{"id":8065,"date":"2018-09-12T20:52:59","date_gmt":"2018-09-13T01:52:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.twocities.org\/?p=8065"},"modified":"2018-09-12T22:52:55","modified_gmt":"2018-09-13T03:52:55","slug":"tragic-equation-of-american-christianity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/?p=8065","title":{"rendered":"TRAGIC EQUATION…OF AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When I used to teach at a Christian, high school, I put the following equation on the blackboard during the first day of class.\u00a0 I called it “The Tragic Equation of American Christianity.”\u00a0 It does not just hold true for high school students!<\/strong><\/p>\n

In big, bold letters I wrote A+B+C+D=E.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I told the students that each letter represented a word.\u00a0 At first, they were quiet and reluctant to guess.\u00a0 I helped them with A which stands for anger.\u00a0 For B or boredom, a student guessed correctly.\u00a0 When that happened, the proverbial dam broke.\u00a0 These students definitely resonated with my equation.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

The rest of equation looks like this: Anger+Boredom+Cynicism+Disillusionment=Empty<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’ve been spending some focused time as of late pondering why so many Christians resonate with this equation.\u00a0 I regularly have conversations with Christians who candidly admit to things like disillusionment and boredom.\u00a0 For the most extreme, we have the new moniker of Dones, those who are “done” identifying with a church, yet still self-consciously holding on to Christian beliefs.
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I had lunch with a friend last week where we talked a bit about why many church attenders simply want some inspiration for their week, but are apathetic about engaging with God’s Word and uninterested in His mission.\u00a0 Among other things, these folks don’t appreciate how much they are missing out.\u00a0 It is a great joy to see your feeble, fallen self used by God for His glory. <\/strong><\/p>\n

I interact with many Christians who have little curiosity about growing in their understanding of the Christian faith.\u00a0 There’s really no need because they are not involved in ministries that require resources beyond their natural abilities.\u00a0 They are plenty capable of living their lives in their own strength, or so it seems for now.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most reflections later…<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I used to teach at a Christian, high school, I put the following equation on the blackboard during the first day of class.\u00a0 I called it “The Tragic Equation of American Christianity.”\u00a0 It does not just hold true for high school students! In big, bold letters I wrote A+B+C+D=E. I told the students that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-learningeducation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8065"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8072,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8065\/revisions\/8072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twocities.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}