The SoSA Perspective

Trouble in River City

Have you ever wondered, as I have, whether we should bill ourselves as a “Christian Nation”? I’m not sure we should. In fact I’m sure we shouldn’t, but for reasons that are generally overlooked by people who care about such things.

It strikes me as passing strange that the majority of people who describe this country as “Christian” are evangelical Christians. You would think that group, judging from all their pious carrying on, would know better. But they don’t seem to. When they do get upset about “unchristian” tendencies in our country the target of their ire is almost always sexual. How much skin is showing, who’s doing what with whom, and so on. I suppose those issues are somewhat important, but remedies for sexual misbehavior are best kept to the realm of family and church. As a nation that is trying to be “Christian” we have much bigger fish to fry.

Here’s the thing. We have fundamental problems in trying to be a “Christian Nation”. The church has taught for centuries that there are seven “deadly” sins. These sins, if indulged in regularly, will make any serious spiritual progress very difficult. They are, in no particular order, Greed, Lust, Gluttony, Pride, Sloth, Envy, and Anger. Our economy is parasitically dependent on the science/art of advertising and marketing. Those disciplines strive, not to let us know where we can fulfill our material needs, but to convince us that we can fulfill our spiritual needs with material goods. To do this, they (marketers) regularly appeal to our Greed, Lust, Gluttony, Pride, Sloth and Envy. The only deadly left out is Anger, and any number of right wing talk show hosts take care of that oversight on a discouragingly consistent basis.

So, if your economy depends on violation of you most serious precepts for its ongoing prosperity, how “Christian” can it be? Now there’s an unchristian tendency worth getting upset about.