Richard Rohr calls out “cultural Christianity.” I believe this wholeheartedly. It’s an alternative way.
—
“If our love of God doesn’t directly influence, and even change, how we engage in the issues of our time, I wonder what good religion is. ‘God talk’ becomes an opaque screen in which we see only reflections of ourselves, rather than any kind of true light. ‘Anyone who says they love God, and hates their brother or sister, is a liar’ (1 John 4:20). None of us wants to be a liar, yet religion’s high goals make failure almost inevitable for all of us (read Paul’s attempts to describe this paradoxical phenomenon in Romans 7:7–25). Our daily question is this: ‘Have I even begun to love’?
“Most Christians tend to echo the cultural prejudices and worldviews of the dominant group in their country, with only a minority revealing any real transformation of attitudes or consciousness. It has been true of slavery and racism, classism and consumerism, and issues of immigration and health care for the poor. From a religion based on a man who was always healing poor people and praising foreigners, it defies any logical analysis!”
