The Tragedy of the Tragedy of Dumbing Down Christianity

Just adding this nice photo from St. John's because I like it

This blog post is a response to this article I read on Relevant Magazine's website. The author will be happy to know that around here, Christianity has not been 'dumbed down.' In fact, I am able to read his article and weigh its arguments for myself. I am able to critique and and disagree. There is hope, then, for our faith, when there are people who, instead of just blindly accepting what we are given, think about it and decide whether it is good and right or untrue or even almost true. Warning: There is so much sass in this post. So much (Side note: Pray for me. I really AM trying to tone down my sass/snark).

To give a quick summary of this article: the author begins by telling the story of an incident in a coffee shop during which a customer finds out a barista goes to a Christian university and starts wielding "Dawkins, Hitchens, and Nye" against the barista. The author uses this as an example of how the modern American church has broken from its apparent past of being "the place where believers came to learn deep theology and robust doctrine," and decries emotional music and constant reminders that God loves you. The author argues "After all, if you really loved God, wouldn’t you want to learn as much about Him as possible?" But you know what, you really have to read the article to know all the problems I have with it. Here are a few of them:

• The story of the barista, I believe, is an irrelevant one. I think we all agree that it is super rude and tacky to challenge a stranger's religious believes while they are in a role serving you at a shop. That does not mean our faith is somehow less. It just means we are unprepared for a situation that really should not have happened in the first place. Personally, my faith does not rest on my ability to defend Jesus against an attack from a socially-inept atheist stranger.
•  "I’m saddened that atheists are so passionate about what they believe that they will read stacks of books in order to define their beliefs, while we are happy to float along the surface with a 'Hillsong-deep theology' and call it good. And we wonder why people are leaving the Church in droves." Is this the tragedy of dumbing down Christianity? Is it that people don't read stacks of books to define our beliefs? Are we taking our lead from atheists now? Did I miss something? I am obviously being super sassy but really. I think it's a bit dramatic to call this a tragedy. Also, the claim that "people are leaving the Church in droves" needs a caveat, I think. The sentence ought to be "people are leaving the [American evangelical] church in droves." In other countries and other traditions, this is not necessarily the case, and in fact the opposite may be true. In any case, I disagree that the reason people are turning away from American evangelicalism is a lack of book-learning (Fun irony here: the very type of faith movements that this author decries are the ones that are growing the fastest all over the world).
• "We have replaced rich, robust theology in the Church with emotional music and constant reminders that 'God is love and loves you and He’s your personal Savior and loves your soul …' These words are great at bringing outsiders through the doors (because they’re true by and large) but poor at growing believers into mature witnesses with rich understanding of the deep things of God." (emphasis added by me). Because they're true "by and large"? "By and large" indicates that those words are not true on some level. OK at this point I am just annoyed with the author. Why did he have to add that qualification? And anyway, what are the "deep things of God"? Here's my article: The real tragedy of Christianity is theology bros who think they somehow have a deeper knowledge of God than the rest of us.
• "A church that offers only emotional, feel-good theology is going to lose the long-term wrestling match to a well-read and convincing atheist nearly every time." This is the main problem with this article. It bases the entire "tragedy of dumbing down Christianity" on the fact that some people can't win arguments with atheists. Which is, apparently, a tragedy. But to me, that's not a tragedy. To me (and can I call myself an intellectual? Is that sort of presumptuous? But I live my life in the realm of ideas and research  so you know what-- I am GOING to call myself an intellectual). Anyway, to me the beautiful thing about the Christian faith is that it is all a dumbing-down. I mean God left heaven to become a baby who probably had to learn how to like, not poop himself and stuff.
• This tragedy of the "dumbing down of Christianity" implies that there was a time when Christianity was not dumb. The whole article is basically this author being against the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement. He just assumes that because of the emotionalism of the movement, it is somehow theologically void. He longs for the time when the Church was " the place where believers came to learn deep theology and robust doctrine." He seems to see this as prior to 200 years ago. This nostalgia for church past fails to realize the drawbacks of what once was. The sweeping dismissal of the Second Great Awakening as simply bringing a populist Christian religion again fails to acknowledge the ways that the Second Great Awakening changed the Church and American society for the better. If a populist Christian religion means that now women and black people, instead of just white men, can lead churches, then I am OK with that. I am sure that the Pharisees were complaining about the 'dumbing-down of Judaism' when Jesus came on the scene. I doubt that Peter, the rock on which Jesus built his church, even knew how to read.
• When calling against the "dumbing-down of Christianity", the author also excludes those who are not able to learn- what about children who cannot read yet? Can't they know God? What about people with intellectual disabilities? What about Duane? What about Adam? 
• OK I have a couple other little problems: the author invokes Hosea 4:6 in a pretty out-of-context way. And also for recommendations on who to read to know more about God, he gives four books, one of which he wrote, and one of which is by John Piper, an author I have a lot of problems with. 

Some words from everybody's favourite Pentecostal, Jonathan Martin

We don't worship a doctrine or a creed. We worship a person, Jesus Christ. On one hand I agree with the author. Yes, it is wonderful to learn more about Jesus. It is exciting. It is special. The more I think about God, the more I love God. But to base your whole article on why you should learn more about God on the fear that we might lose arguments with people, well, that is still just shallow. I honestly would lose 1000 arguments if it meant I could know Jesus more. This is not about besting an atheist in some sort of debate. If there is any tragedy of dumbing down of Christianity, it is this: We pretend to be dumb so we don't have to listen to the Holy Spirit. It has nothing to do with how many books we read or whatever-- it has to do with how well we are listening to God's voice.

What is your reaction to the article and my response? What am I missing? Do you think there is a 'dumbing down' of Christianity? Is this a problem? Why or why not?

"for as I have read the Gospels over the years, the belief has grown in me that Christ did not come to found an organized religion but came instead to found an unorganized one. He seems to have come to carry religion out of the temples into the fields and sheep pastures, onto the roadsides and the banks of rivers, into the houses of sinners and publicans, into the town and the wilderness, toward the membership of all that is here. Well, you can read and see what you think." (Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow)