USAmerican Evangelicalism: Ritalin* for the Soul
Mar 23rd, 2009 by John
ScienceDaily (Dec. 17, 2006) — Social stigma and feeling lifeless and/or alienated from one’s peers are some of the reasons why children and adolescents stop taking prescription stimulant medications used to treat attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to a new study published in the Journal for Specialists in Pediatric Nursing.
“Social stigma” has produced the ’secret service’ Christian…no one knows but God.
“Feeling lifeless” has produced the stimulate me on Sunday morning Christian. That’s the church’s job.
“Alienated from peers” has produced the tribal units–Calvinists don’t like open theists, KJVers don’t like TNIVers, Vineyard experiencers shy away from the dogma-driven, “feed me, feed me” whiners populate most pews and a myriad of other ghetto Christian groups exist in blissful isolation from the others.
Aaah, popular USAmerican evangelicalism. Ritalin* for the soul. No one gets too excited about the faith. No fanatics allowed. The term “extreme” must never be used of Jesus-followers, especially those dwelling in suburbs. The closest anyone gets to “fire in the belly” is a glass of warm milk at bed-time.
Evangelicalism in America is a “market” or an entertainment industry. God and Jesus and the Bible are products and worship services are shows. If I’m in the market for a solemn, sacred spirituality, I can go to the Episcopal service. If I’m shopping for the latest feel good, spiritual high, I can buy a ticket to the charismatic service. If I just want “the facts, M’am, just the facts,” I can go to a good Bible-teaching church. If I want Starbucks and brie, I can go to the emerging church. Get it? Isn’t it great to be an American Christian? But it’s all Ritalin* for the soul. Just keep calm.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer explored “religionless Christianity;” popular USAmerican evangelicalism exports passionless Christianity. “Balance” is the mantra of the bored masses. We must live a “balanced” life. As if. Balance is just a code word for bland. Bland is beautiful. Bland doesn’t rock the boat. Bland can sing about “the blood,” but can’t or won’t shed a drop for another person. Bland likes to baaaaa like sheep.
Balanced, bland lives don’t get crucified; they get homogenized and are remarkably self-absorbed…”Am I balanced? Am I balanced?” Balanced, bland lives are always looking for the boundary lines–can’t get out of step with the herd. What are the rules? Am I keeping them?
The authentic individual zealous for God is an embarrassment to the balanced ones. I know, conformity to the world is absolutely taboo to the balanced ones. Yet, unquestioning conformity to their sheer balanced boredom is deemed really wise. Go figure.
Young people fleeing evangelicalism’s ”balanced” life like rats fleeing a sinking ship are considered misguided at best and rebellious at worst. But what if these youth have gotten in touch with the unbalanced Jesus of the Gospels and want to follow him even if it costs their lives? What if they have caught just a glimpse of the Jesus Who never heard of Ritalin*? These youth aren’t drinking the kool-aid of nice, conformist evangelicalism.
A whole generation of USAmerican young people are seeking and finding and following a first century Jew named Jesus. They are discovering that this Second Temple Judaism prophet whose words and ways whipped his culture into a frenzy is breathtakingly magnetic. Jesus offers a life like no one else or nothing else offers. The backwoods nobody from Nazareth is a man on fire, a dynamo of love and truth, a grenade with its pin pulled. The last thing Jesus was, was balanced. God is Jesus, walking and talking, teaching and healing, provoking and troubling. They didn’t have Ritalin* to deal with Jesus. They did, however, have a cross.
A whole generation of USAmerican young leaders are bearing the scorn of the boring wise ones, bearing the label “heretics” because they dare to be obedient to Jesus, bearing the rejection of those whose minds are petrified by a theology of the 1500s. These young leaders rather not mindlessly spout the blandness of the current, popular evangelical party line. There’s no fire in it. It’s cool…really cool, and it’s brought the USAmerican evangelical church to its weakest place in its brief history.
Ritalin* is one of many stimulants prescribed to help those who are diagnosed as ADD, ADHD, etc. With this post I do not intend to criticize those who need or use Ritalin or Adderall, etc.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Against balance…
Wow. John Frye has a post up that rails against the “blandness” of most American evangelicalism. It is simultaneously frustrating and inspiring. Here’s a snippet: “Balance” is the mantra of the bored masses. We must live a “balanced” life. A…
Thanks!
walking on that balance beam is precarious but if the chucrh does not soon learn that it is the truth that matters, we’ll all be listening to Oprah Winfrey.
Ben,
Thanks for the affirming words and for linking the post. God bless you.
Rich,
Off the balance beam and into the fray—that’s where Jesus was.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Everything you say here is true… but none of it is helpful. Do you have any thoughts on what people ought to be doing instead of being “bland”? You talk as one who has not lost his savor like the others… so what’s the secret?
I can tell you what it’s not. The secret to becoming savory-salt-to-the-unbelieving-world is surely not wearing the word “radical” like a badge. That’s just revving the engine. It doesn’t get us anywhere.
I don’t mean to sound hopeless, because I think a true, New Testament style church is possible, and I think it is well within our grasp to live radically for Christ. The problem comes when we stop with just the term. No amount of fist-shaking and buzz-word-toting is going to help people break out of the consumer mindset endorsed and perpetuated by much of the modern church. Living all-out for God means regularly delving deeply into his word, establishing a close and others-centered prayer life, being involved with Christian fellowship daily (yes, daily), sharing the good news of the Cross with people who don’t know about it, aiding in the maturing process of younger believers, and allowing our walks with God to determine the course of our lives, among many other things. It takes a great deal of time and prayer, friendship-building and one-one-one training to help people bring about this level of spiritual growth. However difficult it may be, this is the task Jesus gave us, so we can count on his help.
My point is that simply rattling the cage without giving some direction is not helpful. This kind of approach leads more often to defeat and defensiveness than to motivation. And even if it did motivate a Sunday Christian to get off his duff, he probably wouldn’t know what to do once he’s on his feet. I strongly sympathize with your point of view and I completely agree with all of your criticisms, but your approach to the issue is liable to do more harm than good. We’ve been hearing it for years.
Brad,
Apparently you think all I do is write blog posts. Wrong assumption.
John
John,
I wasn’t saying that this is all you do. Certainly, that would be pretty bad if that were the case. I’m saying that launching content free criticisms of the church does more harm than good. I don’t know what you communicate with the rest of your life; my point is that what your blog post is communicating is an overly simplistic model of reform. When I said that calling for people to be radical and stopping there is wrongheaded, I had no intention of saying that’s what you do with your life. It’s just what you did in your post.
Brad
Brad,
Oh, I get it…you want me to be more balanced.
If it’s true that the most significant learning takes place only after we are thoroughly confused, then there is a place to “to wear the radical badge” and stir the pot. If people don’t stop and think about the blandness they are accepting as an expression of following the radical Christ, then we are doomed. I think it is very appropriate to offer stringent criticisms of the entrenched status quo. Perhaps out of the mess some ways out will the mess will emerge.
I clip boarded this post into a document, printed it out, and shared it with a couple of men that I meet regularly with in a very intimate study/prayer group. In my opinion, neither is a ‘balanced pew-sitter’. They are very active in the Kingdom of Christ. I wanted to hear their thoughts. The consensus kind of agrees with Brad, and your final sentence in #8 – it’s an overstated generalization meant to provide some shock-value to a sleeping church. However, Brad’s question seems quite legitimate: What happens if/when they awaken? Where is the leadership?
You are the Pastor of a church, and from following your blog, you must be effectively serving to awaken and LEAD you congregation into something more vital … something more missional (adjective, not noun). You must know what a difficult task it is to fit new lenses into such a culturally entrenched paradigm. It takes more than a wake-up call; it takes patient and innovative leadership that LEADS. I don’t see much of it around. As you stated, most of the leaders in this area aren’t recognized by the traditional mainline churches. They are walking away because they are frustrated with the system – “This can’t be what Jesus called us to.” And it isn’t just young people. I attended a Neil Cole conference here last year promoting the missional disciple-making model presented in his ‘Search & Rescue’ book. I was surprised to see so many boomers in the room. A number were former mainline church leaders themselves, looking for a more authentic way to reach those who Jesus misses most.
The Spirit is doing something in His Church – it’s still the only entity called of God to make disciples. I am interested in your approach – as Pastor, how are you addressing the Ritalin issue in your congregation?
Ken,
Because I shepherd a smaller church (60+/-) with a widespread demographic in age—young single adults to folks in their 70s/80s, I face a missional challenge. Yet, at the same time I am glad to report that we are making a redemptive presence felt in our community.
The challenge, of course, is to assess all that we do in terms of missional intent and impact. Having come from a larger church, I confess that turning a large church toward community transformation is a bigger challenge. As Leonard Sweet pictures it: you’re reconstructing the ship while it’s at sea! My present church has a vibrant, outreach spirit and we brainstorm ways we can “be Jesus” in our community. Particularity is key–we are in our specific context. The task is asking the Father what is He up to with these particular people in this particular community with our particular set of strengths and weaknesses. I don’t think mass-marketed missional scripts are available or even desirable.
Ken,
PS I often write as a mentoring voice to young leaders. I want them to know that I am “with them” and “for them.”
Are there not those who have earned the title, “heretic” or “apostate”? Are there not those who boldly proclaim the Word of God as a book of questions rather than answers? Man’s opinion trumps the Word of God, which is subsequently shelved. It is not the Jesus of the Bible that is being “followed”, but an invention of man. Wake up, John.
