the credibility of religion

This clip from the Bill Maher HBO show illustrates a strong intellectual critique of organized religion, specifically concerning Christianity in the U.S.

What this illustrates is that Religion in the U.S. seems to be like the market: people pick and choose, implying that religion isn’t really that important to people’s lives. Making a commitment to a worldview that we consider to be the truth is a part of religion. And one of the many loaded implications made on this program is that religious people switch denominations and religious views pretty easily.

I think this is a product of the incorporation of American pragmatism into Christianity. What witnesses to non-Christians about what faith means are ethical choices - actions - that the faithful make. The quest to maintain a sense of relevance and physical safety has led Christians to be willing to sacrifice certain principles of what they believe. Of course, it is easy for Christians to take this attitude regarding the gay issue… that is, conservative Christians are willing to seem “irrelevant” and “unpopular” over this issue. But when it comes to economic prosperity and justice, defense of the poor in a way that causes sacrifice in their own lives, or defense and inclusion of the marginalized, Niebuhrian “Christian Realism” sets in. The witness of Christ, who went to death on a cross, is unembodied by those who do not seem willing even to endure persecution to prove how deeply they believe the truthfulness of their convictions. So a narrative emerges which allows Christians to reconcile what their tradition teaches them with the actions of the religion-neutral state. The State, which does have the power to take a life or put dissenters in jail, becomes more important to protect than any religious institution, because of how good it feels to be free.

This is not to say that freedom is not contained in religious tradition, but it is to elaborate about the root of the problem in this clip. When one narrative of domination, violence and hypocrisy** comes to be more important to protect than the narrative of love, peace, forgiveness and community that Christianity is supposed to represent, you get these reactions.

**I realize these are generalizations, but I am willing to flesh them out as this blog continues.