Comfort-Culture Christians, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, and Some Dante

(Actually a lot of dante).

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken

Spirituality has replaced mainstream atheism in America, if not in actual belief, in stated beliefs. Even so, spirituality by itself doesn’t enliven the heart through painful seasons nor create a steady foundation. Contrary to popular opinion, all roads do not lead to God—at least, definitely not a god one would want to serve in eternity. Although there is goodness to be found in meditating, reading the Scriptures, and practicing kindness to one’s neighbor, those practices do not, at face value, ensure a repentant soul or a heart captured by the love of God.

Western Christianity has lost its westernization and its Christlikeness, instead replacing it with something like a spiritual circus, each tent or booth its own flavor of entertainment and high. To many spiritualists (and materialists), religion is like a sort of Golden Corral buffet, where each person files into a line with tray in hand, choosing to feast on delicacies that appear fine to the eye while dismissing those foodstuffs that appear less savory.

Universally, we have all undergone a sort of inner transformation as we partake in the natural art of mountainous landscape, awed at its far-reaching peaks and jagged silhouette. We shudder at the thought of falling from the top and we shiver when we think of what it could be like to climb up to the topmost reaches of those behemoths and behold the world at our feet. Awe is a human experience one must undergo to accept any form of religious expression, especially any in the Eastern vein, such as Judaism, Christianity, or Taoism. I cannot go a day without attempting to take in the wonder of the natural world, bathed in the mists of the eternal immaterial; indeed, no soul can. Our entire being is capable of passing through cosmic revelations like glory, beauty, wonder, pain, joy, loss, and beholding. Where there is no humility felt at the brewing of a great thunderstorm, no gentility expressed at the passing of a fawn, and no protectiveness realized in the aftermath of new parenthood there follows a complacency, a sort of disconnect between the transcendent and the material.

Spirituality has grown to now be openly evident in America. The spiritual dimension has always been present, regardless of our awareness of it, and yet now I seem to encounter all sorts of religious content no matter where I turn, obvious examples being many mainstream atheists turning to Christ or Jordan Peterson and his exploration of Christianity although he himself is not a self-proclaimed Christian.

Wariness chases closely after gratitude, however. Swinging from one side of the pendulum to the other is a mode each and every culture throughout the history of humanity is wonderful at. Finding balance is a tough task to undertake and rarely does any culture achieve it, or if achieved, uphold it. Eventually, every great empire falls; my concern is the rate at which we do and how we will go down: either with a fight or with some pitiful attitude of remorse and a shrug of the shoulders. Thankfully, each individual person has the choice to remain standing with feet deeply planted in the streams of living water, or, give it all up for a comfortable transience that seems solid until it falls apart in the harsh light of real evil.

As much as angels reveal themselves, so do demons. How-to TikToks on Wiccan magic and Asbury revivals are growing simultaneously. Yet, with all of the undisguised darkness, Satan prowls (1 Pe. 5:8). Prowling must, by definition, be covert, secretive, and require sleight of hand.

The lion stalks its prey, yellow eyes feasting on its meal before its claws have touched it. This lion, has watched the gazelle grazing peacefully in the far-reaching Serengeti plains. As the sun beats down upon the unsuspecting gazelle, it knows this will be an easy kill because the creature is separated from its herd—the herd rests farther afield—and it has been lulled into some illusion of safety from predatory animals.

A lion shadows our steps, even though we may already be in the fold of the Shepherd. Wolves disguised as sheep wander the pens looking for naive or unwary wanderers (Acts 20:29-30, Matt. 7:15), seeking someone to devour, grinning with ravenous mouths full of razors that would tear vulnerable creatures apart. Once fallen, angels do not take pity on victims or slaves; they are either on the side of the Victorious One or the damned—they do not have the option of salvation or restoration as we do. Those who were part of the rebellion in the first Fall will have nothing further to lose as they champion pain, evil, and for the purposes of our discussion: lies.

