Christianity PLUS: How Syncretistic Are We?

Students of the Old Testament quickly come to realize that the story of God's people, in part, is a story of religious syncretism (the contextualization of theology to the point where it becomes united with or incorporates elements of other religions or systems of belief). Just as God's ancient people often considered the exclusive worship of YHWH as culturally unenlightened and restrictive, choosing therefore to blend their faith with the "benefits" that Canaanite fertility rites and temple prostitution offered -- I wonder to what degree followers of Christ today are promoting a "Christianity PLUS", blending our holy, catholic and apostolic faith with the "benefits" that are now available to us.

- Christianity PLUS moral relativism.
- Christianity PLUS consumerism.
- Christianity PLUS pop-psychology.
- Christianity PLUS neopaganism.
- Christianity PLUS (you_fill_in_the_blank).

What is it that leads us into religious syncretism, anyway? Is it our thirst for truth? I don't think so. More and more I'm thinking that it is our desire to "belong" -- to be like the world around us and enjoying what they enjoy.

In the prophet Hosea's day, Israel feigned loyalty to YHWH while prostituting themselves through Baal worship. Going up to the "high places" in order to have sex with Canaanite temple prostitutes was what "everyone" was doing -- and besides, it was a good business practice for it promised the participant an abundant crop for the coming harvest year -- right?. A syncretistic faith offers us the opportunity to "have our cake and eat it too." The Message Bible seems to pick up on this nuance in it's rendering of Hosea 4:6-19...

My people are ruined
because they don't know what's right or true.
Because you've turned your back on knowledge,
I've turned my back on you priests.
Because you refuse to recognize the revelation of God,
I'm no longer recognizing your children.
The more priests, the more sin.
They traded in their glory for shame.
They pig out on my people's sins.
They can't wait for the latest in evil.
The result: You can't tell the people from the priests,
the priests from the people.
I'm on my way to make them both pay
and take the consequences of the bad lives they've lived.
They'll eat and be as hungry as ever,
have sex and get no satisfaction.
They walked out on me, their God,
for a life of rutting with whores.

"Wine and whiskey
leave my people in a stupor.
They ask questions of a dead tree,
expect answers from a sturdy walking stick.
Drunk on sex, they can't find their way home.
They've replaced their God with their genitals.
They worship on the tops of mountains,
make a picnic out of religion.
Under the oaks and elms on the hills
they stretch out and take it easy.
Before you know it, your daughters are whores
and the wives of your sons are sleeping around.
But I'm not going after your whoring daughters
or the adulterous wives of your sons.
It's the men who pick up the whores that I'm after,
the men who worship at the holy whorehouses—
a stupid people, ruined by whores!

"You've ruined your own life, Israel—
but don't drag Judah down with you!
Don't go to the sex shrine at Gilgal,
don't go to that sin city Bethel,
Don't go around saying 'God bless you' and not mean it,
taking God's name in vain.
Israel is stubborn as a mule.
How can God lead him like a lamb to open pasture?
Ephraim is addicted to idols.
Let him go.
When the beer runs out,
it's sex, sex, and more sex.
Bold and sordid debauchery—
how they love it!
The whirlwind has them in its clutches.
Their sex-worship leaves them finally impotent.

Is it possible that, ultimately, it is our fleshly base desires which drive our efforts to incorporate "other" beliefs into our faith? Are we merely looking for ways to do whatever-we-damn-well-please and still feel good about ourselves? How syncretistic is Christianity becoming today? Should this be a concern, or are we simply more "enlightened" than the ancient people of God, without the need to worry about such a thing?

Comments

[Benjy (groovythpstr)]

"People can smell the stench rising out of the rot in our doctrine and so they go looking elsewhere.There are many out there that have questioned why doctrine matters at all. This is why."

Dan, this is the main difference between the modern and emerging church. Many of us would strongly disagree with your overemphasis on believing the right things. God's power and Spirit are not linked to correct doctrine. Its about lifestyle.

[DLE]

Benjy wrote:
"Dan, this is the main difference between the modern and emerging church. Many of us would strongly disagree with your overemphasis on believing the right things. God's power and Spirit are not linked to correct doctrine. Its about lifestyle."

The modern church allowed the rot to happen and the emerging church is, in many cases, actually reveling in the rot, particularly when we get stuff like, "It's all about love."

While that may be true, it's also overly simplistic. Doctrine matters. The reason why we have this syncretism problem is largely because we abandoned good doctrine for good feelings. If God says, "Don't!" it is not up to us to try to figure out how we can get around that. If God says, "Do!" it is not up to us to determine whether He means it or not. Doctrine addresses this.

The entire Bible is about believing the right things. The reason Man fell was because we believed the wrong things. God's power and the Spirit are ABSOLUTELY linked to correct doctrine, or are we going to say that the Jehovah's Witnesses are the next wave in the charismatic movement?

But you are right, too, in that it is about lifestyle. But lifestyle is nothing more than putting right beliefs into practice. As a man thinks, so he is. It still starts with the beliefs. Why did Paul so vehemently warn against false teachers? You try to get a church in one accord where half the people are annihilationists and the other half are fire and brimstone and I can tell you that their lifestyles are going to reflect their beliefs and ultimately split the church.

The EC acts sometimes as if the Old Testament ceased to exist the second Jesus opened His mouth. But the word of God so loved by the NT church was the OT! It all fits together.

Now I wrote something recently similar to this idea (it was mostly about inerrancy, but it applies to right doctrine, too.) You can find it at http://www.dedelen.com/2004/07/flawed-love-letter.html and I hope you read the Psalm there--it says everything we need to know.

Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. The reason why have rampant syncretism is because some people decided to embrace a lifestyle contrary to this, and now we have the fallout. If the EC were wise, they'd get their doctrine in order. But I am not holding my breath....

[tammy]

the modern church is syncretistic, just as the postmodern church is. it's just a matter of which parts of our culture we are using for the syncretism. let's not make this a modern/postmodern, or a institutional/emerging, debate. it's so much bigger than that.

[Chris (DesertPastor)]

Benjy, to view doctrine and lifestyle as mutually exclusive would be a huge mistake, I fear. "Living out what we believe" is what Jesus seemed to contend for, over and over again. We need more of a Holy Spirit empowered synthesis of doctrine and lifestyle throughout the entire Church.

[Fernando Dunn II]

Chris: I agree. Seperating the two is like seperating God and God's Word. It kind of reminds me of James telling us that faith and deeds go hand in hand.

I see a bit of a deeper problem. Counterfeits are infiltrating the Church and perverting Christ's purpose. It's mentioned many times in scripture. We're not warned to watch out for wolves, but wolves in sheep clothing.

I hear some christians (notice the lower-case) in my workplace turning Christianity into the occult. Instead of relying solely on the perfected scripture for guidance, humanistic ideas, tall-tales, myths, and speculation has been added. I think the problem is our pride. Instead of conforming to Christ, we seem to try to conform Christ to us.

[Chris (DesertPastor)]

Fernando --

"Instead of relying solely on the perfected scripture for guidance..."

I think this part of your statement has also been a problem within the Church. But then, I'm a die-hard Wesleyan who believes that in addition to scripture, we must also draw from tradition, reason, and experience. Apart from that though, I agree with you that there is a lot of the "blending" you've mentioned going on (e.g. humanistic notions, neo-paganism, etc.).