Christofascism & Liberalism

Christianity in America is on a downward spiral. The GOOD NEWS is that Christianity is doing well in many other parts of the world. Church affiliation and attendance has been declining for nearly four decades now. People are no longer buying into the fear-mongering, intimidation through church discipline, nor the threat of hell. But then too, neither is mamby-pamby liberalism working! 

Christofascism (the blend of Christianity and Fascism) is a concept in Christian theology first seeing the light of day as a term-concept about 40 years ago. A coincidence that it was then that the downward spiral for Christianity was first noticed (in America)?

Dorothee Sölle, a theologian and writer, in her book Beyond Mere Obedience: Reflections on a Christian Ethic brought forth the term.. To Dorothee Sölle, Christofascism was caused by the embracing of authoritarian theology by the Christian church. It is an arrogant, totalitarian, imperialistic attitude, characteristic of the church in Germany under Nazism, that she believed to be alive and well in the theological scene of the late 20th and turn of the 21st century.

Ouch!

But then too, the other side of the coin (liberalism) doesn’t seem to be bringing any LIFE back into the Christian community. This Jeffersonian paradigm (remember the Thomas Jefferson Bible?) along with the likes of the “Jesus Seminar” have stripped Christianity of any power or miracles and what’s left is just an ethical system, while good, that’s not worth the effort needed.

I would submit though that underneath the debris and rubble of current American Christianity is the making of a new Christology! 

Albert Schweitzer resonated with me when he wrote, “What has been passing for Christianity during these nineteen centuries is merely a beginning, full of weaknesses and mistakes, not a full-grown Christianity springing from the SPIRIT of Jesus.” In other words, we’re now ready to move into a deeper and more real experience of the historical Jesus, what people like Richard Rohr and Matthew Fox call the ‘Cosmic Christ’.

Gregory Bates asked the critical question, “Is the human race rotting its mind with slowly deteriorating religion”? It’s another take of Lenin’s statement a century ago, “Religion is the OPIATE of the masses.” For me, what’s coming forth is a combination of a renewal of the MYSTICAL, an awakening of the more ESOTERIC nature of spirit, the discovery of THINKING Christians who can indeed ask questions of its authorities.

This TRINITY is building anew on the trinity of old.

Are you building with those concepts as well?

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1. No Grace for Liberals