Moralistic Therapeutic Deism may very well be the default religion of most mainline Protestants.
I first encountered the term reading Kenda Creasy Dean‘s book Almost Christian. Dean borrowed the term from the work other others, but MTD forms the heart of her analysis about youth in the church. One of her core points is that youth today practice MTD because they learned it from their parents.
Here is an outline of the doctrines of MTD:
(1) A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.
(2) God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
(3) The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
(4) God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
(5) Good people go to heaven when they die.
This religion is so deeply embedded into our congregations that digging it out will be fatal to most. Like a cancerous tumor, it has invaded too many vital organs to be safely dug out.
I find myself perplexed by what to do about it or how to move forward. Will slow, patient, and steady preaching, teaching, and invitations to true discipleship wean people away from MTD? Or does it require shock therapy — the kind that shakes congregations and shatters them?
Musing on this helps me see why John Wesley went out outside the church in search of new converts. Paul went to the Gentiles for some of the same reasons. Some of our most famous megachurch pastors did, too. It is far easier to raise up new Christians free of MTD than it is to cure a congregation in the advanced stages.
Has anyone figured out how to do this?
Sounds like your asking the same question posed to Nicodemus. Maybe itswe really have to believe in prayer, actually be convinced that the Holy spirit will bring our convictions to the light of repentence so all will truly believe we are desperately in need of a Savior. Too much talk, too much marketing, too many gimmicks and too little prayer. Keep posting!
Peace,
Chris
So what do we do about it?
I do not know. Hence the last line of my post.
haha fair enough. I just wondered if you had any thoughts.
I am hoping to develop some thoughts in dialogue with others.
My thoughts are mostly that I can see the problem, but have not figured out how to deal with it.
And after a Lenten fast from blogging Meunier comes out swinging! Welcome back!
As a pastor, my first question in all of this is to ask if I am either explicitly or implicitly teaching any of the points of MTD? I took a first aid course once that told me the first step to treating a burn was to remove the source of the burning. MTD is easy and it’s tempting to preach easy things and make people happy. But easy things are not going to transform the world. I need to pray to be convicted of all sources of MTD in my life and ministry so that I might repent. Then, I can stop causing injury.
My second question: How could a removal of MTD and an introduction to deep discipleship possibly be done slowly? It’s a paradigmatic shift and elements of the one do not fit nicely with elements of the other.
Lastly, if local churches could answer this question and live into their answers, some of the questions being asked at General Conference this year would be rendered moot. This is true either because a stepping away from MTD would, as you suggest, cause many to walk away from the local church and take their dollars with them thus removing the financial base for all the General Boards or because so many churches would be filled to capacity with giving disciples that the idea of making cuts would be laughable.
First, thank you for your excellent thoughts on this question. I like the First Aid analogy.
Second, I’m afraid I broke my blog fast a while back. I discovered that I had not prepared well for it and was not capable of keeping the discipline. I found myself “blogging” all the time without actually publishing anything. It was a good lesson in the necessity of preparing for such a discipline.
I am hoping this is something Kenda Creasy Dean may address with the Indiana Conference when she comes in June.
One of the more insidious things about this “parasite” on Christian teaching and discipleship is that it is capable of leading people to hear nearly anything you say precisely in its own terms. It wouldn’t matter if you were preaching discipleship. MTD in the hearts and minds of those held captive by it would render them unable to interpret your proclamation correctly. They would simply equate “disciple” with “good person” and remain in their self-deluded state.
And if you try to disturb them too much, guess what will be cast out– not the MTD, but you.
It seems to me the route most likely to be successful in overcoming the hold of this parasite is the same one it took to gain its hold: infiltration. There may be a few individuals where you are who are ready and longing for the way of discipleship to Jesus to become real in their lives. They know MTD is pablum, and they’re ready for the true feast. Focus energy– yours to some degree, but especially theirs– on finding the way they seek, living it out, and inviting others to discover it with you. Let these people infiltrate the culture of the congregation and its leadership over time, as the woman “hid” the leaven in the flour, and see what a substantial loaf begins to rise.
You are absolutely right about those longing for “something more”. They are probably on the fringes!
I agree 100% with the challenge of getting people to hear things outside the framework of MTD. On a pastoral level, I find myself in such moments confused about the best response. Do you ignore the “translation to MTD” or do you try to draw attention to it?
It is probably a case-by-case thing, but in a church culture that values “niceness” and getting along — and is terrified of conflict — that might lead to someone leaving, the bias is certainly in favor of going along.
John,
If I’m paying attention to Jesus’ own methodology, it seems he recognized that his gospel of the kingdom of God was prone to misappropriation as well, and so proclaimed it in parables for the most part, recognizing that those with ears to hear might catch on and produce an abundant harvest. He would also unpack some of these things in greater detail for his disciples.
I’d say the closest we see him coming to addressing the translation issues might be places such as the sermon on the mount, where he draws a clean contrast between “you have heard it said” and “but I say,” and in his more direct confrontations of some religious leaders..
The “crowds” most of us preach to on Sunday morning are the folks who attend our congregations. Most of them joined those congregations on the basis of a thoroughly MTD theology, or at least an approach that allows that theology to flourish unquestioned. Few of them seek actual discipleship to Jesus, much less holiness of heart and life. This is no condemnation– just a reality check. Consider those few who do to be the parallel to the disciples to whom you may “unpack” more in a more thorough way.
MTD is a perfect example of “the conversion of the species of the argument” which Jesus made impossible by acting in such a way as to insult normally accepted propriety. For instance, as in the several instances when Jesus healed on the Sabbath (Luke 6 has some example, but especially vs. 6-11 where Jesus heals the man in the synagogue with a withered hand).
Jesus was not an example of the “niceness” which his religious culture desired.
T
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I’ve been immersed in church history this semester and have seen a pattern which may be obvious, but I’ll share it here.
In times that the church lost its way faithful Christians found ways, whether through monasticism (early) or pietism (later) and many ways in between to build authentic and vital Christianity.
Rarely, if ever, was the point to start with about seeking to impact the majority compromised Christian culture. Instead they sought to be faithful and God drew reform and revival out of those groups.
George Hunter argues in at least two of his books, including Reaching Secular People, that reform and renewal in local congregations is best served by starting an additional congregation within the same church. As it grows, and hopefully it’s theology is sound to begin with, it has the ability to influence the other congregation. Even if that influence doesn’t influence many he also argues that this is the most practical way for the present to fund the future. I largely agree.
(In summary, I believe that many with marginal, though perhaps saving, faith will remain that way, but we can use them to their ability and provide those places and opportunities for God to get hold of them more completely while building new and fuller disciples on the margins of existing congregations.)
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MTD seems surprisingly consistent with our Contemporary service. Comments anybody?
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Reblogged this on Hopeful and commented:
I gave a lot of thought to this blog by John Meunier back in April, but I never have been able to figure out the answer to his question: “I find myself perplexed by what to do about it or how to move forward. Will slow, patient, and steady preaching, teaching, and invitations to true discipleship wean people away from MTD? Or does it require shock therapy? More and more, it feels like it requires a shock.