Dante Alighieri invites us to look past our feeble attempts at self-protection and fears of isolation toward the heavenly goal of truth in its purity, perfection, and holiness¹

Truth is a treasure we are on a quest to uncover for the rest of our brief lives on earth. I cannot believe that we would know all there is to know of truth, for God is truth, and I would not assert as a human I can know the fullness of truth whilst I travel as a pilgrim on my journey toward sainthood, since by implication that would mean I could know all of God, and that would be a falsehood. Paradoxically, Jesus—synonymous with truth—says to seek him with our whole hearts and we will find Him. Moreover, we are to walk in the light, 1 John being the primary source of this command. St John loves to communicate the essence of light as truth in its greatest capacity. These two work together, somehow.

Accuracy of truth must be tested like the spirits and yet we seek truth in holistic faith that our answers may not be tainted by this present darkness. Although we are redeemed—glory to God—we are still in a world at war, where evil ideas pervade culture and individual motivations. The element of faith is no small one. Faith and truth then, must join hands in the hearts of humanity and walk toward eternity together, one nurturing the other in love and care.

A Party of One

Paradiso, the epic conclusion to The Divine Comedy, finds Dante speaking to Cacciaguida, his great-great-grandfather who during his lifetime was an Italian crusader in the Second Crusade, knighted by Emperor Conrad III in the Holy Land.

You'll leave behind you everything you love
most dearly: this will be the arrow shot
first from the bow of exile. You shall prove
How someone else's bread can taste like salt,
and how it is a hard and bitter walk,
climbing and coming down another's stairs.
But the most grievous weight to bend your back
will be the company who share your fall,
an idiotic and malicious pack,
Who all ungrateful, mad and heartless all,
will act against you: but in short time they,
not you, will have red temples. For the end
Will prove the madness of their beastlike way--
so it will appear a handsome deed
to have made, of yourself, a party of one.
The Divine Comedy, Canto 17

In essence Cacciaguida prophesies Dante’s exile from his homeland, the bitterness of treading in another’s domain whilst your whole identity resides outside of yourself, in a realm you can never enter again. Following up this happy sentiment, Cacciaguida also shares with his great-great-grandson that he will eventually find himself walking a lonely road, the road less traveled, in the words of Robert Frost. Rather than mourn the loss of companionship though, Dante is predicted to rejoice that he becomes ‘a party of one’. Why? In isolation imposed by exile, why would even further deprivation of human friendship be seen as a reprieve, a gift even? Only in terms of the wretchedness of a person’s character would we decide in favor of loneliness on a perilous or unwanted journey. Apparently this seems to be the case for Dante in Paradiso.

comfort-culture christianity

John and Blaine Eldredge recorded a podcast discussion on maturity, a topic you’d imagine would be quite simple since the word seems easy to define. At almost an hour long, this podcast reminded me of what maturity actually is, lived out. Christians like to talk about growing up spiritually as if it were either a principled path of self-actualization or on the other hand a hellish experience of forsaking our humanity in order to become robotic saints. I haven’t found much on maturity that struck me as accurate or inviting in the least until I encountered the three-part series from John. He mentioned, perhaps coined, this term that stuck to my brain like a parasite: comfort-culture Christians. At the tail-end of their conversation, John recalls this truth for the church, that Christ calls us to more than being ‘adolescent disciples or comfort-culture disciples’.

Corresponding with CCC, almost synonymous with it, would be Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. A title hatched by sociologists Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton, MTD at its core holds five distinct beliefs as stated in Smith’s work, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers: (1) A God exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on Earth, (2) God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions, (3) The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself, (4) God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem, and (5) Good people go to heaven when they die. While Smith and Denton do not claim this is a separate ‘denomination’ or ‘sect’ of the religious Christian tradition, they explain that this ideology is affecting all manner of non-religious or religious people groups, which in effect is more dangerous than a distinct church which proclaims these five statements.

One cannot expect to find a self-proclaimed Moralistic Therapeutic Deist nor a person who would state in exact terms the statements listed above. Once again, it is infinitely more dangerous, this slow-drip poison that seeps into a cultural identity and makeup since believers of this kind of system would not deign to state in such ‘limiting’ terms what they believe.

