A Utilitarian Jesus

I was recently commiserating with a friend that finding a new church is difficult for so many reasons. I honestly think the most difficult issue is that regardless of what a church claims to believe in it’s “Statement of Faith”, you never know what that culture actually believes. It isn’t so much about what or who people claim Jesus to be or what they affirm about what he did, the problem comes in what people believe Jesus and salvation do. I think many churches offer a very utilitarian Jesus who either enables or gets us to somewhere else. These same can affirm all the right things doctrinally but it becomes evident quickly that their “good news” isn’t Jesus, it’s what he gets us to.

“Prosperity Gospel”

One of the oldest and most pervasive false “gospels” is simply that God wants to make you rich, materially. Yes Jesus died on the cross for your sins and is the Son of God, but what that gets you is health and wealth if you just have enough faith. One of the few things that I find positive about people and churches that tout this “gospel” is that in a way they are more honest than other “gospel” peddlers. The promise is that you can get material wealth and physical health from God, period. Many other “gospels” make you go through other means and steps to get there but with the “Prosperity Gospel” it’s just straightforward, believe and give and you’ll get X. Of course this is merely repackaging the common promise the world makes, give your time, your family, your health, and you’ll get money which will make you secure. In the end the “promise” of the “Prosperity Gospel” fails because what it offers people ultimately is safety and security in the very things the world does and not in God at all, God and Jesus are simply the means to the same ends.

“Fundamentalist’s Gospel”

A prosperity gospel of a different shade is the “Fundamentalist’s Gospel”. For the fundamentalist what is wrong with humanity is an inability to obey God. Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection enable our obedience. What is often not included in that demand for obedience is the promise of health, security, and wealth because of that obedience. This was one of the reasons Bill Gothard was so popular, it wasn’t that people just love obeying rules, it was the promise that “if you do- then God will bless”. Of course, much of the irony around a whole lot of fundamentalism is that the “obedience” demanded isn’t much of a sacrifice for those obeying. It isn’t all that difficult for those who are heterosexual and who grew up in a culture where gender roles were the norm to slide into marriage and family. People who grew up in a dry county don’t typically have a serious problem with alcohol. One of the secrets you learn about fundamentalism is that most of what is “fundamental” are sins that people don’t really struggle with and what is most loudly condemned are things they also don’t struggle with.

But again this “gospel” fails because there is a two-fold oppression. You have people struggling under the weight of their performance and a false promise that doesn’t deliver. People slowly die under the demand that they are never obeying enough and that God is just waiting for a mistake to “correct” and don’t see the “blessing”. The call in every sermon, in every small group, ends up being “obey more” and if you aren’t seeing any “blessing” or “good” it’s your fault for either not doing it right or for not obeying more. Fundamentalism ultimately crushes because no one can live under the weight of a miserable life, an angry God, and a constantly moving target.

“Authoritarian Gospel”

“Just submit”, that is the answer that often accompanies fundamentalism but in authoritarianism it comes in a different flavor. Authoritarians believe the “original sin” of the world is there used to be a hierarchy of authority and obedience. Sin is the rebellion against that hierarchy and Jesus is what enables mankind to return to that hierarchy. Jesus is what enables society to return to what it is “supposed” to be. Again there is a promise that obedience = blessing but the expectation is that obedience and blessing come through submission.

The greatest irony of the “Authoritarian Gospel” is that most of those who preach it themselves do not have to “submit” to anyone. They’ve never been in a position to be even intimidated or coerced so they effectively don’t believe in either coercion or intimidation. Authoritarians will literally tell women and children that they need to submit to abuse because God somehow has ordained it then scream and cry and run away when they are held to any account. Quite frankly the ”Authoritarian Gospel” is “good news” mainly to underqualified and insecure white men.

“The Gospel of Political Ideological Identity” (AKA Ideological Fundamentalism)

This “gospel” takes all the affirmations about who Jesus is and what he did and fashions it as a “correct” belief in a culture war. It isn’t so much that you believe in Jesus but that you believe the “right” things about Jesus. Believing the “right” things about Jesus also leads you to believe the “right” things about numerous culture war issues. You and those who affirm you are predominately self-righteous in the assumption that your tribe and ultimately political party are superior in belief and ideology. The promise of this “gospel” isn’t even that you and your tribe will prosper, normally you already have that. The promise is that you can constantly be affirmed for having the “right” views and believing the “right” things.

“The 7 Mountains Mandate”

Jesus gets you power. Period. You can have personal power, political power, institutional power, name it and claim it. God wants you to have without having to do anything. You don’t need to study, gain experience, or even have a measure of competency, you can take that city/industry/government for “Jesus” because you have been granted “dominion”. The “7 Mountains Mandate” is a “gospel” of unearned entitlement.

Too Many Gospels

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. (Gal.1:6-9)”

What is sad is many times there isn’t a single “gospel” that is adhered to. Churches can slide into fundamentalist authoritarianism, 7 Mountains political ideology, Political Authoritarianism (Christian Nationalism and white supremacy) or any other combination. What is very unfortunate is many people flee one form of false “gospel” only to get caught up in another church that offers a different “gospel”. I’ve been a part of churches that proudly claimed to be about “grace”, that assured everyone that they were “cross centered” but that fell into fundamentalism. The pull is just there.

What has been eye opening to me is how much American Evangelicalism simply doesn’t need Jesus. Jesus is so often the means to an end, a figurehead at best, or a distraction in reality. You can go to a church that loudly sings about Jesus and who he is and then listen to a preacher saying you need to obey, submit, or give to get something from Him. You can go to seminaries that claim to be preparing pastors for “gospel mission” and what they really are doing is indoctrinating them to be self-righteous ideologs. You don’t need Jesus to do things you are already predisposed to do. You don’t need Jesus to have everyone else in your life submit to you like you’re God. You don’t need Jesus to be pro-life, anti LGBT, pro-gun, for gender roles etc. You certainly don’t need Jesus to demand unearned power. One of the things I wonder about the rise of the “nones” and the rejection of younger generations of religion is whether they simply don’t see Jesus in our churches. They see people who talk a lot about Jesus yet really offer them bondage, shame, abuse, and judgement as if those things are the real “good news”.

One of the questions I’ve been asking recently especially when it comes to any organization or “influencer” that claims to be “Christian” is, “Where is Jesus?” I think I want to become more discerning especially when it comes to the character of those who I give my time and attention. I’m not saying that everyone or most people are simply being performative, but they may be promoting multiple false “gospels” unknowingly.

I think this caution goes across the political spectrum. It’s so easy to slide into a different kind of Ideological Fundamentalism, or even straight up behavioral fundamentalism. Recently Brandi Miller said something on her podcast Reclaiming My Theology that I think is extremely profound. She said, “I think we’ve been discipled to value competency over character and we’re not going to see lasting change even in ourselves until we value character over competency.” In short, we’ve got to value people who look and act like Jesus more than people who are proficient and appear to be able to do things for us. I think one of the problems when you have a utilitarian Jesus is ultimately everyone else becomes utilitarian to what is your real “good news”.

I keep going back to James and asking “If it doesn’t look like Jesus, what good is it?” It’s so tempting to think we’re offering people Jesus when we aren’t really offering them anything.

Welcome to the Resistance

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