the many philosophies emanating from Europe. And the only philosophy that we have ever developed on our own is pragmatism. Probably its most important advocate has been John Dewey. He actually preferred to have his views labeled as “instrumentalism.” Here, the mind is seen as an instrument that makes it possible for us to survive in the best possible way. He explains that the only relevant question to ask is what real effects will result from an action or belief. In one of his writings he offers this analogy: Imagine that you are going somewhere, but on your walk you find that the way is blocked by a huge gulf in the road. What do you do? You may think about jumping across, going around, placing a board over the gulf. Which is the correct answer? The one that works!

      This philosophy has been a hugely successful way of thinking for Americans. It is largely responsible for the almost unbelievable progress we have made in science, technology, and economics.

      But many thinkers, Christian and otherwise, have found it lacking in some important ways. For one thing, while it can get you “there,” it does little or nothing to guide you in what “there” is. Unless I know where I am going, how will I know what is really getting me there? Most of us have some idea, perhaps unexamined, of where we want to go: to be president, discover the cure for cancer, get rich, or something else. Pragmatism gives us no guidance here.

      Another problem that I encounter as a human being, where pragmatism might disappoint me, is that I must face the fact it is not only my surroundings, but also my own inner orientation, that keeps me from doing what is best practically. However noble my goals may be, my inner fears and disorientation may keep me from realizing them. Or they may actually twist me into seeking goods that are harmful.

      In these regards, American pragmatism may see Christianity simply as a tool to achieve success, no matter how that success is defined or understood.

      Another aspect of the American experience is pluralism. Historically, we have attracted a menagerie of peoples from elsewhere, as few nations on Earth have done. We have welcomed, or at least tolerated, nationalities and religions from everywhere. “Give me your tired and your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” We have made a home for persecuted cultures and religions, and for the most part have been able to integrate them, and “Americanize” them into our society. This stands at the core of our national greatness.

      But this laudable success has come at a price. So many peoples living and working peacefully together has meant that certain values must be adjusted, or even abandoned, to keep peace.

      We can now look at two additional views of our national life that help us to survive at an optimum level: relativism and secularism. To what extent these are compatible with any kind of Christianity is questionable.

      Relativism: In order to “get along” in a society that welcomes and contains so many different lifestyles and religions, Christian and other, it seems appropriate to adopt a kind of relativism. This approach maintains that no truth is absolute. All can claim only relative truth. It is also consistent with the basic American democratic creed that each person has the right to make up his or her own mind on important issues.

      This way of dealing with our multi-everything nation has a generous and salutary humility to it. Yet it also contains its own absolutism: anyone who questions the belief that all truths are relative must be rejected as questioning the absolute truth of relativism. Christians often face just this accusation, because there are some things we hold as true, simply true.

      Although most Americans seem content to rest secure in just such a position, it is hard to see how, rather than uniting us, it may just as well lead to intellectual chaos, where “ignorant armies clash by night,” and there are no common beliefs that can bring us together. The case can be made that it is just such kinds of beliefs that were helpless in the face of demonic tyrannies in the form of Hitler’s Nazism and Stalin’s communism.

      This leads to another set of beliefs that are common in America, and throughout much of the Western, formerly Christian, world: secularism. The modern history of the Western world is fraught with horrible examples of religious persecutions and religious wars, many of them in the name of the Prince of Peace. It is enough to drive any decent person away from all religious belief, and to place one’s hope and faith in what the world and society have to offer.

      “Secular” is from the Latin saeculum, which refers to the present age, usually to the exclusion of any religious beliefs and practices. Faith in science, social progress, and the innate goodness of the human race are the usual substitutes. In Europe, the grandest cathedrals, from another age, stand empty, while attempts at progress in other areas of life go on apace.

      In the United States the First Amendment to the Constitution states that congress shall pass no law establishing any religion. Although the term “separation of church and state” is not in the Constitution, it has become the basic understanding of that amendment.

      The idea that government has no business meddling in religious matters has allowed religions of all sorts to flourish here. It is one of the pillars of our democratic society.

      In his book The Secular City, Harvey Cox rejoices that we are now free from religious dogmas being injected into the body politic. We can now “get the ghost out of the machine,” taking the world on its own terms, unconcerned with placating the gods and spirits thought to be in it.

Cox sees his position as thoroughly in keeping with the Old Testament prophets, who were continually opposing the religions of their day, and mocking the various gods who dominated people’s lives, while these deities were really mere nothings. Thus, they freed the people from the fears and burdens that these gods brought.7

      American secularism has been a truly positive aspect of our society and our lives, and especially in its ability to allow religions of all sorts to prosper.

      But on the other side of the coin, there is the question of whether secularism itself has not become its own religion, its own ultimate, which can be as demanding and oppressive as any other religion. Christian beliefs and practices are more and more excluded from the public square at the same time that governments—national, state, and local—are dominating a greater and greater share of our lives. It remains to be seen what effects for good or evil this will have on both church and state.

      Looking Forward

      The American experiment in social life, politics, and religion has been an undeniable success in many regards. СКАЧАТЬ