In America the religion of the crucified messiah and the God of Jesus was hijacked by right wing fundamentalists. Billy Graham, a creation of the American establishment, is the link between post-war religious boosterism and present day therapeutic religion.
by Ted Schmidt
Distracted from distraction by distraction
filled with fancies and empty of meaning
Tumid apathy with no concentration.
T.S. Eliot
Was Jesus not crucified as a traitor to all the apparently worthwhile values?
Fr. Johann Metz
"What you need," the Savage went on, "is something with tears for a change. Nothing costs enough here."
Aldous Huxley in Brave New World (1932)
The Roman Catholic Church must take its stand against the world, against the age, against the spirit of the age --because the world and the age are always to a degree, to an important degree, in rebellion against God.
Will Herberg
Bob, whose locker is adjacent to mine in the club where I play squash often engages me in discussions about religion. Recently, this retired professor was chuckling about his friend's newfound "religion."
"These suburban churches have it all figured out, Ted. My friend is an ex-Greek Orthodox who recently married into his wife's evangelical religion. He made it plain that he was going simply because of her, and so off he went. He complained that his experience in the Orthodox Church had been negative. He was always beaten up about how bad he was. Now, he goes to the "mall church," and boy, have things changed. Lots of parking --first good marketing ploy. He's greeted at the door by a guy who welcomes him, and says that he must be new here because the greeter does not recognize him. Therefore he is told not to bother putting any money in the collection plate. So far so good. Then some guy who's been on Canadian Idol belts out a hymn. More sing-along music, then a 10 minute sermon (very upbeat --God loves you) and you're out of there in an hour feeling good about yourself, and the fact that you've been to church is a bonus." Bob shakes his head. "These guys are marketing geniuses," he says chuckling to himself as he heads off to the weight room.
How did we go from the crucified Galilean carpenter to a cross-less Christianity? How did we go from a Jesus who invited disciples to follow him to a God who blesses affluence and the American Way of life? How did we go from a crucified saviour who died an expendable victim of an imperial power to a Lord who told George Bush to invade Iraq?
As the United States economy exploded after World War ll, religion took an inward turn. Filled with the built-in enthusiasm of the can-do American character, a religion was fashioned which matched the powerful economy. Families were part of the massive exodus to the suburbs, and hidden from sight and critical examination was the inevitable baptism of the American Way as the authentic Gospel of Jesus Christ. Churches of every denomination grew both in size and membership. Billy Graham was anointed by the establishment to market a feel-good Gospel which would be no challenge to the wealthy and powerful and the expanding American empire.
In 1949 a famous telegram was sent by William Randolph Hearst Jr. to his newspaper editors across America with the simple instructions: "Puff Graham." The little-known, poorly educated Graham had set up his revival tent in Los Angeles the same week that the Russians had tested their first A-bomb. The Red scare which fueled the Cold War was on its way with its chief fear-stoker who assured all "Communism is inspired and directed by the Devil himself." The preacher's simplistic appeal to Christ as the answer to this "worldwide crisis of fear, of atomic warfare and moral degeneration" won the day and Time magazine and Newsweek heralded the arrival of "the new evangelist." By 1954 Graham was on the cover of Time, approved this time by Henry Luce who in 1941 had assured all that the twentieth century belonged to America. And America needed a gospel which would dispel any ambiguity or self-doubt that the American Way of Life was blessed by Holy writ.
Billy Graham with little formal training in scripture was the perfectly malleable instrument in the American cause. As the higher criticism of scripture had made its way into Protestant seminaries after World War l (and liberal interpretations of scripture were accepted) fundamentalism --after the embarrassing Scopes trial of 1924-- had found itself in rapid decline. As the world modernized and became more technologically sophisticated, it was thought that the simplistic appeal to the Bible had seen its day. Liberal Christianity was in its ascendancy, capturing all the major Ivy League campuses. Men like Harry Emerson Fosdick and Reinhold Niebuhr had unparalleled influence. The latter ridiculed Graham's message as "a compound of pious escapism, 'peace of mind' and American self-righteousness." This well-founded critique would dog Graham his whole life. He conveniently took a pass on the civil rights movement, turned his back on the peace movement and could always be counted on to bless every foreign war. Challenged to speak out on the Vietnam War, he said that he was "not an Old Testament prophet but a New Testament evangelist." Graham kept insisting that the U.S. was a Christian nation thereby marginalizing Jews and secularists without whom social problems could never be solved.
While Graham lost the intellectual battle (and later in life he rued his weak scholarship and lack of deep scriptural study) he won the war. America was not impressed with "the pointy-headed" intellectuals in Ivy League seminaries. After a war and a depression, after the advance of secular forces, and with the advent of the A-Bomb and Communism, she wanted certitude and conviction that America was both the Beautiful and the Christian vanguard of the Gospel.
Graham prepares the new fundamentalism
In many ways the new fundamentalism owes much to Graham, and to the American establishment who backed him. The later bizarre theology of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell learned much from Graham who, at a personal level, was never as offensive as the latter duo. Handsome, telegenic and a fine orator, Graham learned quickly the importance of the media, and those who owned the media. Sadly, as noted above, Graham was on the wrong side of almost all the major issues of his lifetime. With his promotion of bloated military budgets ("Christianity needs a show of strength. We must maintain the strongest military establishment.") Graham became the handmaiden of American power and like Ronald Reagan, the great promoter of American exceptionalism. Individuals may be sinners, but the United States was indeed the "shining city on a hill." Still alive but failing, Graham has indeed repented of many blind spots in his crusades --in particular his insensitivity to the poor. He has apologized for anti-Semitic remarks caught on the notorious Nixon tapes. His real and lasting legacy was his role in preparing America for the long run of fundamentalist religion, and the rise of the militant New Right.
Smarting from decades of marginalization, fundamentalism appeared to catch its second wind in the 1970s and 1980s. A number of factors were involved, not the least being the failure of left-leaning Christians to articulate their political stances in religious language. Moral language seemed to disappear from the lexicon of progressive Christians. The religious right was never shy (though incredibly narrow) in its use of such language.
Secondly, television and radio filled an enormous gap in poor people's lives. The simplistic nostrums and biblical illiteracy of the Pat Robertson's (700 Club), Jerry Falwells and the Bakkers (Jim and Tammy of PTL) leaped into the breach, wrapping the flag in religion and cashing in on the gullibility of the people. These evangelists denuded the Gospel of its political dynamite. Written off by secular America as "nutters" and by the liberal churches as crude and simplistic, the TV evangelists and the Bible belt shouters in AM radio land played to people's fears, and promoted bizarre "end time" scenarios where the "saved" would be raised up and the rest "left behind." Robertson's 700 Club mixed scripture, history, and prophecy in ways that are incomprehensible. A man named Hal Lindsey wrote the best selling "religious" book in history The Late Great Planet Earth. This phantasm --based on the book of Revelation-- has sold over 25 million copies, and is virtually a second Bible in fundamentalist homes. The Rapture and The Great Tribulation figure large here and Lindsey is downright scornful of all the "intellectuals", professors, and scientists. He is never less than absolutely sure of himself, and most people doing serious theology have never heard of this book!
Fear drives fundamentalism
Fear is the driving engine of fundamentalism. The decline of the U.S. Empire, the disappearance of good paying industrial jobs under globalization, the decline of unions and the Walmartization (low wages, poor benefits) of the economy have increased fear everywhere in the US. Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 is a good popular summary of the fear culture. When fear predominates in a culture, the people seek not so much truth (a slow, painful, and incremental process) but security. Within Protestantism the answer is the Word --the return to biblical inerrancy and black-and-white answers which tolerate no ambiguity. Within Catholicism we find a variant: Popolatry and the Magisterium. Neither can be questioned or challenged.
The TV evangelists, however, learned valuable lessons, picked up by the mega-churches and the mall churches. Keep the message simple and keep it entertaining. A church service now becomes entertainment. Pat Robertson becomes Jay Leno. Guests come on and "testify" in a lovely studio. Inane conversations proliferate. The band plays a few tunes. Anything smacking of spiritual depth, silence, or the deeply symbolic gets short shift. Nothing too challenging or uncomfortable is allowed. The greatest irony here is that these churches contend they are "nonconformist" and "counter-cultural" as Jesus and the early Church was. Materialism oozes from the pores of the oleaginous hosts and their Disney World retreats. Shallow would be too kind a word here. Here we see the American Way blessed. It is no secret that the Religious right absolutely coincides with neo-conservatism. Churches after all reflect the world they find themselves in.
That churches like these grow should not be a cause of worry to serious Christians. For sure liberal congregations must pay attention to the "transcendent among us" (Bonhoeffer) and never devolve to a purely horizontal level as a social agency. That goes without saying. Great liturgy will always honour the numinous and ineffable and the "incomprehensible Mystery" (Rahner) among us. But to think that there is an inverse ratio to faith and intelligence insults all of us. Aquinas, Augustine, Newman, Rahner, Kung and Schillebeeckx must have their place along with Tillich, Barth, Niebuhr, Luther and Calvin.
Conservative churches like the one which opened this essay may be in the vanguard, but this proves nothing. The prophets of Israel never gave the people what they wanted, but what they needed. Ditto for Jesus. That people flock to churches where no cross is offered or discipleship demanded is lamentable. A church which permits no spiritual exploration, no new questions to rise, but which freezes itself in outmoded forms denies the ongoing work of the Spirit whose work is not to conform us to the culture or the country, but to Christ. Inevitably this will not lead to better parking lots, air conditioned services, dumbed-down simplistic ideas or nationalistic crusades. It will lead, however, to the same unpopularity, religious and societal rejection which the Galilean himself experienced. Nowhere was it phrased better than in Gaudium et spes (Vatican ll): "He taught us by example that we too must shoulder that cross which the world and the flesh inflict upon those who search after peace and justice"(#38). This will not be popular; it probably will not be therapeutic, and its insistent demand may not fill your congregation on Sunday, but it remains the only authentic Gospel we have. All the rest is simply cheap grace.
Ted Schmidt is the former editor of Catholic New Times. He may be reached at jtschmi@pathcom.com
for internet marketing, web site design, development, promotion, and maintenance.
