108 - Self-Serving Redemptionism: A Jewish-Christian Lament

Self-Serving Redemptionism: A Jewish-Christian Lament
By Murray Joseph Haar

As a Jewish-Lutheran Christian theologian, I occupy a rather eccentric space within the community of the church. Yet, having now

sat within the church, at leeast its Lutheran version, for the last twenty-one years, I beg for a hearing among my fellow theologians. I have observed a sickness within the American church, and I want to know if my observations are correct or eccentric. As a convert to the Christian tradition, I bring my lament to this community and ask for a response. The sickness within the American Church appears to be rampant, and I have labeled it: self-serving redemptionism.

The symptoms of this illness sound like this: "Jesus died for my sins"; "His pain, my gain"; "He died to set us free"; "Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away my sins"; "I have decided to accept Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior." With words like these, many American Christians proclaim and define their faith in the efficacy of Jesus' death on their behalf. I contend that these words of faith indicate precisely the nature of the sickness at the heart of American Christianity.

My thesis is simple: Much of American Christianity suffers from a rampant, individualistic, self-serving redemptionism. Self-serving redemptionism is marked by a certain faith that (1) God is alive and present in Jesus Christ to benefit "me," (2) God wanted Jesus to die in order to benefit "me," and (3) 1 am a Christian because I find that it benefits "me. "

When people "witness" to why they are Christian, they say that it is to their benefit to be Christian. They say that believing in Jesus gives them a "blessed assurance" of eternal life. They confess that the forgiveness of

Murray Joseph Haar is Associate Professor of Religion at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He has published a number of articles on God, suffering, and evil, especially as these issues relate to the holocaust. He is currently completing a book titled Rethinking the Biblical God After Auschwitz.

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their sins through the death of Jesus gives them great comfort. They say that they go to church because the Church "meets their spiritual needs."

These people are unselfconscious about their view of the spiritual life. This is their religion. This is the Christianity being presented to them in most Christian churches on most Sunday mornings. Many clergy increasingly treat their parishioners as religious consumers with varied spiritual needs, and American churches are busy meeting people's needs, giving people choices, and, what is most ominous, selling a "Jesus" that plays to individualistic and consurneristic "needs."

The Jesus of American Christian churches has become a product to be marketed and made palatable to the masses, a bargain for wise shoppers to latch onto for religious security. Sermons rarely call Christians to a discipleship of self-sacrifice or to a radical reassessment of the way Americans live their lives. Indeed, many sermons have become "sit-com" homilies. On the surface, all seems well in such sermons. They seem to deal with the problems of "the text," contain many humorous stories, and appear willing to engage the difficult questions of faith. But they really do not. There is no need to worry. Like any television sit-com, all problems are resolved within twenty minutes. Having reassured the flock that all the dilemmas of the text and of life itself are going to work out just fine,

"My thesis is simple: Much of American Christianity suffers

from a rampant, individualistic, self-serving redemptionism.

the minister sends the people on their way with their personal Jesus, one who is always with them and who is committed exclusively to their individual spiritual happiness and welfare. The Jesus of the "sit-com" sermon makes promises, not necessarily biblical in origin, to meet all their needs. This Jesus gives you "peace in your heart...... a strong self-image," " empowerment," "health, wealth and happiness," "relief from pain and suffering," and, most important, "personal salvation."

Behind all this smarmy-spiritual consumeristic prattle lies the assertion that God came in Jesus to benefit "you." He died "for you." He is here "for you." He forgives "you." He loves "you." He wants "you" to decide to accept him as "your" personal saviour. All this emphasis on "you" sells well in a culture willing to purchase anything that offers more comfort and less pain.

Self-serving redemptionism is rampant because it works. It sells well. It creates a Jesus in our own image. The Jesus we now have is a cross between Mr. Rogers and Captain Kangaroo. This Jesus loves you and is out to affirm you "as you are." Redemption has become self-serving because it fits American notions of what it means to be happy. Selfserving redemptionism is marketable. Traditional, confessional, doctrinal and denominational commitments clearly are not. Some present day

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peddlers of self-serving redemptionism even advise pastors to drop denominational nametags from their respective churches since they "put people off." A person who is shopping for a church, one who probably grew up Methodist and has tried the Presbyterians, may be puzzled by Hope "Lutheran" Church. The hucksters say, "better not to confuse the spiritual consumer." Pastors are told that, if they want the Church to survive into the twenty-first century they will have to drop the traditional denominational designations. After all, they are told, it's "Jesus" we are selling, not the church. Following this advice results not merely in watering down Jesus but in drowning him completely and creating a new American Jesus eager to meet every consumer's spiritual needs.

