At least one candidate for president has expressed the view that the U.S. Constitution should be amended to be in line with God’s will and intentions.  Good luck figuring out all of that.  Then try and get it ratified by two-thirds of the states.  The process quickly will reveal that not everyone understands God in the same ways or attributes similar thoughts and desires to God.  Who’s correct?

Donald Miller takes the view that the word “Christian” denotes “conservative politics, suburban consumerism and ‘an insensitivity to people who aren’t like us.’”  He got this impression by attending church, and he finally stopped going because it made him so angry.  He subsequently wrote his spiritual memoir to express his difference of experience and viewpoint.  Blue Like Jazz:  Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality was the result.  Not everyone likes his book, although five years after publication it reached number 18 last November on the New York Times list of best-selling nonfiction paperbacks.

The appeal of Miller’s book, it seems, mostly is among young spiritual seekers.  Many people, Miller discovered, are weary of the “us versus them mentality” found in a multitude of churches.  One supporter of Miller’s thoughts commented, “The typical judgmental, hate-filled, bigoted, more people knew what they were against than what we were for” approach does not reflect the “real God.”  The faith is supposed to be relevant to culture, not to dominate it, he suggested.

Makes sense to me.

I haven’t read Miller’s book, and have no plans to do so, but this discussion is pertinent as the church struggles in so many ways to find its place and strength.  While I find that the church is hampered by the stereotypes identified by Miller and others who share his perspective, I also am concerned by the trend toward individualized spirituality embraced by many of Miller’s devotees.

It would be one thing if the trend translated into people better equipped, as they interacted with others and with our culture, to witness to God’s love and ability to make all things new.  It’s something else again when the trend means “I’m getting my stuff together with God,” but there is no outward expression or effect.

When I read the Bible, I read about God’s interaction with persons, yes, but I also read about God’s interaction with a people – a people called to make God known and to be a blessing to others.