MTD and CCC are the same; I intentionally chose to use both terms and bring them together because CCC is a less philosophically worded way to reveal the heretical teachings of MTD. MTD is a comfortable spa for the one would seek to label themselves as spiritual while lacking any real transcendent meaning. Purely functional spirituality is, in essence, an oxymoron. Spirituality cannot be purely functional in nature since spirituality, in the Christian tradition, is what claims us and not the other way around. To say that Christian spirituality is a sort of tool to be used is to grossly misinterpret the Scriptures and Jesus Himself.

Yet this is what MTD is: a tool of a sort, that we take out when we desire it and stuff it back away in the recesses of the dusty, dirty, and cobwebby garage once we find our purposes are fulfilled or worse, find a more suitable tool. MTD offers a sort of cocoon in which we wrap ourselves in the submissive, meek, and prudish love of Christ, with no sort of answer to the problems of evil, trial, and intense anguish that we experience as human beings. MTD’s answer to any lack would be that one must have more faith—an answer that doesn’t bear responding to since it holds little to no weight in logical or philosophical arguments.

Instead, MTD or comfort-culture Christians pursue a faith that is, in essence, whatever they feel is appropriate in their current emotional state of mind. Sentimentality is the evil of holiness, but not so to MTD. In fact, Smith and Denton appear to observe the opposite,

This is not a religion of repentance from sin, of keeping the Sabbath, of living as a servant of sovereign divinity, of steadfastly saying one's prayers, of faithfully observing high holy days, of building character through suffering, of basking in God's love and grace, of spending oneself in gratitude and love for the cause of social justice, etcetera. Rather, what appears to be the actual dominant religion among U.S. teenagers is centrally about feeling good, happy, secure, at peace. It is about attaining subjective well-being, being able to resolve problems, and getting along amiably with other people.

In his essay, scholar Michael Cunningham quotes Lee Hudson and Thomas Paine about Deistic theology, “According to Lee Hudson, Deism characteristics include “denial of miracles, critical views of the Bible, and the behavior of many people who act as if a supreme being has little or nothing to do with their lives.” Deist beliefs hold that God is one in nature in person and not triune. Paine remarked, “I believe in one God, and no more.”

MTD is an uninformed belief model at best and heresy at worst. Again quoting Cunningham, “Deists use detachment to reduce personal accountability to God and to explain His perceived shortcomings. In ascribing to this view, God is reduced to an ideal human whom humankind aspires to through reason.”

MTD seems to me a mash of New Age and Postmodern thought. New Age, because it ascribes to enlightenment, self-actualization, meditation, and karma as accepted practices. Postmodern, because they do not believe that there is one Truth which creates and embodies all other universal, transcendent, timeless truths; do not hold to the validity of any sort of ultimate authority such as Church teaching, tradition, or the Scriptures; they do not see God as Ruler or Judge but rather, Smith and Denton articulates, “as Divine Butler and Cosmic Therapist”.

Don’t you see him? Smell him upon the evening breeze? Once again, we catch the lion at his prowling, marking his victims, those luminous eyes gleaming as he crouches in the tall grasses. Contrasting Aslan with Scar from The Lion King, I find a polysemous representation available to the human mind. A creature dark, stamped always with a reminder of his rebellious fall from grace, seeking to sow destruction in the mind of the young successor after his father’s demise. Satan, the enemy of order, souls, and reconciliation, seeks one to drag into the pits of eternal damnation where he reigns as king, yet still victim to the flames that cause him anguish. As Milton represents him, he is doomed to stand outside of the consummate union of Christ and the Church, so he seeks to poison the bride against the groom in any manner that would reap hell.

MTD and slothful Christianity is a tool in his belt that he utilizes, especially in the American church to distract us from our inner groanings. He would seek to annihilate truth, but he must start small, very small, lest we be too aware of his tactics. He sets traps that seem so delectable to the eye of those who are feasting at the buffet tables, smirking and sneaking about whilst blame is administered to the intellectuals of the age, government, education, and our neighbor. He laughs up at us from Hell, scorning love and grace as if they were mere nothings. Satan is the world’s first utilitarian. Studying these heresies is worth less than a penny if it does not reveal to us the powers and principalities in the higher places.

