There is a difference between saying something and meaning what we say. Some people preach water while on the other hand, they drink wine. This is a perfect description of the American people as Eck has portrayed in this article. In the article, she has given a succinct revelation of the extent to which education in America has influenced the Americans’ faith and the level of their religious knowledge.
Though the majority of Americans have a Christian background, it is quite a shock to discover that a very big percent of these same Christians by identification don’t give much of a hoot about how much they know of and practice their so-called religion. Fundamentally Americans are a religious lot. Freedom of worship is even recognized in the constitution, the bigger majority proclaim belief in Christianity and even many organizations are very generous in helping the less fortunate though it is a small contributor, in this case, unfortunately, there are some instances where one can be forgiven for asking what we the Americans believe in. do we believe in Christianity as portrayed by Jesus or do we practice our version of it? Most of these glaring differences can be attributed to the dynamic nature of the American culture, which has adversely affected the level of dedication to the fundamentals of Christianity as compared to other developed nations.
According to Eck, her concern is that a small percentage of Americans know about the bible partially (75%). They suppose that only those who help themselves are the ones helped by God. Out of four Americans, three believe that the “uber-American idea,” said by Ben Franklin originates from the bible. Eck believes America is in contradiction, it is seen as a Christian country amongst the developed countries but behavior-wise it does not match this title, three-quarters of Americans assert that they call upon GOD every day, and 33% claim to be going to church weekly.
Christian America cannot claim to be helping the poor when it was ranked the second last in the developed countries in overseas aid. America, which is a Christian country is below par concerning activities to which Jesus gave priority. America has violated the sixth commandment of God by carrying out executions; it also has the highest rates of manslaughter; about a quadruple in comparison to those in European nations, though America is a Christian country, separation is high yet, Jesus spoke against divorce, and teenage pregnancies are a common scenario in America. These are some facts that do not tally with the Christian ideals. This means that this nation is hypocritical, it is not a Christian nation after all, in sprawling megachurches they preach on the needs of humans, they aim to “service individual seekers” the outcome of this is; soft-focus, relaxed, housing faith. According to the New York Times, “a visit to one of the booming megachurch found a typical scene: crispy crème doughnuts at every service, and sermons about how to discipline your children and how to reduce your debt”, “Sundays children played with the church –distributed boxes, and many congregants had signed up for twice-weekly aerobics class called firm believers”.
Eck feels uncomfortable because: before people, Christians do not talk about what Jesus told them to do, for example loving your neighbor as yourself, but would rather keep quiet because they feel that what Jesus said should be restricted to the house of worship and Christian magazines because America is connected to Christianity these apply to them also, Eck stated, Jesus included things like; “potent political, cultural, social question” it is believed that Alabama that has 90% calling themselves Christians voted for Riley who increased taxes and the poor paid six times more than their rich counterparts. It was said by Riley that Alabama is, “first in bad things but last in good things” yet Christians were the majority in shooting his bill down, for instance, John Giles, the head of Christian coalition of Alabama said, “the majority of Alabamans have a charitable heart but don’t want it coming out of their pockets.” In Colorado, for instance, one jury read the bible before sentencing a murderer to death, yet he was a Christian, this means he had scanty information on the bible because he used old and forgot the new testament version concerning the death sentence. Elders in churches are debating about gay priests, same-sex marriages.
Congregations fear confessing to others their commitment to Jesus but feel free when talking about sociology issues and state affairs. The church has been invaded by rich men who want to change the teachings of Jesus. They have assisted Americans to wrought idols for themselves and being a country of terror. If Americans starve for unselfish love and are helped to love themselves they will continue starving, seldom starving people always return for more of the same. According to Jesus, the neighbor you are required to love is the; poor, sick person, naked person, and hungry person. Jesus compares wealthy people who want to go to heaven to a camel passing through the eye of a needle. The wealthy people Jesus talked about in the bible are those who cannot give up their worldly possessions to help the poor and instead serve God wholeheartedly. This is the comparison to the reaction of the rich Alabamans when the tax bill was brought up, the state’s rich people opposed the tax bill.
Also on the Christian coalition website some Christians, whose views sentiments may be shared by many others, reasoned that taxing wealthy people extremely “results in punishing success.” This is contrary to the main reason behind taxation, which is to collect money from everyone on the basis of their earnings to make better lives for everyone. Eck also observes that the way America behaves is compared to how Christians behave Because America is full of Christians, the figure is estimated to be nearly 85%.
According to Eck, the media “has found a way of making each of the Americans complicit in the travesty of co-opting with the teachings of Jesus Christ”, welcoming them to undermine the place of worship as they celebrate together, the media has assisted Americans to create calves of gold for themselves and through that America is a terrifying nation.
If employers and students are allowed to state their religious identities at work and school, especially Christians, it will help root out a compromise with sin and hypocrisy, especially if the so-called Christians will stand by the word of God and defend it. Remember Jesus said whoever confesses me before men him will I confess before my father and whoever denies me before men him will I deny before my father. This is because today in America most people do not feel free to state their Christian religious affiliation. The more we do not identify openly with our faith, the more we drift away from its teachings and practices.
It is clear that Eck argues that the gospel has become too radical for any society and that it clashes with all our present desires as it demands that we move away from selfishness. Looking back at the reception of the bible it is pretty clear that the gospel was unwelcome news to a lot of people. This is because some of its demands require selflessness, perseverance, empathy, qualities that most people do not identify with and would rather live without.
The writer further argues that it looks hard imagining a con more audacious than making Jesus Christ the frontman in an attempt to cut taxes for the rich or another pressing issue. There is also increasing argument in most religious institutions whereby the clergy spends most of its time arguing on issues that do not sound appealing for example some churches supporting civil rights but meanwhile opposed the war in Vietnam in addition to endless arguments about same-sex unions.
Eck has brought to the fore to many people the most fundamental teachings of Christianity and how through the years these teachings have been forgotten. She has raised some insightful questions on what a Christian should strive to do to be able to freely confess Christianity as his or her religion.
References
“Afraid of ourselves” by Diana L.Eck