'Almost Christian': Is religion today just soft-serve?

Posted on Mon, Oct 4, 2010 : 10:16 a.m.

'Almost Christian': Is religion today just soft-serve?

By Wayne Baker

Photo by Flickr user Quintana Roo

Have American teenagers embraced a Dairy Queen version of Christianity? Is religion just like soft-serve ice cream—a sweet, insubstantial, feel-good treat?Â

That’s the main thesis of a hot new book on the scene this fall: “Almost Christian,” by Kenda Creasy Dean. Or, at least that’s her basic thesis put in my words. She never uses the soft-serve metaphor. But I think it’s apt.

Dean analyzes a pile of data on what teenagers think about religion in America. She comes to different conclusions from the previous hot book about young people and religion, “UnChristian.” That earlier book says America’s youth are good without God. “Almost Christian” says that American young people actually embrace faith, but their version is just treacle—a syrupy version of hard-edged faith.

Dean calls this soft-serve religion: “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism,” or MTD for short.

This week, let’s take a look at the MTD theses she’s nailed on the door and see if they stack up to our own experiences. If you are a member of a faith other than Christianity, tell us if any of this applies to teenagers you know.

Here’s one of the five core assertions in MTD, according to Dean’s analysis: “God wants people to be good, nice and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most religions.”

In response to this idea, she writes, “The issue is less whether God wants us to get along (affirmative on that) than whether that is all there is to Christianity, whether a personal decision to be an agreeable neighbor constitutes Christian identity, and whether enacting such a decision is even possible on a human level.”

What do you think?

Is religion just about being nice to others?

Does that ring true with what you know about teenagers and faith?

Dr. Wayne E. Baker is a sociologist on the senior faculty of the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. He specializes in researching the core beliefs and desires that motivate and shape American culture. Dr. Baker blogs daily at Our Values and can be reached at ourvaluesproject@gmail.com.

Comments

David Frye

Tue, Oct 5, 2010 : 10:35 a.m.

If "just being nice" is so easy, such a cop-out, then why do so many self-proclaimed Christians (and Muslims and Jews, etc.) seem to find it so hard to do? I would much rather see the despicable assistant Michigan Attorney General who's been in the news lately try to be "nice" than to have him run around trying, by his dim lights, to be "Christian" and harassing innocent students for being gay. If you really think that being a good neighbor is such a negligible thing in the Abrahamic traditions, you might want to take another look at this: "He has told you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: Only this: to do justice, and to love loving-kindness, and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8. That's just three things: justice, "being nice," and humility. Some self-designated Christians seem to have forgotten all three, and I don't see it as in anyway a bad thing for young people to return to the basics as they are doing.

Forever27

Tue, Oct 5, 2010 : 8:34 a.m.

Heidi, it is exactly that kind of attitude towards other belief systems that Joe is talking about. This holier-than-thou, only I know what is true mentality is what pushes the youth away from dogmatic religions. That and the lack of any ability to prove the case of the existence of deities. I would say that the younger generation is just a little tired of the hate and the old man in the sky fairy tales.

Heidi Hess Saxton

Mon, Oct 4, 2010 : 10:13 p.m.

When the only culturally acceptable moral imperative is "tolerance," it is no wonder that our children reject faith traditions demanding any level of self-sacrifice or conversion. There are too many other options, each of them (supposedly) equally valid pathways to personal transcendence. If we are our own ultimate authority, why assent to anything uncomfortable or inconvenient? Of course, Christian tradition is replete with examples of saints and martyrs who placed spiritual growth above personal conveniece. Especially in times of persecution (as part of an outspoken moral minority), they took seriously the words of Christ, "Take up your cross and follow me," believing that it was a privilege to be "persecuted for righteousness sake." Unfortunately, easy believism does not tend to self-correct. Faith is purified only in the crucible of adversity. That's not to say it's a bad idea to get along with one's neighbor. The parable of the Good Samaritan begins with a smug, self-satisfied young Pharisee asking Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?" The whole-hearted love of God and neighbor -- this Golden Rule, according to Jesus -- encapsulates the heart of authentic faith. And, like that poor man in the parable learned the hard way, the test of authentic faith is not "niceness" when a neighbor lets his crabgrass run wild -- but a willingness to give "till it hurts" to the stranger who can never repay your kindness.

Joe

Mon, Oct 4, 2010 : 9:06 p.m.

Based on my own experience as a teenage Christian, the Christianity of today's youth, and that of the wider evangelical movement, is not one of being "good, nice and fair," but rather one of proselytizing and condemnation. I will agree that most Christian kids are "agreeable" and that they aren't willing to go beyond being nice (like forgoing new shoes and instead giving their allowance to a homeless shelter), but you can't forget that little pinch of bigotry sprinkled on top of the watered-down Christianity served to American teenagers.