Truth then, is our enemy’s greatest fear, for truth is the light by which we see, and light. MTD seeks self-fulfillment above all else, holding it as a banner above the crowd of young confused souls, proudly championing any set of beliefs that will uphold their personal happiness, which paradoxically, leads to utter mental, spiritual, and physical ruination. Since self-fulfillment is highest priority, any truth that stands in the way must be refuted by false argument or simply ignored. Eventually, these believers will isolate and walk away from those who would desperately seek to lead their departing brothers back toward Christ and His truth.

Cacciaguida pronounces all of what has been written above in much fewer words, elegantly spoken to his grandson Dante, the burden beginning to grow heavy on his protégée’s shoulders. Cacciaguida would seek to embolden Dante to ‘Write what you know’ as Katherine sings in Newsies. Just as you or I would have hesitations toward Cacciaguida’s speech, so did Dante.

Too Timid a Friend of Truth

So I began as one whose thoughts will waver,
craving advice from him who sees things straight,
who wills things straight, who loves. "Father, I see
Time digs its spurs to hasten in its gait
against me, and to deal me such a blow,
if a man disarmed, he'll bear the heavier brunt--
Then I should arm myself with prudence now,
that if they take from me my dearest land,
I won't lose all the rest by what I sing.
Down in the world that's bitter without end,
and on the mountain from whose lovely peak
the eyes of my sweet Lady lifted me,
And then from light to light in Heaven I've learned
of things which, if I told, many a mouth
would find the flavor pungent as a leek,
But if I'm a too timid friend of truth,
with those who'll call these days the days of old,
I fear I'll lose the fame that lengthens youth."

Dante shares his concerns with Cacciaguida, declaring his need for advice on how he ought to proceed even with his fears in tow. “Then I should arm myself with prudence now, that if they take from me my dearest land, I won’t lose all the rest by what I sing.” Proud of his love for Italy, he does not desire to forsake her nor his fellow citizens. Dante, in all of his magnificent visions, still shrinks back into what he would deem prudence but is really a questioning of faith that has already been encouraged. He knows the immanent value to be expounded upon in the adventures he has undergone, passing through the depths of the earth, journeying amongst the travelers in Purgatorio, and finally ascending to Paradiso where he is reunited with Beatrice, his love, his life. In all of these events, in the one-hundred cantos, Dante knows deep within himself that these dreams, visions, and realities, must be shared with the world in order to reinstate truths that are timeless, pure, and holy.

Particularly to my love are the lines, “But if I’m a too timid friend of truth, with those who’ll call these days the days of old I fear I’ll lose the fame that lengthens youth.”

These words fill me with awe.

Dante, a man of genius, but a man of humanity and heart. He knows his own flesh, his own folly, his own vice. What truth to tell? How to tell it? Who to tell it to? All these questions and more Dante must have encountered as he reeled at the discovery of his future exile. He knows the consequences of speaking half-truths out of discomfort: that he will join those who have fallen away from accepting metaphysical reality as it is, calling the golden age of enchantment, the days of old. Truth unsoiled by lies is enchantment. It is fairytale. Christ, as Lewis has said somewhere, is the greatest myth, because it the truest and most real myth. Truth comes from Christ, naturally it follows that all of truth is a land of enchanting fairytales that intoxicates the blood and gives wings to our souls that would otherwise be ontologically light, as John Eldredge and Brent Curtis talk about in The Sacred Romance.

