Moral Therapeutic Deism
“Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’”
John 8:31-32
The other day, I came across a phrase that I first discovered in seminary. It is called Moral Therapeutic Deism (MTD). It is a phrase that was created by sociologists Christian Smith and Melissa Lundquist Denton in their 2005 book “Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers.” They summarized MTD’s beliefs into five points.
See how many of these with which you agree:
- A God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on Earth.
- God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
- The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
- God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
- Good people go to heaven when they die.
These five principles are held by many who call themselves Christians. I’ve had countless conversations with friends over the years that adhere to these tenets of faith, and I went to seminary believing a few of them as well!
The trouble with this system of belief is that it is completely centered on the person and his/her needs. God is a divine butler who only appears when called. Nowhere does it talk about obedience to God or how we have sinned and need forgiveness. How would it account for suffering or self-sacrifice?
Moral Therapeutic Deism is dangerous because it is so subtle. It plays on our feelings (that's the Therapeutic aspect of it) and it negates a strong reliance on reason and the authority of the Bible. According to MTD, our personal feelings are the best means to understand the world and how we should act.
Yet, hear Jesus’ invitation afresh today, “If you continue in My word … you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” This Truth is not a system of beliefs or dependent on our feelings, but this Truth is a person. It is Someone who knows us as only the Creator can know us, and He teaches us with His truth and not how to be more like us but to be more like Him.
