The point?

A friend pointed me to a Christian audio site, and I signed up for their newsletter. Here is the first thing they said: "Welcome to Christianaudio! Our mission is to affect hearts to think and live right."

I know that they mean well, and that they have great books. But it is this kind of statement that summarizes one problem I have with what constitutes Christianity.

Perhaps I am over-sensitive, but to me, despite the word "heart" in this sentence, the real emphasis is a head-based, law-based spirituality -- right thinking and right behavior = Good.

There is nothing here about God or Jesus. Nothing about relationship, about BEing instead of DOing, about beauty, thankfulness, gratefulness, creativity, friendship, vocation, blessing, compassion, mystery, love, or joy. Maybe they mean more by the word "live" than I suppose. But I'm going to guess not (and if I'm wrong here, it's still ubiquitous elsewhere).

The assumption that marks this point-of-view is that if we think and do the right things (and avoid the wrong things), we will be in the right relationship with God.

Since the emphasis of this worldview is on right thinking and right behavior, that's what we argue about -- which denominations have the right doctrines and which ones promote the right behaviors (or more often, condemn the wrong ones).

We need a more holistic view of Christianity: head and heart, mystic and prophet. There are a few people beating that drum: Matthew Fox, Joan Chittister, Richard Rohr, Richard Foster, Wendell Berry, William Barry, Frederick Buechner, Brian McLaren, but not enough.