Newsweek’s cover story,
written by popular author Andrew Sullivan, encourages Americans to
“forget the church” and just “follow Jesus.” According to Sullivan:
We inhabit a polity now saturated with religion. On one side, the Republican base is made up of evangelical Protestants who believe that religion must consume and influence every aspect of public life. On the other side, the last Democratic primary had candidates profess their faith in public forums, and more recently President Obama appeared at the National Prayer Breakfast, invoking Jesus to defend his plan for universal health care. The crisis of Christianity is perhaps best captured in the new meaning of the word “secular.” It once meant belief in separating the spheres of faith and politics; it now means, for many, simply atheism. The ability to be faithful in a religious space and reasonable in a political one has atrophied before our eyes.
Sullivan sees the problem of a politicized faith, one that focuses
relentlessly on gaining power, changing laws, and regulating the
morality of others. He sees contemporary Christianity as a faith
obsessed with getting doctrines about Jesus right to the exclusion of
what He actually taught us to do and be. This leads him to ask some
piercing questions:
What does it matter how strictly you proclaim your belief in various doctrines if you do not live as these doctrines demand? What is politics if not a dangerous temptation toward controlling others rather than reforming oneself?
From the Catholic Church’s teachings on sexuality to evangelical
Christian support of torture, Sullivan makes his way through a long list
of perceived threats to the centrality of Christ among believing
people. Continue at Trevin Wax
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