The Fatal Cushion

To the sightseeing eyes of Dr. Alec Vidler, editor of the Anglo-Catholic British monthly, Theology, the "religiousness" of the U.S. appears "appalling." In the current issue of Christianity and Crisis, visiting churchman Vidler reported:

"The first thing that has struck me is that America is now much more religious than Britain. People here go to church much more, and I am told that church attendance has tended to increase since the end of the war. Your churches appear to be flourishing institutions, and they strike me, even if they do not strike you, as fabulously opulent."

Did the comparative prosperity of U.S. religion hearten the visitor and make him envious? At first glance, yes. On second thought, he found it "curiously depressing."

He was reminded of the "prodigious religiousness" of 19th Century Britain: "All that business and efficiency in organizing religious services and activities, served, I am sure, as a cushion against the hard impact of the living God. Our churches were like comfortable and well managed religious clubs, in which we felt nicely at home, in which we felt good, in which we even wanted to be better, at least on Sunday evenings when singing particularly lush hymns. . . ."

In modern Britain, times have changed: "While our churches are metaphorically if not literally failing into ruin, the disturbing and restoring presence of the living God is becoming an experienced reality amid the ruins. ... In the U.S.A., it seems to me, the cushion of religious efficiency and prosperity is Still doing its comfortable, but fatal, work. . . .

"But what shocks me most of all is the character of the preaching that seems to prevail in your churches. ... So far as I can ascertain, the paradigm of American preaching is: 'Let me suggest that you try to be good.' Moralistic homilies are still the order of the day. . . .

"Who preaches sermons that are genuine expositions of the text and sense of Scripture, bringing to bear the great Biblical themes of God's judgment and mercy upon men who are dead in their complacency, self-confidence or pride? Your preachers . . . are still advocating justification by good works of one kind or another (maybe very orthodox or very 'Catholic' good works); they are not proclaiming the Gospel of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. . . . You are still preaching the Law, and a pretty easy going or romantic Law at that."

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