Bad religion forms God after our likeness, traits

The Book of Genesis tells us that we were made after the image and likeness of God. Since God is a spirit and we are body, soul and spirit, we do not look like God in our human form. However, we have three great powers that God has given us: the power to know, the power to love and the power to be creative. When we use these powers, we reflect God’s goodness.

We sometimes have a difficult time talking about God. We often describe God in human terms. Even our creeds refer to God as sitting, and having a right hand, etc. We draw angels with human forms although we know that angels are spiritual beings without bodies. This is acceptable if we realize what we are doing.

However, there is a danger in reversing the process and forming God after our own image and likeness. New York Times columnist Ross Douthat in his new book “Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics” addresses some ways we have distorted God and religion.

Since the 1960s, Douthat argues, institutional Christianity has suffered a slow-motion collapse, leaving the country without the moral core that carried it through foreign wars, economic depressions and passionate internal debates. He claims that the caving in of the traditional faith and the rise of a variety of pseudo-christianities all help to stroke our egos, indulge our foolishness, and encourage our worst impulses.

Christianity’s place in American life has increasingly been taken over, not by atheism, Douthat argues, but by heresy. These distorted versions of the Christian faith breed excessive pride, greed, and self-absorption.

Douthat explores how the prosperity gospel of “pray and grow rich,” reduces God to a life coach that cheers us onto greater prosperity. He holds that the warring political religions of left and right have crippled the country’s ability to confront our most pressing challenges and accelerated American decline. He urgently calls for a revival of traditional Christianity.

We can easily distort the image of God. For some people God can become a personal cosmic bellhop always happy to serve our every desire. This type of God helps us control others and gives us everything we ever wanted. The roles here are reversed: God is the servant; we become gods.

Another distortion of God is the angry God who wants to exterminate sinners. This God watches to make sure everyone is on the “long and narrow.” One slip and the divine anger takes over. People who advocate capital punishment usually court this type of God. This is not the forgiving God in Jesus’ prodical son story.

We can also see God a patriotic God who loves Americans more than anyone else. The Almighty takes our side in disputes and wars, blesses our endeavors, and gives us special honors and privileges. The Book of Jonah was written against this narrow way of thinking. The Jews thought they were the only ones that God loved. Jonah was sent to their enemies to proclaim God’s love for the poor people of Nineveh. God is a universal God.

We can also see God as a master of ceremonies who leads weddings, bar mitzahs, confirmations, christenings, funerals and can be hired by anyone for these special occasions without having to have real faith.

Instead, we should consider God as the beginning of everything, the origin and source of all matter and energy. God lives in the present and wants us to do the same. He endowed us with the gift of free will and respects that gift. Our Creator and Redeemer desires a relationship with each of us. Jesus showed us by his death and resurrection that nothing can stop God’s love for us, not even death.