The New American Religion

Ben Franklin wrote, "Half the truth is often a great lie." Indeed, you can learn a lot from half-truths, both from what is included and what is left out - as long as you're aware you're only getting half the truth!

Between 2001 and 2006, the National Study of Youth and Religion conducted the largest study ever of teenagers and their religious beliefs. One of its findings was that while 85 percent of American teens said they believed in God, less than a third were active in a congregation. Before you heave a sigh of relief ("At least most of them believe in God"), consider the content of those beliefs. What the survey revealed was dismal.

The average American teenager (at least in 2005) possessed a set of beliefs that were a watered-down mixture of self-help, deism, and works righteousness. The research team said it was as if they conceived of God as part-cosmic butler, part-therapist. Taking into account all of the teens they'd surveyed and distilling their beliefs down to a prominent core, some themes emerged:

1. A God exists who created the world and watches over human life on earth.
2. God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
3. The central goal of life is to be happy and feel good about oneself.
4. God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
5. Good people go to heaven when they die.

They called this "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism", and you can judge for yourself whether it's still true of teenagers today, 10 years later. But, as the teenagers who were surveyed are now in their 20s, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is surely the new American religion.

The subject came up in our Wednesday night class on why the Millennial Generation is leaving churches. Some class members noted that it's a self-focused theology - life is about me, and God's job is to be there for me - and that perhaps not until kids grow up and out of a "me first" ethic can they move past a selfish belief in God. Fair point. The trouble is, there's just enough truth in Moralistic Therapeutic Deism to make it believable.

For instance, #1 is certainly true. God's existence is a bedrock belief of the Christian faith. #2 is also true - but there are a number of caveats. Us being good and nice isn't all that God wants, nor is it the central teaching of "most world religions". And, what about sin? How does that affect our ability to carry out the whole good, nice, and fair thing?

Is #3 true? While there's a certain amount of truth to the idea that being a Christian will bring you joy and feelings of peace and contentment, it does not follow that any means I might use to make myself feel good or experience joy are legitimate or part of God's plan. Endless trips to Disneyland might make me feel good. A life spared from family tragedy would make me happy. Becoming rich or famous or successful might produce feelings of accomplishment and self-worth. But that doesn't mean God is necessarily behind any of those things.

#4 reflects an attitude we're all perhaps guilty of sometimes. "God - bail me out!" means we expect God to always be faithful, even when we've been unfaithful. And 2 Timothy 2 affirms that God cannot be unfaithful, or he would be denying his character. But it betrays an attitude that says, "My life should be good. I deserve it. I should be successful, happy, and healthy. If I'm not, God ought to fix it." No theology of suffering. No learning or being shaped by trials. No "take up your cross and follow me". #4 is the credo of consumerist Christianity.

And #5 reflects the pop-religion dogma that will. not. die: Karma. It's an incredibly slippery concept that seems charitable, but really, would you want to be judged by a "good enough" standard once you die? What if what you thought all your life was good enough, wasn't?

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is easy to believe. But it also easily fails. Lives are filled with hardship. God has a unique plan for solving the human predicament. But he's at the center of that plan, not you. MTD casts God as a piece within an individual's story, rather than seeing people as pieces fitting into God's story. It fits with a consumerist lifestyle that pursues personal comfort and pleasure above all things. But those are dreams uniquely fitted to our time and culture. Most of the world doesn't have the luxury of viewing God in this light. And if the self-centered gist of MTD is not universally true, to all people of all cultures, it's not true at all.

To think about: It's likely that none of the ideas of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism are taught to kids overtly: "Believe this." Instead, kids absorb it from the messages they receive - from parents, friends, the culture, even the church. What are the sources that fuel these beliefs?