“He said, ‘The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.’” – Luke 9:22
In their 2005 book entitled Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, sociologists Christian Smith and Melinda Denton described the beliefs of most American youths with the term Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD).
The basic tenets of this belief system can be summarized as follows: There is a God. He wants us to be nice to each other. He is out there, somewhere, and when we need something, we can pray to Him (sort of like a genie). The purpose of this life is to be happy, and if we are basically good people, then we will go to heaven when we die.
These days it seems that the vast majority of Americans who call themselves Christians are actually Moralistic Therapeutic Deists in practice. You see, MTD is easy, and Christianity is not. MTD feels good, and Christianity often does not. That is because Christianity requires true love, and MTD does not.
Indeed, the Christian God is far more loving – and thus far more dangerous – than the Moralistic Therapeutic deity. In the person of Jesus, the Christian God descended directly into our human misery. He came, not just to make us happy, but also to make us holy and fully alive (John 10:10). He told us that this process would not be easy, because the “road to life is narrow” (Matthew 7:14). He was not satisfied with His followers just being nice; He commanded us to love one another, because in order to share in His life we must first share in His suffering.
Pope Francis often reminds us of the necessity of the Cross in the Christian life. During a homily in 2014 the Holy Father said: “Sin is so ugly, but God’s love is so great that He saves us in this way: with this identity in the Cross. You can’t understand Jesus Christ the Redeemer without the Cross: you can’t understand!” Indeed, we do not know the Savior if we are unfamiliar with His Cross.
Thus, there is no salvation – and no love – in Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, because it avoids any kind of encounter with the Cross. However, the true Christian faith allows us to share in God’s love. How great a grace, if only we had the eyes to see it! It brings us true happiness, true life, and true freedom. The Lord is not a genie who simply grants our wishes; He is the God who made us and loves us enough to let us share in His suffering and in His glory.
Merciful God, give us the strength to share in your suffering so that we may share more deeply in your abiding love. Amen.
