{"id":11268,"date":"2018-06-30T17:35:51","date_gmt":"2018-07-01T00:35:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/?p=11268"},"modified":"2019-10-25T09:11:27","modified_gmt":"2019-10-25T16:11:27","slug":"unpracticed-faith-is-functional-atheism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/2018\/06\/unpracticed-faith-is-functional-atheism\/","title":{"rendered":"Unpracticed Faith is Functional Atheism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Unpracticedby Regis Nicoll –
\nUnpracticed faith\u2014that is, faith without works\u2014St. James writes, is dead. It has no transformative or sanctifying power; it is intellectual assent that descends into paralyzing doubt (or worse), which is no faith at all. That\u2019s because faith is revealed, confirmed, and made perfect by our actions not affirmations (for by their fruits you will know them<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Consider a child, standing nervously at the edge of the pool, coaxed by his father to dive into the water. He has a choice: plunge headlong into the pool where the able arms of dad are ready to receive him, or remain at water\u2019s edge frozen in fear, dithering in doubt. He may sincerely believe that his father won\u2019t let harm come to him, but until he jumps, fear holds him captive in functional unbelief, revealing that his faith is in a danger that his father cannot save him from. <\/p>\n

When the \u201crubber\u201d of belief meets the \u201croad\u201d of decision, a choice has to be made. There is no middle road other than doubt, which defaults to unbelief and tosses us to and fro on the agnostic waves of uncertainty. Indeed, we will never walk on the troubled waters of life until faith moves us to get out of the boat!<\/p>\n

faith is revealed, confirmed, and made perfect by our actions not affirmations<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Functional Atheists<\/strong>
\nBehavioral studies by various pollsters suggest that the vast majority of Americans who self-identify as Christian are functional non-Christians, if not atheists, with rates of divorce, sexual promiscuity, substance abuse, and other behaviors on par with those of their non-Christian neighbors. (By their fruits you will know them.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

In his 2001 book Growing True Disciples<\/em>, George Barna reported, \u201cTo the naked eye, the thoughts and deeds (and even many of the religious beliefs) of Christians are virtually indistinguishable from those of nonbelievers.\u201d Six years later he similarly reported<\/a>, \u201cborn again Christians are statistically indistinguishable from non-born again adults on most of the behaviors studied.\u201d The studied behaviors included lying, substance abuse, and extra-marital sex. (By their fruits you will know them.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

For example, although the Church teaches that sex is reserved within the marital bond of one man and one woman, 94 percent<\/a> of adults admit to having had non-marital sex. Considering that roughly 70 percent of the\u00a0U.S.\u00a0populace is Christian, it is safe to say that\u00a0a lot<\/em>\u00a0of Christians\u2014very likely, the majority\u2014are guilty of sexual sin. (By their fruits you will know them.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

A Christian I\u2019ll call \u201cKurt\u201d is a case in point. Over breakfast one morning, as Kurt was telling me about his girlfriend, I was taken aback when he breezily insinuated the sexual nature of their relationship. When I asked how he squared that with Church teaching, his jaw went slack as if I\u2019d asked about the burial rites of the Inuit. After an awkward pregnant pause, he replied, \u201cI\u2019m committed to her!\u201d as if that would resolve any biblical difficulty I might bring up.\u00a0I brought up a few. He was unmoved. A few months later I heard that he was in another \u201ccommitted\u201d relationship.<\/p>\n

By their fruits you will know them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

On the issue of abortion, the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute found<\/a> that in 2014, 54 percent of women who chose abortion were Christian (24 percent Catholic and 30 percent Protestant) compared to 46 percent who were non-Christian. That finding led the Jesuit publication, America<\/a><\/em>, to report that Catholics are just as likely to get an abortion as anyone else. What\u2019s more, although the Catholic Church stands resolutely against abortion, more Catholics favor<\/a> its legality than oppose it. Every\u00a0Sunday\u00a0morning at the Catholic church I attend, I\u2019ve noticed a car in the parking lot with a bumper sticker stating, \u201cSTOP the GOP war on women!\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of these people most likely would consider themselves good Christians. They are active in church, perhaps theologically conservative, even espousing conventional Church teaching. Yet, when it comes to the way they actually live they have cultivated, what Mary Eberstadt has called, the \u201cwill to disbelieve\u201d what the Church plainly teaches.<\/p>\n

By their words, they profess faith in Christ, but by their actions they reveal that their faith is in their instincts, urges, feelings, and the secular sirens of culture: Dear Abby, Oprah, Joel Osteen. (By their fruits you will know them.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

Barna\u2019s research suggests some underlying causes here. From surveys taken between 2005 to 2010, Barna found<\/a> that less than 20 percent of Christians are committed to spiritual formation. What\u2019s more, says Barna, \u201cless than one out of ten have talked about their faith with a non-Christian, fasted for religious purposes, and had an extended time of spiritual reflection during the past week.\u201d<\/p>\n

He goes on to report that among self-identified Christians, less than 3 percent \u201chave surrendered control of their life to God, submitted to His will for their life, and devoted themselves to loving and serving God and other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unpracticed faith, faith without works, is dead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Just think\u201470% of Americans profess to be Christians, and yet as few as 3% could be called disciples\u2014that is, believers who have dedicated their lives to become more like Jesus by learning to do the things he commanded us to do. The rest are people of unpracticed faith who, if church members, are in effect \u201cbelonging-non-believers.\u201d<\/p>\n

In result, we have Christians who are exuding more the stench of death than the aroma of life and a Church that is losing its social and moral capital in an ever-increasingly secularized world. Lord have mercy!<\/p>\n

Excerpts from: Crisis Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Regis Nicoll – Unpracticed faith\u2014that is, faith without works\u2014St. James writes, is dead. It has no transformative or sanctifying power; it is intellectual assent that descends into paralyzing doubt (or worse), which is no faith at all. That\u2019s because faith is revealed, confirmed, and made perfect by our actions not affirmations (for by their … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":497,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[68,37,15,35,19,24,58,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-culture-war","category-moral-issues","category-philosophy","category-popular-culture","category-religion-in-america","category-roman-catholic","category-sanctity-of-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/497"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}