But why? style='mso-spacerun:yes'>  What was wrong with the old Jesus? Why did we go to all the trouble of creating this marketable messiah? The old Jesus was too disturbing to the way many American Christians wanted to live and manage their lives. The Jesus of biblical narrative rarely told people he loved them. The Jesus of the Gospels was constantly in conflict with "religious" people who were sure that they were right and he was wrong. That Jesus spoke of redemption as forgiveness and of a radical change that freed people to serve one another, not themselves. The Jesus of the Gospels called into question people constantly in pursuit of their own happiness and pleasure. That Jesus did not promise that following him meant an escape from pain and suffering. Quite to the contrary! That Jesus said those who followed him had to prepare for the sacrifice and chaos of standing with those in pain.

The Jesus of the biblical narratives did not come to meet people's spiritual needs. He came to free people to serve God. Redemption meant you had been freed to quit worrying about yourself. If people were forgiven bv God, they no longer had to worry about whether God loved them. They were now free to emulate God's love for the stranger. A person who believed that death was not the end but the opening to eternal life was freed from constant obsession about dying. Freed from such spiritual self-absorption, the believer was now redeemed and, thereby, freed to stand with the neighbor in pain. The death of Jesus did not take place so that believers could feel more comfortable. The death of Jesus was an absurd tragedy, which pointed to the pain and victimization of God. Christians are marked not so much by the cross as the resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus declares that the cross will not have the last word. Indeed, the life, teachings, and resurrection of Jesus mark all believers and propel them to stand with those in pain and to do what they can to ease the suffering of others.

What was wrong with this Jesus? First of all, he was not interested in making people happy. He never promised that believing in him would bring believers peace, wealth, joy, happiness, and prosperity. This Jesus would obviously not sell. The personal Jesus that "meets all your needs" sells well, very well.

Alas, a problem has developed. This smiling Jesus has become boring! The weekly friendly reassuring pastor who proclaims the loving overly

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gracious Jesus no longer excites. The Jesus of the hymns is too syrupy. Sermons seem to lack something. Spiritual consumers, who love novelty, are bored.

So, some churches have tried to jazz things up. They have no intention of bringing back the Jesus that threatens. They think that perhaps new liturgical rites will draw in buyers, especially young ones. And they are right. Contemporary liturgies do appeal. They meet people's needs. They bring the faith up to date. They are entertaining. More people come to church. But the new liturgies, like the ones they replaced, are still busy selling an American Jesus. And this Jesus never threatens the status quo.

My observations, as a stranger to the church, are that most Christians are nice people, but as Christian spiritual consumers they seem to be inevitably caught in the American individualistic cultural consumeristic web. They want to go to church, to enjoy the benefits of God's grace and live as Christians, but, at the same time they want to run to the mall and stand at the consumer "trough" consuming all they can at the latest sales. The church does not dare to question this contradiction.

“Alas, a problem has developed. This smiling Jesus has become boring!”

There are always new devices being developed to try to coax the reluctant consumer to stop at this rather than that religious store. Assorted choirs, support groups of every ilk, a multitude of worship styles intended to satisfy any sort of spiritual desire, physical comforts from assorted donut balls and cakes offered between services to encourage "fellowship" to "Reformation Runs" and Synod-sponsored golf and bowling tournaments, and, more recently, mega-churches with all sorts of comfort inducements; anything will be done to attract the religious consumer and sell the "new," self-serving Jesus.

Maybe it's all my problem! It is said that "converts always sing the loudest" and that the problem with converts is that "they take all that stuff too seriously." It may be true. I confess that becoming a Christian and believing all that stuff about what it meant to be the church may have been my mistake. Perhaps religions were never intended to function in their ideal form. But as a Jew and now a Christian, whose parents went through the Nazi Shoah and who is well aware of the indifference of the church in those days, I cannot help but hope that despite all of the successful marketing of the American Jesus, there is something left in the DNA of the church that will cause it to wake up. I want and need to believe that self-serving redemptionism is doomed to fail, that it will fail because, ultimately, it is a lie. Eventually, American Christians will discover that they have been sold a Jesus who does not tell the truth. People will find out that believing in Jesus is not about what they get but about being freed to forget about getting. They will come to listen to Jesus

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because he speaks the truth about the way life really works. People will discover anew that the point of life is not to be happy but to be honest.

But I may be wrong. It may not happen that way at all. If people hear there is a Jesus out to change them at the core, they may not want to listen. They may simply leave the church to find another avenue to personal comfort and happiness and, then, another and still another. Being honest with themselves and others requires a degree of selfawareness, for which there seems no marketplace in these times, neither in homes, nor schools, nor churches. And yet this convert will go to his death hoping against hope that his conversion was not a mistake and that the God who redeems all humans to stand with their neighbors in pain is realized in the life of the church.