Most Americans believe in God, affirm that Jesus Christ is in some sense divine and the Bible is the Word of God. 86% of American adults describe their religious orientation as Christian while only 6% describe themselves as atheists or agnostic. Judging by its commercial, political, and media success, the Evangelical movement seems to be booming. But is it still Christian? I am not asking that question glibly or simply to provoke a reaction, my concern is that we are getting dangerously close to the place in every-day American church life where the Bible is mined for quotes, but largely irrelevant; God is used as a personal resource rather than known, worshipped, and trusted; Jesus Christ is a coach with a good game-plan for our victory rather than a Savior who already achieved it for us; Salvation is more a matter of having our best life now than being saved from God’s judgment by God himself; and the Holy Spirit is an electrical outlet we can plug into for the power we need to be all we can be. As this new “gospel” becomes more obviously American than Christian, we all have to take a step back and ask ourselves whether increasingly Evangelicalism is a cultural and political movement with a sentimental attachment to the image or trademark or experience of Jesus more than a witness to Christ and him crucified. We have shown in recent decades that we really don’t have much stomach for this message of the Apostle Paul called a “rock of offense, foolishness to Greeks, and a stone that causes stumbling.” Far from clashing with the culture of consumerism, American religion seems not only at peace with our narcissism but gives it a spiritual cast.

—Michael Horton, The White Horse Inn

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