According to a new survey from the Pew Forum on Religion and
Public Life, one out of every five Americans now claims to have no religious
affiliation.
Now, there’s been a lot of discussion about the study—what
it means, what it doesn’t mean, how accurate it is—but for me, it made me think
about how great it’d be if there was some sort of one-size fits-all,
answer-everything Christian app.
I’m not talking about an app that gives you encouraging
daily Bible verses or walks you through Leviticus or offers you coupons
allowing you to attend your next church service for free. Those are great, but I’m
talking about an app that would act as a spiritual Siri or something—a sort of
all-purpose pastor on call, answering all your immediate spiritual needs.
Say you wanted to know whether it’d be OK to omit your
annoying Uncle Harry from your Thanksgiving Day gathering. The app (should we
call it “Siriel?”) would tell you whether you, as a good Christian, could in
good conscience do such a thing. Or maybe you’d really like to see Paranormal Activity 4 (heaven help you)
but worry that maybe God wouldn’t like you going to horror flicks. Well, Siriel
would tell you whether horror movies would ever be allowed in a Christian’s
entertainment diet—and if so, which ones. (The
Exorcism of Emily Rose might be OK. The Saw
movies, not so much.)
It could be theological: No longer would devout
fundamentalists need argue over pre-millennial vs. post-millennial
interpretations of Revelation. Siriel would render a quick and chipper verdict.
It could be sensitive: Ask it why a good God would allow so much pain in the
world, and it’d have a ready answer. “Are you speaking generally, or are you
referring to your recent breakup with Mindy, that no-good restaurant hostess?”
it might say. It might even offer voting advice.
And, if it noticed that your spiritual life was in some
jeopardy—say it noticed you were walking into a Saw movie with Mindy—it’d set off some sort of officially licensed alarm
to gently usher you back to the path of righteousness. Linda Ronstadt’s “You’re
No Good,” perhaps, or AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell.”
And, if we didn’t like Siriel’s advice—if it felt just a
little too judgmental for our tastes--maybe we could adjust the settings so
that it might go a little easier on you.
An app like that would solve a lot of problems, wouldn’t it?
Wouldn’t it be great if something like that could tell you how to live your
life? We’d never have to think again.
Just as God gave us that pesky sense of free will—giving us
a choice as to whether to follow Him or not—he made the act of following Him
really tricky at times. Jesus told us to love our enemies, but He might not’ve
had Uncle Harry in mind at that very moment. Paul might’ve encouraged us, in
Philippians 4:8, to focus on whatever is pure and virtuous and noble and
whatnot. But he also said in 1 Corinthians 10:23 that everything’s permissible.
So where does that leave Saw?
The thing is, Christianity is hard. It’s not just hard to
act like a Christian (though that’s plenty hard). Sometimes, it’s hard to know
just how a Christian would act. It’s as if God wanted us to struggle at times.
It’s as if he wanted us to think deeply about this stuff.
It’s as if He thought that, grappling with the mysteries of
life might help us draw closer to Him. It’s as if He was really serious that we
should put our trust in Him and that boundless grace and mercy—to follow His
will as best we can but to understand that we won’t get everything always right
… and to know that, sometimes in spite of ourselves, that our lives are still cupped in his loving
hands.
Which, ironically, makes this hard faith of ours quite
simple as well.
But paradox is a hard sell. Any PR agency or focus group
could tell you that. Mystery and wonder and struggle (particularly struggle) won’t
do much to convince those 20 percent of religiously unaffiliated American to
give Christianity a go.
No, what we need is an app.
Or simply try asking?
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