As my friend Rusty Lopez once asked, “What is it about our culture that causes us to consider the creator of the universe just another one of the gang?”
Good question. The cause, in my opinion, can be traced back to American Protestantism, particularly in the popular strands of evangelicalism. As a religious movement we have almost completely abandoned the concept of a transcendent creator in favor of a God who is our “best friend.” I remember as a young Baptist how we would gloss over the commands to “fear God” in favor of singing hymns about ”What a Friend We Have in Jesus.”
Even the Gnostic literary critic Harold Bloom is able to see where we err, as he wrote in his book The American Religion:
The American finds God in herself or himself only after finding the freedom to know God by experiencing a total inward solitude. In this solitary freedom, the American is liberated both from other selves and from the created world. He comes to recognize that his spirit is itself uncreated. Knowing that he is the equal of God, the American Religionist can then achieve his true desideratum, mystical communion with his friend, the godhead.
The idea of Jesus is mainly our “friend” is deeply rooted in our particular religious culture. Our lack of reverence expresses itself in everything from our worship to our evangelism.
The “friend” approach seems to lead to religion as entertainment…that is, worship that is mostly about the worshippers and tailored to make them feel good about themselves. It’s about self-esteem, don’t you know. This is frequently seen in megachurches, but in many oldline situations, as well.
I recall something to that effect in the movie “Dogma”, with Buddy Christ. At least that was a barbed spoof. The confession “Jesus is Lord” carries with it the latent “And you/I/we/they are not”. True awe has been replaced with cool.
I have heard “Yea God” yelled at the Dismissal and I cringed. This sort of ‘familiarity’ borders on heresy as it seems, to me, to lower the Creator to the human plane of existance.
Apples and oranges. This discussion equates things that are very different from each other. (1) The Playboy cover is arrant blasphemy and sacrilege; it is anti-Christian. (2) Grossly excessive familiarity with Jesus (as “homeboy”), though irreverent, is not the same. (3) Affirming Jesus as friend too glibly and too casually is another thing entirely–not good, but not to be equated with the others. (4) Emphatically calling Jesus our friend (as in “What Friend We have in Jesus”) is unimpeachable in itself. It is fully compatible with reverence and godly fear. (E.g., Chapman’s “Jesus, What a Friend for Sinners”; Bode’s “O Jesus, I Have Promised” (“… my Master and my Friend”); Medley’s “O Could I Speak” (“… my Savior, Brother, Friend”).)
Check out John 15:15.
What does such a view imply about a personal God?