Is There Anything Good About "Feel Good Christianity"?
Apparently, some modern hymnals are changing the words of Amazing Grace from "how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me" to "how sweet the sound that saved and set me free". Ugh. Apparently we are no longer wretches before being saved. Just chained up, I guess.
The Anchoress penned a marvelous response to this craziness:
But that decision has always seemed to me to be extremely short-sighted and cheap. As with what Deitrich Bonhoeffer called "cheap grace" in The Cost of Discipleship (yes, it is in The Bookshelf, it's one of my faves), these monastics are creating "feel-good" liturgy that is all-grace-and-all-light but which does not permit introspection, does not allow one to read a hard verse and stop to consider - "Lord, is that me?" If you're only looking at the positive, it's very easy to equate any negatives you do encounter as being the fault of "someone or something else." The problem can't be rooted in you, after all - you're all-positive!
At some point in every life, the ugly and dark stuff intrudes. Seems to me the best and healthiest way to deal with it, when it comes, is to have more than a passing acquaintance with it - if you're acknowleding on a daily (or weekly) basis that what is lesser, and baser, exists and resides within our own hearts right next to all of our highest and purest ideals, you're much less likely to be shocked or overwhelmed when you encounter the dark, either within yourself or within others. Or even within your town or your church or your government.
Please, do go and read the entire thing. I read it to my wife before she left for work. We both agree that sometimes spiritual growth requires being exposed to dark truths.
No, there's nothing good about "feel good Christianity". All that's good in this world comes from God. It's impossible to appreciate how good God is until you're aware of how bad this world is -- and how bad we are. Grace is meaningless without an appreciation of my own need for it. Short of God's grace, I am a wretch and can say with Paul "I am the chief of sinners".
This entry was tagged. Christianity