Do you ever marvel at the lasting dominance of the Sistine Chapel, Mona Lisa, medieval tomes illustrated with gold ink, relics that are revered; and the more abstract ancient artifacts such as Church tradition, mythical saints (which aren’t really simply ‘mythical’, in the modern sense of the word, if we are holding myth as the highest form of reality), the presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the cleansing that comes from confession, and Heavenly community that enlivens church buildings as those inside sing hymns and spiritual songs to Christ? What about St. Peter’s basilica or icons that go back centuries, said to weep tears of myrrh? Surely these things cannot be held at the same level as high-rise apartment complexes in NYC, or in American church sanctuaries which are devoid of any sort of mythic meaning or fairy-like enchantment. It would seem a sort of sacrilege to put these two opposing systems of reality in the same category and call it a day.

Dante’s words bring to mind these diametrically opposite views. He is aware of humanity’s earnestness to leave behind what would pain them most—indeed, pain accounts for our anxiety to ‘progress’ as quickly as possible, rocketing into the foggy future without a backward glance. We cannot reconcile with the past, we cannot make it do as we wish, nor change it, and so we leave it far behind. He fears for his own timidity to run ahead of truth rather than walk hand in hand with Truth as a guide for life and love. Just as those who rode the bus to Heaven, in Lewis’ The Great Divorce, so we find ourselves afraid to cut our feet on the truest realities that can be known. So we replace them with half-truths, comfortable doctrine, heresy, if we must.

Dante and Beatrice

Speak Up, Dante

In reply to Dante’s fears, Cacciaguida calls him to attention, firmly pulling his grandson up by the scruff of his neck, dusting him off, perhaps slapping his cheek to reawaken him from hesitation.

"A clouded conscience that is darkened by
its own shame or the shame its kin may catch
will indeed find your words too harsh, too brusque.
Nevertheless, with every falsehood scrapped,
let everything you've seen be manifest,
and where they've got the mange, let them go scratch.
For if your words are sharp at the first taste,
they'll leave behind a living nourishment
when they have been digested at the last."

In systematic order, the grandfather tells Dante three things: Firstly, there will be those who abhor Dante and his so-called ‘truth’. Unfortunately for Dante (and us), Cacciaguida doesn’t deny Dante’s fear as irrelevant; instead he confirms it. “Yes, Dante, you will lose companionship and you may even garner hostility against yourself.”

Secondly, Cacciaguida spurs Dante by sharing with him that every lie exposed will be replaced with a truth manifested from Dante’s journeys. In other words, there will be another narrative to replace the false one that would be whispered into the ears of Dante’s fellows.

Lastly, Dante is taught the timeliness of truth’s message. We have all experienced in our personal relationships when something we say is delivered at the wrong time or in the perfect time, depending on thousands of factors outside of our control.

Truth costs us. It cannot be denied. For some it may cost us what we always thought of as a system, group, or person, forcing us to confront realities we do not think we’d be able to handle. For others, it may be the upheaval of our entire material lives to replant somewhere else because where we are would have us deny reality for what it is. I turned down a job a couple of weeks ago because it conflicted with my views. I would have been working closely with a family who saw it fit to allow their five-year-old son to become a girl if he so chose to, and in my reality, which is to say, in the real reality, that is unacceptable, it is mental abuse of children.

What do we gain by such a momentous loss? The satisfaction of laughing in the devil’s face as we expose his lies to our fellow image-bearers. There will be a casting out of Satan into the outer darkness for eternity, but I like to think in some way our uncovering of his lies in this lifetime is a foreshadowing of his eventual defeat. Freedom, restoration, healing, and redemption in relationships with others and God replace what we thought we couldn’t live without.

Truth is timely; we cannot know when it will strike true. Like an arrow shot from a bow, it will find its mark in the heart of its victim. I cannot create anxiety by advising you that there is always a right time to reveal or hold back. I am fond of saying that there is no such thing as a right time, although there is certainly such thing as a wrong time. Truth is more powerful than any lie, which is why we too often partner with the enemy to deceive ourselves and others by smothering Christ’s truth. Seasons know when to come and when to go; our bodies go through cycles without us really aiding them in any conscious way; the world turns despite the injustices upon it. Depend on the honesty of truth—it will prevail.

