{"id":2851,"date":"2010-09-30T07:59:16","date_gmt":"2010-09-30T11:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=2851"},"modified":"2010-10-01T13:19:13","modified_gmt":"2010-10-01T17:19:13","slug":"is-christianity-moral-most-americans-dont-really-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/09\/30\/is-christianity-moral-most-americans-dont-really-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Christianity moral? Most Americans don’t really know."},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been reading Soren Kierkegaard’s famous “Fear and Trembling,”<\/a> which is the theologian’s exploration of the story of Abraham and Isaac.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you’re rusty on your Bible,this is the tale of God’s testing of Abraham, where He demands that the man kill his son and burn his young body on an altar.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here’s how Kierkegaard describes the tale:<\/span><\/p>\n

The ethical expression for what Abraham did is, that he would murder Isaac; the religious expression is, that he would sacrifice Isaac.<\/span><\/p>\n

But precisely in this contradiction consists the dread which can well make a man sleepless, and yet Abraham is not what he is without this dread.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Kierkegaard and other theologians have wrestled with the Abraham-Isaac story in part because by any modern sensibility it’s creepy and loathsome.<\/p>\n

Not only does Abraham scheme to murder his son, but he lies about it<\/a>.\u00a0 When Isaac asks his father, “Where [is] the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham fudges:<\/p>\n

“God will provide\u00a0 Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dreadful, indeed.\u00a0 Rather than tell his son or his servants the truth, Abraham makes up a story and takes the boy off alone to a mountaintop.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it.<\/p>\n

Then he tied his son, Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. \u00a0 And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s an icky moment, one that even many fundamentalist Christians describe as “strange” and “bizarre.”<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The story — and Kierkegaard’s exploration of it — are relevant today because increasingly many of the the tenets, teachings and practices of Christianity seem out of step with what many Americans view as basic morality.<\/span><\/p>\n

There’s plenty of wisdom and goodness in the Bible. <\/span><\/p>\n

But its texts also patently embrace war, slavery, murder, the subjection of women, sexual violence, and the persecution of gays and lesbians.<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout the Bible, obedience is a far more important virtue than kindness or wisdom or love.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

It goes without saying that those aren’t just fusty teachings in an old book. <\/span><\/p>\n

They still pervade our civic and political culture, influencing debates over everything from abortion to same-sex marriage.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed, in modern times, many churches remain preoccupied with issues of sexuality — condemning gays, discouraging sexual education and family planning, even arguing against the equality of women.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, at least in the public sphere, Christian activists spend far less time on issues that many would consider more morally pressing, from climate change and tolerance to poverty and economic inequality.<\/span><\/p>\n

This tension between Christian morality and the modern world is complicated further by the fact that many powerful church leaders and hierarchies have become entangled with allegations of sexual and financial improprieties.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bishop Eddie Long, a Georgia preacher who crusades against equality for gays and lesbians<\/a>, is now accused of using his wealth and influence to seduce a series of young men.<\/span><\/p>\n

For many Americans, the antidote to this friction between our modern values and the values of Christianity is simple ignorance. <\/span><\/p>\n

We learn a few stray Bible verses, we go to church on major holidays, but we don’t read the Bible closely, or ask questions about what it means. <\/span><\/p>\n

A Pew study released last week<\/a> found that agnostics and atheists were actually far more knowledgeable about world religions than active Christians. <\/span><\/p>\n

Even when questioned about the Bible and their own faith, most Christians knew remarkably little about the core teachings of their religion. <\/span><\/p>\n

(Forty percent of Christians weren’t even sure who Abraham is, let alone what his story signifies.)
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Another challenging moral principle of modern Protestantism is the idea that faith In Jesus Christ is the key to salvation.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to many theologians, faith is far more important than good works or human goodness.<\/span><\/p>\n

That’s a concept that many Americans would struggle with.\u00a0 But according to Pew, only 16% of American Christians even know about it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Obviously, Christianity contributes profoundly to our culture, providing one of our most important moral compasses.<\/span><\/p>\n

But as society changes and evolves, it’s important to keep examining that compass, reevaluating how Christianity works and how its teachings and institutions fit with our evolving sense of right and wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been reading Soren Kierkegaard’s famous “Fear and Trembling,” which is the theologian’s exploration of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[6,4790],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2851"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2851"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2852,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2851\/revisions\/2852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}