Lots of people looking for spiritual reality these days.
Astrology is making a comeback among the enlightened youth of America.
What a relief!
Christians have some help keeping mysticism alive!
The Church has done an admirable job of incorporating star gazing into Christian doctrine.
Covertly, of course!
Church folks know witchcraft is forbidden.
So we’ve created Christian Astrology.
This allows us to give God credit for the pagan magic in our lives.
Christian Astrology says stuff like this:
It’s not every church that – in the weeks following the pastor announcing he’s heading towards divorce – sees an increase in attendance, giving, hundreds sign up for life groups and service opportunities, and 13 people baptized into Jesus. I love when the evil one is made a fool by God’s goodness!!
All these great things happening despite the pastor’s family fragmenting!
Makes me wonder why God hates divorce?
With a slight modification, this phrase could appear in the church horoscope:
“In the weeks following the rise of Taurus we’ve seen increased attendance, giving, and 13 people baptized into Jesus!”
Isn’t Taurus great?
Christian Astrology is extremely flexible.
It turns sinful rebellion into God’s will.
Here’s how.
Imagine an unwed Christian girl who becomes pregnant.
HYPOTHETICALLY! (Unwed Christian girls don’t get pregnant!!)
The doctrine of American Tolerance allows the church to say stuff like:
She made a mistake. But none of us are perfect! God uses flawed people!
Can’t argue with any of that.
I’m certainly not perfect.
God certainly uses sinful people…
…that’s the only kind of people there are.
But there are a lot of pesky Bible verses about virtuous living.
So the church can’t ENDORSE unwed motherhood…
…at least not during the pregnancy.
Christian Astrology is useful AFTER the baby is born.
Baby and mother are both healthy! God is good!”
PRESTO!
The sin of fornication disappears in a cloud of talcum powder.
Babies are adorable so God must be cool with single moms!
We can take back all that crap we said about saving yourself for marriage.
Boys can forget all that nonsense about being responsible fathers.
Like the sign of Taurus rising in the night sky…
…a newborn is God’s seal of approval on sin.
I’ve never read a negative horoscope.
That’s why I’m suspicious of astrology.
I’m even more suspect of theology that turns my whims into God’s truth.
4 Responses
So, I’m a little torn here – partly because I may be confused as to what your point is.
Granted – people look for superstitious causation all the time, but that doesn’t seem to be what’s happening in your examples.
Re: The Divorced Pastor – indeed, it’s not worth celebrating the divorce. However, celebrating good things in the midst of crap is still good (though, the things listed in the OP in particular may not be worth celebrating either >_>).
Re: The unwed mother – besides the mistake verbiage (I think we too often use “mistake” when we should say something like “bad decision”), I don’t know what other tangible response we should have. I don’t know that many people actual represent the idea of the “a newborn is God’s seal of approval on sin”.
Also, the article says about ” more than half of young adults in the U.S. believe astrology is a science. compared to less than 8% of the Chinese public.” While astrology may be on the rise, I feel like that statistic says more about millennial vocabulary than millennial spirituality ^_^.
I’m conflicted myself on these issues so it’s good to know I’m not alone!
There is an increasing reluctance within the church to acknowledge the existence of sin. We overlook everything people do in favor of proclaiming “God’s goodness”. Grace becomes a license to sin.
I don’t have an issue when a pastor says, “God is working here”. I get squirmy when the pastor says, “I’m divorced and God is working here anyway”. On the one hand, I understand that nobody is perfect. But only certain sins get mentioned specifically. You’ll never hear a pastor say, “I’m cheating on my wife and we’re still baptizing people like crazy!” It is ludicrous to suggest that infidelity is the reason people are coming to Christ.
Babies born out of wedlock are particularly uncomfortable for me to discuss. No matter how I say it, I sound like I’m anti-baby. (I’m not anti-baby. ) I’m pro-marriage and pro-family. I’m so pro-baby that I believe EVERY CHILD ought to have a mom and dad raising them. The pro-marriage message gets lost in church culture when we’re celebrating singleness. Singleness was the first recorded thing in creation that God declared to be “not good”.
Babies born to single mothers are disadvantaged. I believe an important part of supporting single mothers is encouraging them to get married. (This is the same message we need to send single men.)
Your point about vocabulary is correct.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply!
Dylan, I wrote about this same quote over at my blog, but I also included screenshots of some of the comments the pastor received:
https://culturesatwar.wordpress.com/2017/10/24/god-bless-divorce/
I agree–it’s a complicated subject. I certainly haven’t “arrived” at any concrete answers. But I think what troubles me the most about complicated/questionable teaching is how little “questioning” the average church-goer does. It’s amazing that a post which might cross into the glorification of divorce received more than 250 “likes” and 30+ comments, all from Christian cheerleaders who literally said things like, “YOU are the reason great things are happening, Pastor!”
I’m really happy to see that you’re someone who thinks critically about what he reads, and you’re not afraid to come forward and clearly explain where you disagree. That’s wonderful! I’m just afraid discernment like yours is a dying art in the rest of the Church.
I remember you guys podcasting on this a while back. It was one of my favourite convos you’ve had. I think this kind of Christian Astrology simply likes to remove the word “consequences” from their vocabulary.