第42节：SUMMER夏(11)

　　If we go deeper, we can see that a lot of Christians are actually
not “Christian.” That is when other people are starting to have a problem
with Christians ’ hypocritical behavior. “So many people in America
call themselves Christians is that lots of them have redefined what being
a Christian means … they have lowered the standard …. ”(Neff 138)

　　“Religion is one of the most pervasive but least understood forces
in American life” (Meacham 16). Most American teens are“ Moralistic
Therapeutic Deists” (Beaty 37) today; they believe that there is a benevolent
God who can help with their personal problems. People are actually“into
spirituality, not religion. ” What is spiritual? It is practical and
personal, to fit better in this world, to live a better life. People keep
asking me why I am an atheist, when I ask them back:“Why are you a Christian?”
they sometimes answer:“Because I want to heaven but not hell.” In a
study released in 2007, people found out that the born-again Christians’
life-style activities over the last thirty days are likely gambling, visiting
a pornographic website, taking something that did not belong to them.
There was just no difference between Christians and non-Christians (Kinnaman
42).

　　At the same time, 30% of born-again Christians admitted to having
inappropriate sexual behavior in the past thirty days, compared with 35%
of other Americans (Kinnaman 47). All in all, what Christians do doesn’
t measure their standards. 37% people think a right life style is the
priority of Christianity; only 23% people think the priority is the relationship
with God (Kinnaman 50). Even thinking like this, Christians do not obey
the discipline that much. Christianity is more than that. As Allport and
his Harvard colleague J. Michael Ross said in “Personal Religious Orientation
and Prejudice.” :“ Irregular and infrequent [church] attenders, on the
other hand, found religion to be a useful tool in gaining friends and
influence; it was not something integral to their personal lives. Frequently
it offered them both a defense against existential anxiety and solace,
a way of gaining security and social opportunities” (Lewy 102). It is
spirituality, not Christianity. It’s the fruit, but not the seed. The
emphasis becomes human-centered rather than God-centered. Many people
become Christians not because they feel “God ’s calling ” but because
they think becoming Christians can make them feel better, can make them
into better people.

　　　　　　　　　　　

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