Walking in Memphis

As I was walking through Memphis International Airport Monday morning (isn't it odd that MEM hasn't been named after somebody yet?), just beyond the entrance to B concourse and on the way to A concourse, I passed by the Hudson News stand... you know, between the security checkpoint and the shoe shine stand, right across from where the PGA Golf Shop used to be. Anyhow, as I'm hustling by admiring the magazine covers, one in particular caught my eye.

Harper's.

What really caught my attention was a cover article titled "HOW A CHRISTIAN NATION GETS JESUS WRONG" by Bill McKibben (excerpt). Even though the time at which I should have been concerned about missing my flight was fast approaching, I stopped and thumbed through, finding this particular article (p. 31).

A brief aside:

If you're reading this blog, you probably know me well enough to realize that I'm not the most culturally savvy or well-read redneck in cyberspace. So you also probably could guess that before Monday I never picked up a copy of Harper's nor heard more than a passing reference to it, so I had no pre-conceived notions of what to expect from its authors/editors/publishers. After having read about half of it Monday morning on the plane to Columbus, I have concluded that it is written by thoughtful, politically liberal authors who dislike Bush, have an affinity for bigger government and share a bit of a conspiracy-theorist view of all things not affiliated with the Democratic party. I think if the publishers could get Federal funding, it would be the printed counterpart to NPR. But I really enjoyed reading it.

Anyhow, back to the article. Sentence two proclaimed "Twelve percent (of Americans) believe Joan of Arc was Noah's wife". I'm sold. I take a copy to the counter and because I'm in the airport I pay for one issue nearly what would normally buy a whole year's subscription. But it was worth it. Here are a few of McKibben's interesting statistics:

• 85% of Americans call themselves Christians
  
• However, only 40% of Americans can name more than four of the Ten Commandments
• Half of Americans can cite any of the four authors of the Gospels
• The above cited 12 % think Joan of Arc was Noah's wife
• 75% believe the Bible teaches that "God helps those who help themselves"
  
• ~75% claim to pray to God on a daily basis
• 33% manage to get to church every week
• American's murder one another at a rate more than 4 times that of Europeans
• 50% of American marriages end in divorce

McKibben goes on to conclude that because 85% of Americans claim to be Christian that every statistic that can be cited about American culture/behavior can also be used as a measure of professing American Christian behavior. He points out the inconsistencies in American 'belief' and American action and postulates (rightly I believe) that most Americans have replaced the self-denying, servant driven, grace-filled Christianity of the Bible with a self-centered, works-based, feel-good, non-challenging, expedient "faith".

Paul predicted this type of shift in 2 Timothy 3: 1-5.

¹But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. ²People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, ⁴treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— ⁵having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

⁶They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, ⁷always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. ⁸Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth—men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. ⁹But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.

So, up 'till this point, McKibben is pretty much 'dead-nuts on' in his critique of the American 'church'. But the solutions he tenders are just dead nuts.

Despite his claims of faith in Christ, McKibben immediately encourages his reader to run back to his real functional savior, the state, to find rescue from these maladies. He fails to see that the state as we know it today (not in its original, purest form) is in fact a manifestation of the ultimate problem (man is broken, sinful and in need of a true savior) and not the real solution.

So, basically I enjoyed his challenge of Americans' (and by that pesky 85% stat also the churches') inaction, ignorance and lack of compassion but I think the solution he offered is the wrong one. Read over the excerpt and if you can get your hands on a copy, read the article and let me know what you think.