CHRISTIANITY LITE     

The pundits like to refer to the Episcopal Church as “Catholic Lite.”  The pundits may or may not have a point, depending on just what their point is. Having been on both sides of the aisle, I can attest that there is nothing lite in trying to live out one’s faith life, be it of the Roman or Anglican variety. Such a life is fraught with self-denial and with whatever else it takes to live a life of selflessness.

Now I will grant that there are a goodly number in our Anglican midst who will argue to the contrary. They assert that sin is not preached about enough, that there seems to be too much of this “feel good, anything goes” theology being propounded from too many pulpits. They may or may not have a point, depending on where their pew is.

Granted, I have not been a pew-sitter all that often; but when I have, I have never heard such thinking being put forth. On the contrary, I have always been reminded that, yes, I am blessed and beloved no matter what I do, but what I do does matter. Sin is a fact of life and we sin every day and we are always forgiven. But that does not mean sin is acceptable. Avoiding sin and repenting when one does not is never easy. There is nothing lite about it. And we are sinners.

All of that crossed my mind as I read a recent article from The Christian Science Monitor about “The rise of the American megachurch” -- churches that average at least 2000 attendants. Twenty-five years ago there were only 10 of these non-Roman congregations. Now there are 740. And they seem to be making the rest of us jealous.

To become a megachurch we would have to become not even Catholic Lite but Christianity Lite, where, according to the article, “gone are traditional religious dogma, rituals, and symbols, replaced by uplifting songs and sermons. Congregants are taught that – through God – they are victors, not victims. The messages are encouraging and easy to swallow, and no one is called a sinner. It’s ‘Jesus meets the power of positive thinking.’”  “The idea is to be inclusive and inoffensive,” says the writer.

Just like Jesus? I don’t think so. The messages being preached are lite and even uplifting: “keep a good attitude; don’t get negative or bitter; be determined; shake it off and step up,” to quote the pastor of the largest mega-church in the country (25,000 every weekend). I wouldn’t even call that Christianity Lite. I’d call it good humanism and, of course, good consumerism. It sells, but it isn’t the truth because it is almost totally self-centered. It is about “success” as the world defines that word. It is not about transformation. And that is quite the opposite of the Gospel I read, one where sin is mentioned and we are all called sinners and called to repent and reform and transform our lives.

That is not to say worship has to be boring or that living out our faith is drudgery. It is to say we come to worship to worship God. We do not come to be entertained even as we “make joyful noise unto the Lord.” We live out our faith by using whatever gifts with which God has blessed us in order to love and serve everyone we meet, especially those who have been less blessed. When we do that, we are trans-formed and we grow spiritually and numerically. That’s the only way to go and to grow.

WJP