Free eBook: Navigating Trials in the New America

By Published on January 13, 2016

The church in America is slowly awakening from the distortion of 350 years of dominance and prosperity. Until recently, being a Christian in America has been viewed as normal, good, patriotic, culturally acceptable, even beneficial. By and large, being a Christian has generally resulted in things going well for you. At least this has been true for what used to be called the WASPs — white Anglo-Saxon Protestants. But also for others in greater or lesser degrees.

Being dominant culturally and prosperous materially, Christians have come to feel at home — this is “our land” and “our culture” — and the assumption is that it will go well for us here. We enjoy being well thought of, and we expect things to go well. In such a framework, poverty, sickness, suffering, and death are the worst things that can happen, and there isn’t anything much worse.

We expect that this Christian land will be wealthy, and that we will be wealthy and healthy — or at least have a shot at it. Those of us in the white, middle-class mainstream expect life to be comfortable, upbeat, and success-oriented. And we’ve developed a form of Christianity to support those ingrained expectations. To be a Christian is to be accepted. To be a Christian is to be comfortable. To be a Christian is to be secure and to be accepted, maybe even admired. That form of Christianity has focused mainly on how we feel and whether our felt needs are getting met.

 

Read the article “Free eBook: Navigating Trials in the New America” on desiringgod.org.

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