[lit-ideas] Re: anyone read Harper's lately?

Bill McKibbin, apparently, had a great piece in Harper's last month about
America's non-christian behaviour and how odd that is in a Christian country.

I read it when it came out. He points out that what passes for religion in the USA is a veneer for corporate capitalism. What's really odd is that early Christianity is clearly and plainly described in the Bible, yet modern American Christianity ignores it completely.

For example, McKibben writes:

"Three quarters of Americans believe the Bible teaches that "God helps those who help themselves." That is, three out of four Americans believe that this uber-American idea, a notion at the core of our current individualist politics and culture, which was in fact uttered by Ben Franklin, actually appears in Holy Scripture. The thing is, not only is Franklin's wisdom not biblical; it's counter-biblical. Few ideas could be further from the gospel message, with its radical summons to love of neighbor. On this essential matter, most Americans-most American Christians-are simply wrong, as if 75 percent of American scientists believed that Newton proved gravity causes apples to fly up."

"America is simultaneously the most professedly Christian of the developed nations and the least Christian in its behavior. That paradox (...) illuminates the hollow at the core of our boastful, careening culture."

It's a fascinating article. Read it at http://www.harpers.org/ExcerptTheChristianParadox.html

yrs,
andreas
www.andreas.com

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