Here, David Brooks laments the debasement of American culture, the willful turning from anything that might take us--lab rats in a Sims game--outside and beyond ourselves. It's a great article.
Parenthetically, one word used for demonic or evil in the Bible has the meaning of being turned in on oneself, away from God and away from neighbor.
The rising coarseness, narcissism, and utilitarianism of America's middle class is not only evil, though. It also bodes ill for the future. An educated, empathetic, and industrious middle class is the glue of a culture going places. Our current course, unless reversed, will spell our doom.
Self-indulgence is never the path of greatness. It is the way of the jungle.
3 comments:
But it clearly is the path encouraged....insisted upon...by unfettered, atheistic capitalism. Profits without conscience or morals.
Deborah:
You've touched upon a very important point, I think.
Back in the heyday of the Cold War, many saw it as a battle between two economic systems, communism versus capitalism. That was a true characterization, to a point, I think.
I also think that the free enterprise approach, with safeguards assuring truly open competition and what Ronald Reagan called "social safety nets," is the best way to organize economically. Market economies clearly afford greater opportunities to more people than do socialist or communist systems.
But it's important to remember that both communism and capitalism, particularly the sort of capitalism that is taking hold in America today, are rooted in the notion that all human behaviors are driven by economics. Capitalism as practiced in our country now is often little more than corporate or privilege socialism, in which the very wealthiest are beneficiaries of a sort of welfare state for the fatly-walleted, who are largely protected from the buffeting of markets.
Martin Luther said that whatever is most important in your life is your god. The Marxists always had the integrity to disavow the existence of God. But America's post-modern capitalists largely ignore God while willingly going to bed with the Religious Right in order to attain and keep power.
In the bargain, religious folks find themselves compromising their faith in Christ, for what they seem to deem the greater good. Their moral sensibilities are often dimmed by this marriage of convenience, as the questionable millions pocketed for lobbying efforts by one-time values conservatives demonstrates.
Many of those who call themselves capitalists today are very quick to use their millions to leverage competitive advantages for themselves and their companies, all at the expense of anything resembling "free enterprise."
And they do it all because they worship the gods of money, stuff, and self, not the God of the universe.
Derek, you raise an important question. Really, you raise two questions: How do we foster countering what Brooks talks about? How do we promote an alternative lifestyle?
I suppose that, read in a certain way, the issues that Brooks raises don't impinge on the mission of the Church. I'm not an elitist. I don't think that there's anything inherently superior in one art form over another. The forms of hip-hop and of classical music, say, aren't qualitatively different. So, I applaud Christian composers, writers, pastors, and other communicators who, as was true of Wesley and Luther in their days, use the idioms and stylings of today to convey the Gospel and Christian truth.
But in ways more important than atmospherics, Brooks cataloging of America's rising coarseness should be deeply alarming to the Church. A deep and savage selfishness has taken hold of the American soul. We are collectively addicted to things, the dead and dying things of this world.
We in the Church, by building ever bigger and more impressive facilities in the burbs, are doing more than meeting those who are exiling themselves from the center cities--an expression of racism and elitism that is troubling in itself. We also are telling this crass and secular culture, "We not only welcome you. We identify with you. We are you. We buy into all the godless, post-modern orthodoxy."
I don't mean to be harsh. I minister in the suburbs. I would very much love for our congregation of some 170 people would grow. Warren is right in saying that the church that doesn't want to grow is telling the rest of the world to go to hell.
But growth often equates with money, which equates with success.
Above all, I think, by proclaiming Jesus Christ as the one and only way, truth, and life, the Church can help America to see that the best success is that enjoyed by the person who, in following Christ, they lose the old self--it dies--and a new and better self, our God-self rises.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is always subversive and in fulfilling our call to "be all things to all people," we in the Church, must not allow accessibility to become syncretism. It's the challenge always faced by the Church, but especially in America today, because syncretism--whether in mainline churches that have bought into a liberal political agenda or in more conservative church that have caved to political conservatism--has advanced so far.
Luther said that salvation and the life of the Christian and of the Church boiled down to a few realities:
Christ alone
Faith alone
Word alone
I don't know of a better formula than that for the Church to use in combatting this culture's deteriorating values, represented by the things Brooks touches on. These are our only tools and success in reach others is not guaranteed. For us, success is only to be marked by faithfully wielding these tools in service to God and neighbor. Fortunately, they are blessed by God. I believe that whenever we add our helplessness and faith in God to God's power and compassion, good things will happen.
Thanks to both of you for commenting.
As I just quoted from Mark a few minutes when writing about nuclear power plants, "Love your neighbor as you love yourself."
It solves many of the cruelties of capitalism.
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