American Syncretism

Syncretism is a missiological term that means when people co-opt their
original religious practices into their newfound faith. We often
think of it as something people faraway from us do, like newly
converted African tribes incorporating their animist worship ideas
into their notion of God and Christianity. But I wonder if we in
America are subtly, or maybe not so subtly, guilty of syncretism, too.

Some Christians, for example, are just plain lazy, and subconsciously
excuse their laziness by leaning on God's grace, while other
Christians are workaholics, and consider it righteousn to be ever
doing God's work. For some, the Christian faith justifies their rich
and bloated lifestyles, and for others, it justifies their fiery
countercultural radicalism. One person celebrates the intellectual
underpinnings of the faith, while another loses themselves in
Spirit-filled worship.

It's hard sometimes to distinguish bad syncretism from good diversity.
After all, the Kingdom of God and the truths of God are certainly
vast enough to embrace a wide range of worship styles, ministry
approaches, and political viewpoints. But even diversity is
susceptible to being upheld, syncretically, as a core value, and then
the Bible used to justify it; not meaning that diversity isn't
Biblical, but that diversity is held as the absolute truth and the
Bible validated from it, not the other way around.

Or consider that just as there are vices different people groups are
more apt to be guilty of, there are virtues different people groups
are more apt to gravitate to. These virtues, of course, are great
things: being communal, or hospitable, or disciplined. But they can
border on syncretic if we let them and not the Bible be the final word
on our behavior and perspective, if we take pride in that virtue first
and foremost, glad that the Bible salutes it, rather than giving glory
to God for giving us the commandment and the strength to pursue that
virtue.

Come to think of it, whether we are considering the people group in
the deep bush in Africa or our own modern American society, syncretism
is hard to define and even harder to shake. Of course, it's easier
for us to see this in faraway people than in ourselves, because the
culture we're in is like water to a fish: all around us and yet
imperceptible to us. And yet it is no less amiss from the truths God
would have us to live by.

So how can we say no to our syncretic ways and yes to higher, better
ones? I would put forth three suggestions. One is to be careful not
to uphold a certain value – however noble it is, like social justice
or environmental concern or moral purity – as an absolute truth from
which we view the Bible. In other words, we don't obey what the Bible
says because it fits into our notion of social justice; we pursue
social justice because it's a natural extension of obeying what the
Bible says.

Second, we need to regularly study the Bible and hear it exposited it
to us from people whose viewpoints – whether geographic, political, or
socio-economic – are different than ours. I learned a lot about my
Americentric view of God and Christianity when I spent a summer in
Eastern Europe, for seeing others of the same God and faith see that
God and faith in ways different than mine challenged me to parse out
what I believed because I was a Christian from what I believed because
I was an American.

Third, we should strive to obey the Bible in ways that stretch us. If
you are naturally hospitable, for example, good for you; be hospitable
for God's glory. But for the one for whom hospitality doesn't come
easy, obeying the command to be hospitable can sometimes more easily
be about glorifying God, less about showing off or feeling good about
ourselves.

I'm reminded of an illustration from the sermon at today's morning
service, of an inquisitive little boy constantly asking his aunt,
"Why?" "We have to eat dinner now." "Why?" "So we can have energy."
"Why?" "So we can do what we need to do." "Why?" The answer to
syncretism is to be as this little boy and ever ask the question,
"Why?" If we find that our final answer is something besides
"bringing glory to God," then we know we are being syncretic.