"America's god is dying"

In light of the last several posts, this article by theologian Stanley Hauerwas is insightfully provocative. http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2010/07/20/2947368.htm

Matt and I just finished reading Hauerwas's memoir (see below).  I'm not much of a reader of biographies (okay, I've never read one), but I really enjoyed this book.




Anyway, this article provides a challenging reflection on the unholy union between all things America and Christian found in our country...

Here are a few quotes to whet your whistle:

"American Protestants do not have to believe in God because they believe in belief. That is why we have never been able to produce an interesting atheist in America. The god most Americans say they believe in is just not interesting enough to deny."

"because the churches had done so much to make America, they could not escape living with what they had made."

"I believe we may be living at a time when we are watching Protestantism, at least the kind of Protestantism we have in America, come to an end. It is dying of its own success."

"This is what I mean when I say, in a rather convoluted way, that most Americans tell themselves the that you should have no story except the story you chose when you had no story."

"That we are, in other words, people of our own making, constituted by free choice. And that free choice is the only thing we are responsible for.  But the problem with such an account of responsibility is that it makes marriage, among other things, completely unintelligible."

"America's god is dying."

Check out the article.  Share some thoughts...