moralistic therapeutic deism

from Thin Places, by Amy Julia Becker
on Faith, Family, and Disability
http://blog.beliefnet.com/thinplaces/

Patheos ran an interview with Kenda Cressey Dean, author of the new book Almost Christian: about the religious/spiritual views of American teenagers. It's a fascinating, if sobering, interview. Here's an example:

You refer to this "moralistic therapeutic deism" quite a bit in your book. Can you unpack this term for us?

That's the name the NSYR came up with to describe the "belief system" of the majority of teens surveyed. The shorthand of moralistic therapeutic deism is that religion helps you feel good and do good, but God pretty much stays out of the way. Now, you can call on God if you need God to solve a problem, but God's track record on solving problems is pretty bad. So the primary God-images that the kids had were either as the "cosmic therapist" or the "divine butler." The therapist serves as the one who helps you feel good about yourself; the guidance counselor image comes to mind here when working with teenagers. The divine butler is somebody who comes when called upon but otherwise stays away. Those images were identified in the study as being dominant among teenagers. And that was very true with the teens I talked to as well. They believe that:

A God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth.
God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and most world religions.
The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
God does not need to be involved in my life except when I need God to resolve a problem.
Good people go to Heaven when they die.

Read more: http://blog.beliefnet.com/thinplaces/#ixzz0sODdDVDL

aware of the needs of others

"Your heart is so much more than a vessel for romance. It has been described as the king, with the mind as the king's adviser. When faced with a decision, the king may ask his advisers for advice, may even send him out into the world to gather information, but ultimately it is the king that makes the final decision. Even though the advisers do not always agree with the king's decision, the king is invariably right, because the king's view not only sees the bigger picture but is also aware of the needs of others."

Ed and Deb Shapiro, authors of Be The Change, How Meditation Can Transform You and the World

the purpose of life

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

when character is lost

“When wealth is lost, nothing is lost;
when health is lost, something is lost;
when character is lost, all is lost.”

~ Billy Graham

being able to remake ourselves

“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world - that is the myth of the atomic age - as in being able to remake ourselves.”

~ Mohandas (Mahatma) Ghandi

You do not have a fire hot enough

"But he said to them, 'You do not have a fire hot enough to make me play the coward.'"

~ 4 Maccabees 10:14 NRSV

Always Be Prepared

Quote:

The greatest going-over-the-side I ever heard of (and this is not by way of recommendation) happened at Wheaton College about 40 years ago.

Wheaton's president, V. Raymond Edman, a godly man, was speaking in chapel one Friday morning. He had just finished telling about the time he had carefully rehearsed for an audience with the then-emperor of Ethiopia. His application for the students, whom he felt had slipped into a spirit of irreverence in their worship, was simple: you must always be prepared to respectfully conduct yourself in the presence of the King of Kings.

Having made his point, Dr. Edman suddenly slumped to the floor and died. Having spoken of entering the presence of the King, he did it himself. He left, apparently, at the moment of God's choosing, whom, we trust, watches over our leave-decisions, too.

~ Gordon Macdonald

violence and methodical, sophisticated and civilized coldness

Israel's Holocaust museum grapples with Holocaust diminishment
CNN's Izzy Lemberg sent this report on a major Holocaust conference in Jerusalem:

Yad Vashem, Israel’s main museum and research facility for preserving the memory of the Holocaust–including concentration camps like Auschwitz, above–devoted much of its annual conference on Monday to grappling with the challenges of Holocaust denial and diminishment. . . .

Alain Finkielkraut, a prominent French philosopher, keynoted the event, arguing that “Post-Nazi Europe knows that neither culture nor progress is a safeguard against ferocity."

"It knows that modernity does not necessarily overcome cruelty," he said of Europe, "and that the most egregious evil is produced by a combination of unleashed violence and methodical, sophisticated and civilized coldness."

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/06/15/israels-holocaust-museum-grapples-with-holocaust-diminishment/?hpt=Sbin

'positive-sentiment override'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8745000/8745287.stm
quote, underline added:

Married couples can find it easier to widen each others' worlds and reap the benefits of shared meaning and memories.

They're also shored-up by the respect society offers those who trouble to state, publicly, their relationship's importance. And if the obstacle race works out, at the end, if they're lucky, they approach the finish with somebody to remind them where they left their spare teeth.

But magic only works if you believe in it, if you don't simply work at marriage, but play at and relish it. Studies find that the more optimistic your expectations, the greater your demands, the more marriage will give you.

Magic only works if you believe in it, if you don't simply work at marriage, but play at and relish it.

