“If World War II-era warbler Kate Smith sang today, her anthem could be Gods Bless America,” USA Today recently quipped. It’s a remark about America's drift toward “designer faiths,” custom tailored to fit personal preferences.
John Chandler
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Sociologist Robert Bellah named this post-traditionalist phenomenon of religion in his 1985 landmark, Habits of the Heart. He introduces us to Sheila, a woman who represents this. Sheila says: "I can't remember the last time I went to church. My faith has carried me a long way. It’s Sheilaism. Just my own little voice. … It's just try to love yourself and be gentle with yourself. You know, I guess, take care of each other. I think God would want us to take care of each other."
Bellah identified the dark side of this “one-person-one-religion” trend. The bad news about designer faith is “you lose the capacity to make connections.” This rampant individualism also fosters “hostility toward organized groups — government, industry, even organized religion.”
The USA Today article interviewed Carol Christoffel of Zion, Ill. She drifted through a few mainline Protestant denominations in her youth, found a home in the peace and unity message of the Baha’i tradition for several years, and then was drawn deeply into Native American traditional healing practices. Yet she also still calls herself Christian.
“I’m a kind of bridge person between cultures. I agree with the teachings of Jesus and … I know many Christians like me who keep the Bible’s social teachings and who care for the earth and for each other,” Christoffel says. “I support people who do good wherever they are.”
There is an admirable hopefulness in Carol and in the American “melting pot” or “stew pot” tradition. But it also surfaces an issue as old as those that Israel faced as it encountered the Canaanites: syncretism. How do the people of God maintain clarity about distinct identity while remaining within and influencing a larger culture? How do we translate faith intelligibly and in culturally relevant ways without selling out the farm?
I’d love to see a trend of people who answer those questions in theologically and spiritually responsible ways.
Trending is written by John Chandler, leader of the Spence Network, www.spencenetwork.org./equip.htm.