Mercy, Maude

I just noticed this scary piece on the New Criterion's excellent blog, Armavirumque. (The original is from Opinion Journal)

We're Christians, relatively speaking

About 88% of American teenagers identify themselves as Christian. But very few of them are, in fact, Christian. That isn't merely to say that they stray from time to time from the path. It is something more worrisome--by and large they don't even preach what they ought to practice. They do not hold the beliefs that are prerequisites of Christianity--and here is the proof.
". . . slightly more than half of all U.S. teens also believe that Jesus committed sins while he was on earth. About 60% agree that enough good works will earn them a place in heaven, in part reflecting a Catholic view, but also flouting Protestantism's central theme of salvation only by grace. About two-thirds say that Satan is just a symbol of evil, not really a living being. Only 6% of all teens believe that there are moral absolutes--and, most troubling to evangelical leaders, only 9% of self-described born-again teens believe that moral truth is absolute."

Remember, we are talking here about "believers" popularly thought to be "fundamentalist," rigid, intolerant, and so on! Has relativism so thoroughly permeated the culture that even their (as we are told) hermetically sealed minds cannot keep it out?

Whoa. I've never been a fan of Jesus, the really cool dude, school of "Christian" "thought". In fact I will go so far as to describe myself as an implacable enemy, as it is directly contrary to Biblical teaching. If all Jesus is is a really cool dude, I want nothing to do with him. I don't need a cool dude; I need a Savior. (Incidentally, children, St. Paul takes a similar view. You can find it in 1 Corinthians 15:12-20. The majority of you who don't believe in the bodily resurrection though may find v. 21 a bit of a shock, so brace yourselves.) But I had, apparently foolishly, thought this element was relatively minor, but if more that 50% of them think Jesus sinned while on earth, Christianity in US has a serious problem.

Logic and basic literacy face severe challenges as well, because according to the original piece, 60% believe the Bible is absolutely correct in all its teachings, and yet nowhere does the Bible teach that Jesus sinned. Pay attention, kids: Jesus wept, not sinned.