Pastor s Corner: The new spirituality
By JOHN BAIZE
Holy Transfiguration Orthodox
Its language is cutting edge. Its father is unrestrained reason. Its mother is untrammeled science. Its spirit is anti-establishment rebellion. Its mantra is "everything is evolving." It's the new spirituality and you'll see it plastered on the newsstands, talked up on the talk shows, dramatized on the golden screen, and propounded in the public schools across our land.
What is it? It's the "new" way of thinking about God and the world. It says the historic doctrines of Christianity, i.e., the majesty of God, the reality of sin, the need for Christ's atoning blood, even the veracity of the scriptures, really is not very important. Proponents of this view say all of these things are secondary. The only primary thing, the goal of all religion, simply should be to love God and love others.
They argue such a perspective really reflects the two greatest commandments as stated by Christ. Those who take this tack laud the benefits they believe would accrue from such a credo. First of all, without all those pesky details, all Christians should be able to come to much needed unity. Surely every Christian should be able to agree that loving God and loving others is the crux of the Christian message. Why not just forget, they urge, the bothersome doctrines that have divided the church for centuries? After all, isn't being in unity with each other, presenting a united front to the world, the most important thing?
Advocates of the new spirituality say holding such a view really is enlightened and civilized. To think any other way, they say, really is narrow-minded and backward. The new "reformers" want to subtly set aside the distinctives of the faith which have been preserved, defended, and sustained by the blood of martyrs, and distill Christianity down to the motto: Love God and love others. While this is a central pillar of the Christian faith, can we really pare Christianity down to these simple axioms?
Just think, they assert, by doing this we will not only see unity in the church, but also with other religions. In fact, since all other religions also can be condensed down to this same formula, everyone in the world could get along. There would be no religious wars. Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Mormons, you name it, virtually everyone would be in agreement. Wouldn't the world be a wonderful place?
Those who adhere to the idea that what is needed is a new spirituality ask us to visualize the idyllic world that awaits us when no one's faith would be "wrong" as long as they sought to love God and love others. The new spiritual architects claim there would be so much time saved by not studying the archaic tenants of the old faiths, that we could go out and do more good in the world. Massive amounts of time and money also could be saved through curtailing fruitless efforts to convince others of the particulars of each religious persuasion and concentrate on joint efforts to alleviate illiteracy and poverty.
We also are told by these religious "liberators" that we need not be concerned any longer with the particulars of Christianity or any other faith. What is important, the only thing that really matters, is understanding that God is loving and as long as we love Him and other people, and are sincere, we will be all right. Furthermore, as long as a person of another faith is committed to these goals, we should never intrude upon or contradict their respective beliefs. In this new spiritual day, each person determines their own path, and it is most assuredly an individual path.
Those pushing for this agenda already have taken much ground in the spiritual battle for the minds of adults and youth today. Such ideas have taken root not only in liberal metropolitan centers, but also are infecting the small towns of the heartland. Make no mistake, whenever the precious truths of the Christian faith are marginalized or minimized, Christ is dishonored. Whenever Christians are urged to lay down their Bibles and acquiesce to the siren's song of unity at any price, the Christian faith is being diminished. Whenever preaching the soul-saving Gospel is discouraged because it is perceived as being out of step with our society, Christians are in a dangerous place.
Though it is increasingly not politically correct to say the Gospel of Christ is an exclusive Gospel. While we as Christians condemn and judge no one in respect to their eternal destiny, neither can we in any way assume there is salvation outside of Christ. This exclusive message must not be muffled by the beguiling voices of the world. Christians must stand firm upon the foundation of the faith once for all delivered to the saints and share an unpopular message that salvation is through faith in Christ and His Church. Rest assured, such a message flies in the face of the trumpeters of the new spirituality. Today, as never before, the words of Christ should remind us that if the world hated Him, so shall it also hate those bearing His message and His name.
