Cafeteria Christianity: Pros and Cons

The term cafeteria Christianity is rarely used in a positive way. But maybe that should change. I've been thinking about this since I read an article earlier today at Charisma's web site.

According to Charisma, Ulf Ekman, a Swedish Lutheran priest turned independent charismatic pastor is ruffling some feathers because some of the things he's saying are considered too "Catholic-friendly." He says that Pentecostals and charismatics have become "sectarian and elitist." (I'm not sure about Sweden but I've definitely seen evidence of this stateside.)

“Our understanding of revival is too narrow,” he said. “We make too strict a distinction between revivalist and cultural expressions of Christianity.”

I'll buy that.

Viewing the Catholic Church as the “whore of Babylon” is “untenable,” he added. “With so much apostasy and denying of fundamental truths among Protestants, even in Pentecostal and charismatic churches, who are we to point fingers at the Catholics?” Ekman said. “The whore is present in all denominations. But then again the body of Christ is also in all denominations and certainly in the Catholic Church.”

Hear, hear.

Ekman has donated money to the new Church of Unity to be built at Östanbäck, and in a sermon at the monastery he referred to Mary as the “eternal virgin”—Catholic terminology signifying that Mary remained a virgin in spite of her giving birth to Jesus and being married. “That was but one sentence that I threw out to test if there are dogmas that we have let go off,” Ekman said of the reference. “I find it very interesting that all reformers up until and including Wesley held the view [of Mary’s virginity]. The other interpretation was first introduced by liberal theologians.”

Now it gets a little sticky. Wesley did seem to take the Roman Catholic view on this, at least in the writings I was able to dig up. (See his 1749 Letter to a Roman Catholic, or check out his notes for Matthew 1:25.) But even John Wesley wasn't right about everything. :-) (What a smooth segue this provides back to the original topic!)

Being a cafeteria Christian is simply selecting which religious doctrines you'll follow and which ones you won't. And whether or not we admit it, we all do it. For years I struggled with whether or not infant baptism is acceptable. As United Methodists, we baptize infants and children, but for the longest time, I didn't know if I agreed with the official view or not. I finally resolved the issue this year and my view is now "solidly Methodist". But I didn't decide to agree with infant baptism because it's the Methodist view. (Some spiritual warfare stories from the mission field are actually what got me off the fence. I'll write more about that some other time.) The point is, I had to work it out for myself.

Cafeteria Christianity at its best allows us to stay in community and respect each other as fellow believers. I know people who make a big deal about apostolic succession. I don't, but we're still friends and brothers in Christ! Does that mean it's okay to believe anything? No, of course not. But it does mean that it's acceptable to give people space to figure out things for themselves. Do we want people believing something because it's the "official church view" or because it's a personal conviction they've worked out? Cafeteria Christianity allows me to hang out with my argumentative Calvinist friends without doing something that might get me on the 10:00 news. It also allows mainline Christians to be evangelical, Catholics to be charismatic and Pentecostals to observe Advent.

The downside of cafeteria Christianity is that it can cause us to close our minds to other viewpoints and reject or undermine authority. Even when I was really struggling with the infant baptism question, I never used the issue to cause trouble in my church or cast doubt on the validity of the infant baptisms that were taking place. And I think my attitude of submission helped pave the way for me to honestly reexamine what I believed. If we develop mindsets that are too strong, especially on peripheral issues, how will we hear God if he decides to speak through someone who's challenging our views?

Comments

[Jeff Lutz]

I agree Shane. To me the most important part of my faith is that it is Christ centered. I then pull the rest of my doctrinal ideas from a variety of churches that believe in Christ as the center.

[Craig L. Adams]

My main concern here is: how well the various items from the Theology Cafeteria fit together. A lot of UMs in the pew have a theology hodge-podge that doesn't seem to hold together well.

[Clara Dvorak]

I think you are right alot of people do have a cafeteria theology and I don't think I agree with that. I don't think we can take what we like from the Bible and say that is right and disregard what we don't like. I know different demonations disagree with all kinds of things. We need to follow the live of Jesus. How did he live, what did he do, what did he tell us to do? Sometimes we make things do hard. He told us to love him with all of our hearts and to love and others. If we did our jobs things here would be different. I know things aren't simple, that we have sin in this world but some things are not important like do we have the right colors up for the season. Does Jesus really care? He just wants our hearts to be right. Does Jesus care if the town drunk just walked into the church service and sat down, no he cares how the person next to him ministers to his needs. We have some big problems in the Methodist churches and until we give our lives all of our lives over to Jesus to let him take control and untell we are ready to take that first step in getting to really know that person who needs that listening ear we will fail in being the church that Jesus wants us to be. My verse for this year is Psalms 143:8 how I ask God to show me where to walk every day and how he loves me. Sorry I could go on and on. I just wish everyone could get excited about my Jesus who loves me and everyone else.

[Karen Bueno]

The great power that created the universe does not care what we believe. Our response to God's creation is to be expansively grateful, and to live lives that extend God's blessings to all of God's creation. The life of Jesus is a prime example of how to live. "Cafeteria Christianity" is just fine, as long as our lives reflect our status as the body of Christ.