the truth shall set you free

Bill McKibben has a piece in the August issue of Harper’s Magazine entitled The Christian Paradox:

America is simultaneously the most professedly Christian of the developed nations and the least Christian in its behavior. That paradox—more important, perhaps, than the much touted ability of French women to stay thin on a diet of chocolate and cheese—illuminates the hollow at the core of our boastful, careening culture.

Ours is among the most spiritually homogenous rich nations on earth. Depending on which poll you look at and how the question is asked, somewhere around 85 percent of us call ourselves Christian. Israel, by way of comparison, is 77 percent Jewish. It is true that a smaller number of Americans—about 75 percent—claim they actually pray to God on a daily basis, and only 33 percent say they manage to get to church every week.

85 percent? That doesn’t exactly jive with the concept of a strait and narrow way. Of course, only 33% “manage” to abide by the clear command to worship with other Christians, which solidifies the point; we can call ourselves Christians all day long, but who are we fooling? This is the behavior that calcifies non-Christians’ stance against Christ: hypocrisy.

Then again, it all boils down to the fact that Jesus knows the difference:

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’