Albert Mohler on his blog, comments on Holyland USA: A Catholic Ride Through America's Evangelical Landscape by Peter Feuerherd. Mohler quotes from the book about modern "evangelical" churches:
Evangelicals may have a fire-and-brimstone reputation, but the reality is more Oprah. Instead of raining down God's wrath, evangelical preachers are more likely to embrace American therapeutic culture. Family relationships and dysfunctions take a central role. How to heal marriages is more often talked about than God's wrath. Megachurches are built around common communities. Often those groups focus on healing personal issues, much like Oprah Winfrey does on her daily television show, providing homespun advice for problems usually associated with marriage and family life.Mohler says:
Interestingly, Feuerherd does not see evangelicalism as much of a threat when it comes to theology or politics. In effect, he suggests that those who argue that evangelicals are primarily driven by deep theological commitments or a political agenda miss the point -- evangelicals are too preoccupied with therapeutic concerns to have time for anything else.
1 comments:
Dr. Mohler in using Feuerherd observations is exactly right. The evangelicals that I have contact with outside our denominational circles have developed a secular approach to ministry that has often replaced the Gospel with an easy believism.
In their quest for size for size sake and growth without conviction the atmosphere becomes that of a corporation vs. a Spirit led congregation. The issue seems to be corporate stability as demonstrated at Thomas Road, Crystal Cathedral and the new blood line in Joel Osteen.
Have not we, Seventh-day Baptists, taken on some of the trappings of the therapeutic, forgetting from whence we came when we water down our Sabbath message? I often present it as a second or third tier in the evangelism and sharing the Gospel and very few times do I refer to it as sin for one who does not observed it.
KDC
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