I Thessalonians 2:13 For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.
John,
I both agree and disagree. Agree that bourgeois Christianity is a contradiction in terms. Disagree in the sense that I think many people will misinterpret what is meant by a radical Christianity. For too many years I thought this meant a life separated from the world in all the wrong ways, and I believe I’m not alone in that misconception. It seems counter-intuitive, but I have discovered that the more closely I follow Christ, the more authentically human I become, the more I relate to my non-Christian neighbors, the less I put stock in an evangelicalism that has become a plastic culture unto itself, which encourages people to expect too much from following Jesus and from what churches can give in terms of our human notions of “victory” and “fulfillment”. Radical Christianity is a hidden thing, the seed that dies in the earth and produces fruit, the person who quietly loves his neighbor and washes his brother’s feet. However, when people hear legitimate critiques of nominalism and “blandness,” as you’ve described, they often envision a kind of triumphalism that is anything but Jesus-shaped.
I have read you enough to know that this is not what you mean at all; nevertheless too many may interpret in this direction.
Chaplain Mike,
Thanks for the affirmation and push-back. I think it’s true that when bland Christians read “radical” they tend to think violent or extremely coercive. The term radical has a root meaning of “root,” going to the core of the matter. Jesus was radical–taking us to the root of authnetic human life. I don’t mean violent or ghetto-minded. What I mean is Christians living the Jesus Way communally so that they are viewed as an alternative society, an outpost of the future, to the mess we’re in as a human race. Bland means, as Barna points out, that there is *no difference* in values and lifestyle between USAmerican evangelicals and the prevailing culture. How we can pass this bland living off as authentic Jesus-following is perhaps the most dangerous deception.
John,
On this last point, I fully agree with you, and with Barna. I do think that there is a monolithic acceptance of sub-biblical Christianity in the American church. We should approach it as a pastoral issue, never giving people the impression that they need to simply pick themselves up by their bootstraps, as I was saying before. But certainly, it needs to be addressed. If someone is really sold-out for the Lord, then his life will look significantly different than his neighbors’. This must be so if we are willing to admit that we live in a hyper-individualistic, hyper-materialistic culture. And American culture is nothing if not autonomous and greedy.
Thanks for this. Very thoughtful.
Best, Matt Dowling
[...] John Frye goes on the edge: USAmerican Evangelicalism: Ritalin* for the Soul [...]
John,
I work in the valley of the shadow of death. I’m responsible for this group of people, but they’re all dying. There’s no hope that these people will walk again or live in their own homes or learn new skills. They’re just waiting to die, and they say to me, “Please, get me out of here.” But I can’t save any of them. And I hurt all the time.
These days, I beg Jesus to show me resurrection. I want to experience resurrection. But I also think that I’ll never set foot in a church service again. Maybe church services mean something to some people, but none of it makes sense to me anymore.
John- Way to go dude. Pick a fight! Bring it! Love the dialog this topic is generating. I am with you (for once)… My role model is Mother Theresa who was called to “enter the dark holes of the poor and to bring the light of God’s love to every corner of the world.” As I read the daily news I see mug shots of people that I love. People that have shared their stories with me. Have eaten with me. Have comforted me. Balance and safety is not our calling. At least not mine. Christians who refuse to risk, to speak out, to live in courage, to connect in genuine, long-term relationships in redemptive mission are missing out on “touching Jesus.”
John
You have stirred some people up, usually a good thing. I listened to Instead of a show by Jon Foreman last night and thought if you had not heard it, worth mentioning here. Here are first few lines.
I hate all your show and pretense
the hypocrisy of your praise
the hypocrisy of your festivals
I hate all your show
Away with your noisy worship
Away with your noisy hymns
I stop up my ears when your
singing ‘em
I hate all your show
Instead let there be a flood
of justice
An endless procession of righteous
living, living
Instead let there be a flood
of justice
Instead of a show
Let me make a few comments about balance. As one in charge of member care and trying to survive in cross-cultural ministry, I preach balance. I see too much drivenness in ministry and after awhile, how easily we forget why and sometimes even what we are supposed to be doing. Of course, I am not preaching complacency. Whatever God has called us to do, we should do it with a faith and passion that is spirit empowered. Seeking to achieve a rhythm and balance in my life is a constant challenge–in doing so, I seek to remember that this is not about me but Jesus. There is some growth but I have a long way to go on this journey and need others to walk with me. Thanks
Sorry, one more, your reference to tribal units–have you read Tribal Leadership? A great read on discerning where one’s organization is and what is important to the individuals and to the culture within. Last one, I promise
[...] Posted by ruach on April 6, 2009 Here is a link to some fine writing by John over at Jesus the radical preacher on the ritalinization of the evangelical church… [...]