Reply #3: I agree with your comments. [View All]

[Tafiti]

This same idea has also been expressed in various ways, and your assessment is essentially in agreement.

I read a book several months ago called Stealing Jesus by Bruce Bawer, a gay minister. He used some terms that I thought were really useful for describing the difference between true Christianity and the decidedly corrupt brand of Christianity championed by the Falwell/Robertson crowd. He said that the latter brand of Christianity is marked by a preoccupation with the "horizontal" dimension of life - the here-on-earth. That is, what does faith do for me, what can it get me, what can it do for my life. It is a style, a lifestyle, which has little to do with faith.

On the other hand, true Christianity is more concerned with the "vertical" dimension of faith. They are content with the mystical or mysterious nature of God, and are much less likely to be dogmatic and black-and-white in their worldview. There is room for introspection, interpretation, and meditation. It is deeply personal, and is not "sold" or "peddled" (proselytized) as ferociously as the Christianity of the "horizontal" stripe.

Also, there is another book called The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber - probably the most famous and accomplished political scientist ever. It is a pretty dense read, and was written in 1934 (I believe), so the style is a bit different. Basically, he examines the uneasy relationship between wealth and protestantism that seems to have tainted Protestant Christianity throughout the years, beginning in the early colonial periods of American history - Puritanism, Calvinism, etc. Essentially, it's a history of Christianity in America, which is definitely an important element to study when making observations about the "kinds" of Christianity we see here today. This problem of materialism seems to be peculiarly American, and has been around a long time.