Delusion Feels Safer, Sometimes

Before anything I can say is misconstrued or seen as some excuse to see others as the enemy, I quote St. Paul, that we do not fight a battle against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces of darkness. Furthermore, Cacciaguida finishes his first speech detailing Dante’s exile with these lines, “Don’t look upon your neighbors, though, with hate. Your life will be enfutured far enough to see them punished for their broken faith.” Consequences follow the people who willfully partner with darkness, no matter how far they run. Judgment day comes for the wicked and the righteous respectively. Our place is not to cast final judgment though we ought to exercise discernment in decision-making, which naturally leads to the exposing of falsity and a firm stance on truth. If we house hate in our hearts for our neighbor, the motivation to share Christ’s words with them will be tainted; Ironside’s view of light as purity would not stand for our hatred.

Most of you have felt the pain of leaving behind all that you loved or else having felt the pain of all that you loved has left you behind. Either way, the damage done is deep, sometimes transcending the long-standing promise that truth and virtue are worth every injury committed. ‘Hurt people hurt people’, they say; it seems like a royal cop-out when said to a person whose heart is bleeding and whose identity is shattered. As hardy as we are, we can break like glass. Oftentimes in our vulnerable states, truth is not worth the effort of losing positions, relationships, and statuses—safety first before other concerns. Flight or fight mode becomes our response to any and every anxiety or trial we come in contact with, and our confidence is gone. Truth has let you down, and betrayed you; virtue is not a kind ruler who rewards handsomely.

But the most grievous weight to bend your back
will be the company who share your fall,
an idiotic and malicious pack,
Who all ungrateful, mad and heartless all,
will act against you: but in short time they,
not you, wiill have red temples.

Lies seem all too real compared to the airy fairy truths that float about out of reach of our substance-seeking hands. At least lies seem tangible, satisfying, and ‘realistic’.

I can’t say the pain will be mitigated or even disappear in your lifetime. I cannot give false assurance or comfort, because that would mean for me to t discard the realities of bearing our crosses.

Instead, I will direct my eyes to the sun that shines brighter than our present darkness. As Beatrice guides Dante’s eyes away from all that would be beneath Christ, back onto the One who desires Dante’s heart most, so I do for you, friend. Nothing stands against the brilliance of the light of Jesus Christ, our Sun. Heaven’s gates await us, as they did Pilgrim in Bunyan’s allegorical narrative of the Christian journey we must all undertake in this lifetime. Our hearts thirst for those words, “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Come, enter into the joy of the Lord.”

Cacciaguida has perhaps better words than I to give to the weary Christian.

This is the reason why, within these spheres,
upon the mount and in the sorrowing pit,
you've been shown only souls whose names men know,
Because the mind that hears won't set one food
of faith in an example that presents
a never-heard-of or a hidden root,
Nor in all but the clearest evidence.

Dante’s heavy load born through the three stages of his journey is worth more than fine gold, if he can spin knowledge into wisdom through his writing. Pointless never can be a word used to describe our tears spilled nor bloodshed in the pursuit and fight for eternal truths, if we seek wholeheartedly the good of our neighbor and the glory of the Kingdom.

My friend, do not let the enemy drag you down or coerce you with falsehoods. Anything less than the freedom of Christ is a half-truth at best and black deception at worst. Carry on the good fight—you are not alone in this war. The angels of God watch our every footstep; the saints in Heaven accompany us into combat with each inner and outer enemy that we face; Christ Himself is at the head of the divine army, completing our victory. The Orthodox Christians see the Mother of God, the Theotokos, as a warrior of our faith, a champion of her children. We have the whole history of the faith behind us to withstand the winds of change that would seek to overthrow the Church and her Lord.

What truths do you find yourself wrestling with in your hearts and lives? Please share in the comments.

If you’re interested in checking out my other post on Dante, read it here,

I’ve also begun a Wednesday Roundup, sharing all of the things trending in my life, with you all.

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1. “Light is used throughout Scripture as a synonym for infinite holiness, purity, perfect righteousness. “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” There is nothing in God but absolute purity, absolute perfection, absolute holiness.” Ironside, Addresses on the Epistles of John and an Exposition of the Epistle of Jude