ken wilson online

We did a “man on the street” video interview thing in downtown Ann Arbor. Just wandered around with a video camera asking people if they would mind sharing their perspectives on faith in America. What, in particular, did they think of American Christianity? Most people were eager to say, and what they had to say was, well, damning. A hard word. Tempted to soften it. Who wants to hear that about one’s faith? Not many of us.

Ah, so you’re interested! That’s good because the business writer, Jim Collins says that the companies make the shift from good to great are the ones who “confront the brutal facts” of their marketplace. The brutal facts of our marketplace–the marketplace of ideas, of spiritualities, of purportedly divine pathways–are not easy to face.

People on the outside of faith looking in, at least in my hometown, don’t like what they see. They view American Christianity as something other than a force for good in their world: bigoted, close minded, turned in on itself, not willing to wield its power for the greater good, and on and on and on.

Who wants to hear that? It gets your amygdala firing–that reptile part of the brain that is ever alert for external threats and responding, reacting with fear and alarm, fight and flight.

I was in a room with a group of men and women who are leaders within the evangelical American Christian landscape. I was reporting some of these things, saying, have we faced the brutal facts? Twenty years ago, people on the outside of faith looking in, often looked in with longing–wishing they too could believe, thinking that perhaps they weren’t good enough for God. But now they look in, many of them do, and see little that attracts them.

Those who bear the message of the gospel are like batters who wake up in the batter’s box with two strikes already against them. Two strikes, no balls.

What’s happened? There’s been a trademark infringement on the Jesus brand, that’s what’s happened. The people with the biggest mailing lists, and the biggest media megaphones are defining the brand in ways that aren’t winsome. American Christianity has learned to play political hardball, has gained enormous political power, which is exercised on behalf of one or two or three issues. We’re the ones who want to crack down on immigration. We’re the ones who think climate change is a bunch of bunk. Somehow by virtue of our religious orientation, we have an inside track on science and we know better than all these scientists that they are selling and being sold a bill of goods. (We who were on the forefront of raising the alarms about Y2K being the end of the world. Oh! the irony!) We’re the ones easy to convince about the need to go to war to protect our interests. And on and on and on.

Brutal is not a pleasant word. Brutal facts are the ones we’d rather not consider.

But the men and women in that room didn’t dispute this. They nodded their heads in agreement. Not happy agreement. No relish at the thought. A reluctant agreement. A sense of “we know, we know, but what can we do?”

We must calm ourselves. We must not fear. We must not react. We must open our eyes. We must face the facts. Argue with them if we must, but thoughtfully. See if the facts back down: be logical, not merely wishful; be discerning. Then see which facts are still standing. And consider them.

What impressed me about the person on the street interviews: The people on the street cared about the state of American Christianity. They had been thinking about it. They were eager to express themselves. Because they cared.

They were surprised that we were asking. More surprised that we were listening.

Watch the Video.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 6:28 am and is filed under jesus brand spirituality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.