Theological critiques of America: Part I

Burke's Corner has up a piece titled "America and the project of modernity: a theological critique". And while I was very tempted to post a short comment which would probably have consisted of some sentences tied together in a paragraph that may or may not make sense. That's about how it goes with me anymore. Some days I got "it" other days I just ramble. But seeing as how I had just done that on two of his previous posts I thought I would give him a respite and just troll around on my own damn blog.


I take issue with both the content of the post which Burke put up and the underlying point he's trying to make. The gist of the article that Burke links to is that Britains aren't nessecarily anymore secular than Americans according to Stanley Hauerwas. The thing is that when the British stop feeling Jesus in their hearts, they stop going to Church. When we (Americans) stop "believing" in God, we continue to attend church. According to Hauerwas this is because we have a belief in a "vague" God who needs only vagues prayers. This is all tied up in the "AMERICAN" narrative (or lack thereof) and modernity (OMG run and get the pitch forks!).

A brief back story here, if I may. I come from a mixed marriage between a now Northern Bapist and a Catholic. As is the case in most mixed marriages due to Catholic doctrine I was baptized a Catholic. Growing up I attended both Catholic and Baptish services. I learned and recited the Ten Commandments before dinner every night and said grace as well (a tradition that continues to this day btw). We did not go to Catholic school because the local school gave me parents shit over the mixed marriage thing. Since my teens I attended a multitude of protestant services and youth groups with various friends. Please don't ask me to explain why. I don't even know myself, but usually I thought, "why not" and went along for the ride. The topics of those things btw would make a great story someday, though rest assured it will never be written down by yours truly.

My mom left the Church over a multitude of issues, most of which would make sense to folks of the baby boomer generation (birth control, abortion, generally acting like assholes etc. etc.). My father never really left the Baptist church so much as the church left him as it split between an apparently "liberal" northern branch and a new conservative southern branch. We went back to Kansas and we discovered that the rest of the family had gone southern on us. My father was/is an old time conservative (as am I btw, with some caveats) and his beliefs are his business and as he would not want his beliefs imposed on, he would not impose his beliefs on others, which put him at odds with the Southern Baptists. Oh well, as they say, "que sera, sera"...

But back to our post! (that one is for Malcolm)

The idea that we as Americans are less "religious" because we attend Church without being 100% convinced of God in his multiple clothes is to me rather than being an endightment of America, is a testament to our faith. Let us remember that it is called faith for a reason. It requires an act of faith to believe. What Hauerwas is talking about is the commonly held Protestant belief that one must be "saved" by Jesus in order to achieve salvation. I have heard it multiple times in attending especially Baptist services. In northern Baptist services (at least metropolitan ones, the country ones didn't the last time I attended one), it's all hip and cool Jesus until the last fifteen minutes of the service (there's even rock and roll songs for the youngsters) and then bam! It's a choice of either really, and I mean really believing in Jesus and being saved or being damned to hell. Personally I like the Catholic version of good works, faith, and charity better.

That is not to say that you should be able to buy your way into heaven, but when I went and helped my elderly widowed neighbor after she had fallen and broken her elbow it should count on my heavenly ledger, not because it should be my sole ticket into heaven, but because it (hopefully) reflects my desire to help my fellow man when possible and to generally be a good person.

My relationship with Jesus and the Church is far more complicated. But I want, with a great deal of sincerity to believe in Jesus and that doing what is right, even when it is not easy, is the "right" thing to do, and that the idea of Christian charity is a reflection of how we would have God see us. I personally view my good works as half of my relationship to God. I am not ashamed to "talk" to God and at times ask him to help me. Perhaps that's the Protestantism in my blood as no Catholic would ever attempt to actually talk to God without going through an intermediary (I've done that too). My grandma regularly prays for me and my family, though doubting the rules and dictats of the Catholic Church.

In short, I'll take that impefect faith any day of the week and I think that God will too.

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