{"id":606,"date":"2013-10-10T11:54:09","date_gmt":"2013-10-10T11:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/yourbestlifenow\/?p=606"},"modified":"2013-10-10T11:54:09","modified_gmt":"2013-10-10T11:54:09","slug":"whats-wrong-with-much-of-organized-christianity-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/10\/whats-wrong-with-much-of-organized-christianity-today.html","title":{"rendered":"What’s Wrong with Much of Organized Christianity Today?"},"content":{"rendered":"

J. S. Spong says this:<\/p>\n

1. God is still envisioned as a \u201cbeing\u201d supernatural in power, dwelling somewhere external to this world, usually depicted as \u201cabove the sky.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. Prayer is largely an effort to manipulate God to conform to our wishes.<\/p>\n

3. Heaven and hell are still largely \u201cbehavior controlling religious mechanisms\u201d designed to get people to conform and obey.<\/p>\n

4. Sacraments are the \u201cmeans of grace\u201d as if God is even subject to the religious institutions that arbitrarily decide who can be the recipient of grace and who cannot.<\/p>\n

5. Neo-orthodoxy of the late 20th century has been replaced today by the oxymoronic slogan of \u201cProgressive Orthodoxy\u201d which reminds me of the political slogan \u201cCompassionate Conservatism\u201d that turned out to really be little more than rabid conservatism. Spong calls this \u201cProgressive Orthodoxy\u201d just \u201cperfumed orthodoxy\u201d \u2013 just the old orthodoxy put into a new spray perfume in hopes of making it a little more acceptable.<\/p>\n

6. The organized expressions of Christianity, just as in many other organized religions, entertains the illusion that its understanding of God is \u201cright\u201d which, by implication, means every other religious understanding of God is \u201cwrong,\u201d and, as a consequence, if you want to go to heaven when you die, instead of the \u201cother\u201d awful place of eternal, conscious torment where you burn, burn, burn yet still, you\u2019d better believe as our religion says to believe, or you will have no one to blame except yourself for your everlasting screw up. (Taken from \u201cA New Christianity for a New World\u201d newsletter, dated Oct. 10, 2013).<\/p>\n

That last one I took a little liberty with. But do you realize how many sincere religious people I meet almost weekly who still live in the terror of these empty, dehumanizing and godless, religious notions?<\/p>\n

How did any of this ever pass the \u201cGood News\u201d test? What\u2019s \u201cgood\u201d about it? It is offensive. Hurtful. Godless. Aberrant. And, it is a misguided reading of scripture. The damage it has done to people\u2026to their potential for living productive, joyful, Christ-filled lives is beyond any imagination.<\/p>\n

I am an advocate for change. There is nothing wrong with Christianity, my friend. Only the unbelievable expressions of it. The Jesus way of living\u2026the Christ-path to Christ-consciousness is more real\u2026more vital\u2026more humanizing\u2026more in line with who Jesus was, is, and wishes you and me to become than most of the nonsense you and I have been taught is truth. If you have not read Diana Butler Bass’ new book, Christianity after Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening<\/em><\/a>, I commend it to you.<\/p>\n

Even as I write these things down, I find myself feeling deep inside that something has gone terribly wrong in much of what we say on the outside is \u201cright\u201d about our religion today.<\/p>\n

What do you say?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

J. S. Spong says this: 1. God is still envisioned as a \u201cbeing\u201d supernatural in power, dwelling somewhere external to this world, usually depicted as \u201cabove the sky.\u201d 2. Prayer is largely an effort to manipulate God to conform to our wishes. 3. Heaven and hell are still largely \u201cbehavior controlling religious mechanisms\u201d designed to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":551,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,224,923,1120,1100],"tags":[1133,1127,1131,1134,1130,142,1132,340,1068,780,1122,1121,1124,755,1126,1129,496,832,1128,1125,1123],"class_list":["post-606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-god-2","category-heaven-or-hell-2","category-organized-religion-2","category-prayer-2","tag-christianity-after-religion","tag-compassionate-conservatism","tag-conscious-torment","tag-diana-butler-bass","tag-eternal","tag-god","tag-good-news","tag-heaven","tag-heaven-and-hell","tag-hell","tag-john-shelby-spong","tag-jsspong","tag-manipulate-god","tag-means-of-grace","tag-neo-orthodoxy","tag-organized-christianity","tag-organized-religion","tag-prayer","tag-progressive-orthodoxy","tag-sacraments","tag-supernatural-being"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat's Wrong with Much of Organized Christianity Today? - Your Best Life Now<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/10\/whats-wrong-with-much-of-organized-christianity-today.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What's Wrong with Much of Organized Christianity Today? - Your Best Life Now\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"J. S. Spong says this: 1. God is still envisioned as a \u201cbeing\u201d supernatural in power, dwelling somewhere external to this world, usually depicted as \u201cabove the sky.\u201d 2. Prayer is largely an effort to manipulate God to conform to our wishes. 3. 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S. Spong says this: 1. God is still envisioned as a \u201cbeing\u201d supernatural in power, dwelling somewhere external to this world, usually depicted as \u201cabove the sky.\u201d 2. Prayer is largely an effort to manipulate God to conform to our wishes. 3. 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Leadership Coach... Counsel to Non-Profits, Faith-based Organizations and Congregations... Adjunct Professor of Communication at the University of Kentucky... Spiritual Teacher... Inspirational and Motivational Speaker. But not always in this order. On the university campus, I teach students the Art of Communication. In my public talks, however, I teach leaders the Art of Leading; I teach everyone the Art of Living...so that... when you come to the end... and, you will come to the end... You're able to look back on life feeling... Fulfilled... Accomplished... Content, Peaceful, and Happy, too... Knowing your brief but important journey has made this world a more... Conscious... Compassionate, and... Charitable place. 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