It is not often that you see programs like NBC's ER so clearly illustrate the emptiness of a faith not rooted in God and His Word. Click the video below to learn more.
The clip reminded me of our recent research. Below are some excerpts of comments I wrote a few weeks ago for the story Terry Mattingly published through his Scripps Howard News Service column. Terry was covering our recent research you can review here.
Non-attendees want to ignore a generic God, but when/if they follow a faith, they want one that has robust beliefs and is worth following...
Since growing churches tend to have more defined belief systems, when people start a journey to faith, they want something they see as worth believing and giving their life to. A generic god is hardly one worth committing to...
As best I can tell, those who are not a regular part of a faith community still want to be "spiritual" people, but without a clear faith...
Many fashion a tame God in their own image-- a generic god for a generic spirituality, not a God who actually intervened in the world through the death of Christ and calls us to follow and live differently...
For many, they want to get all the benefits of spirituality without any of the truth claims of a rigorous faith...
I think the Oprah-ization of American spirituality has glorified "searching" for spiritual meaning but de-emphasized "finding." In other words, it is good to be looking for spirituality, but it is intolerant to actually believe you have found a right faith and want to invite others to such.
In "I'm O.K., You're O.K. Spirituality," the only sin is intolerance... and intolerance is defined to mean actually believing your faith is the correct one.
Behold: even NBC knows that a generic faith in a generic God does little good when it really matters.
The Exchange is a part of CT's
Blog Forum. Support the work of CT.
Subscribe and get one year free.
The views of the blogger do not necessarily reflect those of Christianity Today.
