I just posted this on Facebook, and wanted to share it here also:
It should be axiomatic
that you shouldn't believe everything you see on the internet. And, one
shouldn't pass along on FB or elsewhere that which is controversial unless they
have researched the matter to make sure it is true.
I've read so many things here about the "Chick-Fil-A controversy".
Almost none of them refer to the original article about the interview in which
its President, Dan Cathy, affirmed his support for traditional marriage.
He never said anything negative. The phrase "gay-marriage" was not
spoken. If those who criticize him and support a boycott of his company don't
want to look like fools in the future, they may want to read the actual
comments in this, the original article: http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=38271
Mattingly critiques the
shoddy journalism of CNN and others who jumped to conclusions and, perhaps
intentionally, distorted Mr. Cathy's remarks.
"It would have been so easy
for the mainstream press to have reported Cathy’s remarks accurately and, then,
to have accurately reported the comments of those who were more than happy to
criticize the Chick-fil-A leader’s conservative views on marriage.
That equation is par for
the journalistic course. But is it fair game to actually state, as fact, that
the man said things that he didn’t say?"
I support traditional marriage. That doesn't mean I hate anyone. It does mean I believe God's ideal, and the purpose for which He created us and put man and woman together as "husband and wife" in the first place, should still be the ideal for the family today.
The prologue of "Bad Religion, How We Became A Nation Of Heretics" introduces the topic of "A nation of heretics". Not only have we seen a growing political and economic mess in America, it has become apparent that our culture has declined. Ross Douthat doesn't take sides politically. He clearly and comprehensively uncovers various religious theories about what has brought on the decline; and why religious institutions have lost so much influence over the culture.
Whether it is a voice from the right that says America started as a Christian nation and, having moved away from its Christian principles, has lost God's favor, or a voice from the left that says America is in decline because it is too religious, both are inadequate explanations. Douthat says "America's problem isn't too much religion, or to little of it. It's bad religion: the slow-motion collapse of traditional Christianity and the rise of a variety of destructive pseudo-Christianities in its place."
These distortions of traditional Christianity don't have the full stream to draw from--only self-indulgent truncated copies that in the end don't have the power of the real thing. Interestingly, Douthat says that the various "experiments" or "heresies" in American Christianity's history have not been all that bad. They have been good for traditional Christianity because the push and pull of innovation versus orthodoxy have served to strengthen the orthodox stream and make the faith broader and able to serve more people.
Freedom of religion in America has in the past made the orthodox stream stronger. "In America, because orthodoxy couldn't be taken for granted, orthodoxy came alive."
The problem today, though, is that the stream itself is weaker. The so-called "mainstream denominations" have declined in membership and influence. Many, having moved themselves out of the stream of orthodoxy, are now simply ignored as irrelevant by the cultural elites who set the memes of the news cycle.
Meanwhile, although the explosion of the tributaries shows that Americans are not less religious, the don't have the unity or collective power to affect the culture in a positive direction. Instead, we're a collection of individuals who each has his or her own "choose your own Jesus" that meets the requirement of providing some personal benefits without a sense of corporate responsibility.
Douthat wrote his book with the hope that things can be turned around. "Both doubters and believers stand to lose if religion in the age of heresy turns out to be complicit in our fragmented communities, our collapsing families, our political polarizations, and our weakened social ties." He will argue for a renewal of faith in and a return to the 2,000 year old stream. And, in spite of the pessimism of much of the book, he has hope that renewal can come.
I will write my comments with that same hope. Perhaps some readers will pick up the book themselves and read along. Perhaps others will simply rethink their own relationship to the religion that forms the roots of our culture and seek some answers in those churches where the gospel message is still being taught and lived. After all, even heretics are not beyond the reach of God's grace.
I've started reading "Bad Religion, How We Became A Nation Of Heretics", by Ross Douthat. It is so intriguing that I've decided to write a post on each chapter to share it with my friends.
Douthat traces the decline in influence of religion on American culture since the optimistic years following WW II. He sees the problem not as too little religion nor too much religion, but as what he calls "bad religion".
From the preface comes this illustration. "A chart of the American religious past would look like a vast delta with tributaries, streams, and channels winding in and out, diverging and reconverging--but all of them fed, ultimately, by a central stream, an original current, a place where all the waters start. This river is Christian orthodoxy."
There has always been a struggle between the stewards of orthodox Christian belief and practice and those who seek to adapt to new circumstances by experimenting with, adding to, or deleting from that orthodoxy. America, with its lack of central authority, its melting pot of cultures, and its enshrined freedom of religion has been a fertile ground for these experiments.
These "experimenters" typically have taken one aspect of the multi-faceted (and sometimes seemingly contradictory) Christian stream and emphasized it, resulting in a tributary that at first is connected, but eventually departs dramatically from its origin. The result has been a collection of "choose your own Jesus" movements. So, we have become "a nation of heretics"--still religious, but with declining influence in the American culture.