If you seek the best, keep noticing each other, complain well but criticise less, and don't let leisure slide. (Although husbands tend to enjoy more free time, according to latest research, wives' pleasures have greater impact on whether a union is happy.)

Try a psychological trick called 'positive-sentiment override'. If your beloved snaps at you, don't snap back or take it personally. No, they're having a bad day.

With care, luck and selective attention, the ball and chain can weigh lighter than ever.

Catherine Blyth, author of The Art of Marriage (John Murray, £12.99). www.catherineblyth.com

If Men Were to Rewrite the Rules

Rule # 1 - Anything we said six or eight months ago is inadmissible in an argument.
All comments become null and void after seven days.

Rule # 2 - If we say something that can be interpreted in two ways, and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other way.

Rule # 3 - It is in neither your best interest or ours to make us take those stupid Cosmo quizzes together.

Rule # 4 - You can either ask us to do something OR tell us how you want it done - not both.

Rule # 5 - Whenever possible, please say whatever you have to say during commercials or time-outs.

Rule # 6 - Christopher Columbus didn't need directions and neither do we.

Rule # 7 - When we're turning the wheel and the car is nosing onto the off ramp, you saying "Is this is our exit?" is not necessary.

Hacking at the branches of evil

"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root, and it may be that he who bestows the largest amount of time and money on the needy is doing the most by his mode of life to produce that misery which he strives in vain to relieve."

~ Henry David Thoreau

Lives of quiet desperation

"Most men lead lives of quiet desperation
and go to the grave with the song still in them."

~ Henry David Thoreau

Wisdom of Dad

· "Be nice to everyone, because everyone has a hard time."
· "I think the perfect business would be one where you didn't have to deal with people."
· "If you keep your eyes on the sky you will starve."
· "Just let people keep talking, they will usually tell on themselves."
· "People will only change when they have had a significant emotional experience, but even then the change is not always permanent."
· "Poop don't run uphill."
· "Sometimes all you can do is all you can do, and well that's all you can do!"
· "Sometimes you just get tired of Cheeseburgers!"

http://theologyshock.blogspot.com/2007/05/
do-you-want-to-be-healed.html

Isolation and False Fronts

June, 2010 (Web-only) Christianity Today
www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/juneweb-only/32-51.0.html

Learning from the Gores about the Grace of Separation
Why separating can be pro-family.

Earlier this week, Al and Tipper Gore announced to a small circle of close friends via e-mail—and thus to the world—that they are separating after 40 years of a seemingly very happy and successful marriage. . . .

By separating, the couple is making a bold statement. Whether they realize it or not, the announcement of separation does not necessarily say the couple is giving up (that is what divorce would mean). Separation at least leaves room for the possibility of restoration and reconciliation. The couple can enter their time of separation intending to air out the anger and hurt that has built up, then commit to entering individual counseling to work through their problems. . . .

There is another important reason why separation can be a gift to a marriage: It lets the cat out of the bag and gets our community involved. That truth—that one marriage can affect another—is why we are talking about the Gores. It is an important gauge of how much we value marriage when even hardened political reporters are mourning the Gores' news and expressing collective romanticism and hopefulness about what marriage should mean. Even The Washington Post lamented passionately this week, "Please Al and Tipper, don't do this. For our sakes—don't!"

And here we find one of Satan's most potent tools in killing marriages: isolation and false fronts. All of that is smashed to pieces when a couple announces they are seeking separation before divorce. It gives our friends time and space to get into our business. This is profoundly healthy and should come as no surprise—after all, our Trinitarian God is inherently about community, accountability, and investing in one another, while Satan is all about loneliness, abandonment, and shame. Separation can be an opportunity to bring godly counsel and support into the marriage, as it serves to bring the relational infection out into the healing light.

~ Glenn T. Stanton, Director of Family Formation Studies at Focus on the Family and the author of Why Marriage Matters and My Crazy, Imperfect Christian Family (both NavPress).

The utmost compassion for sinners

"No one is of the Spirit of Christ but he that has the utmost compassion for sinners. Nor is there any greater sign of your own perfection than you find yourself all love and compassion toward them that are very weak and defective. And on the other hand, you have never less reason to be pleased with yourself than when you find yourself most angry and offended at the behavior of others."

~ William Law, an eighteenth-century Anglican

Understanding the evil in your own heart

"The person who understands the evil in his own heart is the only person who is useful, fruitful and solid in his beliefs and obedience. Others only delude themselves and thus upset families, churches and all other relationships. In their self-pride and judgment of others, they show great inconsistency."

~ John Owen, one of the great Puritan scholars