{"id":39929,"date":"2017-05-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/religion-is-on-decline-but-guilt-persists\/"},"modified":"2017-05-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-01T00:00:00","slug":"religion-is-on-decline-but-guilt-persists","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/religion-is-on-decline-but-guilt-persists\/","title":{"rendered":"Religion Is on the Decline but Guilt Persists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a <em class=\"citation\">New York Times<\/em> article, columnist David Brooks argues, &quot;Religion my be in retreat, but guilt seems as powerfully present as ever.&quot; To make his point, Brooks quotes from a brilliant essay by Wlfred McClay called &quot;The Strange Persistence of Guilt.&quot; Brooks writes:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Technology gives us power and power entails responsibility, and responsibility, McClay notes, leads to guilt: You and I see a picture of a starving child in Sudan and we know inwardly that we&#39;re not doing enough. &quot;Whatever donation I make to a charitable organization, it can never be as much as I could have given. I can never diminish my carbon footprint enough, or give to the poor enough. &hellip; Colonialism, slavery, structural poverty, water pollution, deforestation&mdash;there&#39;s an endless list of items for which you and I can take the rap.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>We&#39;re still shaped by religious categories and the need to feel morally justified, and yet here&#39;s the problem that Brooks identifies (and that the gospel addresses):<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>And yet we have no clear framework or set of rituals to guide us in our quest for goodness. Worse, people have a sense of guilt and sin, but no longer a sense that they live in a loving universe marked by divine mercy, grace and forgiveness. There is sin but no formula for redemption.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[409],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3531,3675,4010,4110,4176,4453,4468,4603,4788,4801,4977,5038,5063,5157],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-39929","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-burdens","tax_ctp_tags-consecration","tax_ctp_tags-forgiveness","tax_ctp_tags-guilt","tax_ctp_tags-human-condition","tax_ctp_tags-memory","tax_ctp_tags-mind","tax_ctp_tags-past","tax_ctp_tags-regret","tax_ctp_tags-remorse","tax_ctp_tags-sin","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-bondage","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-transformation","tax_ctp_tags-thoughts"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - 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