A New York Times article pointed out that many Americans move back and forth among various Christian churches and sects, as well as leave them to become inactive or even to join another religion. It has been estimated that as many as 44% of us have switched affiliations.
Such a development cannot but have a deleterious effect on American religious and political life. While we give lip-service to the supposed benefits of diversity, it is rarely recognized that excessive diversity provides a highway to chaos, pandemonium – and such a condition can only bode ill for a society’s future.
What is happening is that authority is increasingly seen to reside with the individual. As W. E. Henley’s poem Invictus puts it: I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul. But are we?
The New Testament recounts a confrontation between Jesus and Satan, who shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and offers them to him if he would only bow down and worship (him). Jesus’ reply is Be gone, Satan! You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. (Mark 4:10)
This biblical passage is radically at odds with the message Invictus encapsulates, although the Zeitgeist, the Spirit of the Age, is generally in agreement with it.
While the so-called Evangelical movement, markedly Bible-based and individualistic, involves millions in this country, there is abundant evidence that America’s intellectual elites, generally secular or agnostic, wield enormous influence. It is significant that Ivy League universities, originally founded to educate Protestant clergy, are now overwhelmingly secular, and even hostile to Christianity. Inasmuch as they like to claim that they train the brightest and the best, it is unclear how this will affect the frame of mind of the American body-politic in the long run. In any event, it appears that Religion will decline in influence. And because Nature abhors a
Vacuum, some religion-like ideology will take its place. It seems to be part of human nature to venerate some thing or some one.
Fluid religion sloshes about, the way water might in a swimming pool on a storm-tossed ocean liner. It can be unsettling, and such a Religion can hardly be expected to undergird a healthy society. CWB+
3-11-08
