In Reply to: Re: The Family is an extension of the American culture posted by Peace (not NDN Mir) on October 13, 2008 at 22:11:10:
I just give you an example as how some of American
Christianity is perceived in German mainstream TV...some time ago I watched per chance some topic covered in TV & I think it was about ID in
America...or whatever & then they showed some clip about a normal "function"/service of the Southern Baptists...people raising their arms, shouting whatever & it all was pretty similar to TF in outward appearance....I've been on a chat board of southern baptist, just reading, that's when I wanted to know more about the early roots of pentacostalism...it was informative...anyway, I guess they are fairly big in the States...if I remember right, but in the newsreport here they were brandmarked as a sect...I thought, that was "funny", in the sense , that there are plenty of "accepted" minor christian groups here, which wouldn't want to be called sect.
Howbeit, the problem you described, you find also elsewhere in the world...Christianity "of" the US yet IMO happens to be "louder", with more fanfare (with exception of SA may be??...but they are plenty joyful there I presume, Brazil??!)...may be it's not just by chance, that pentacostalism hit off big in the states...even though there were those meetings in Keswick in Britain before, from what I remember..wanting more, special revelations & some "real closeness", some preferred one is for me nowadays born of pride, the new apostolic church is in that similar, wanting some "bigger posts"...there again are real american historians, who
put exactly the finger on that problem - pride- & drew some conclusion, pointed to similarities, by comparing the US with Rome of old...could very well be...I don't want to revive now Berg's (or who was that other "prophet" in the US talking about it, which Berg mentioned?)equalling the US with Babylon (for Dave Hunt e.g. it's Rome, if I remember right)...but pride definetely comes before fall & to spend what you actually haven't earned yet is pretty foolish...non Christian to me, not only a trait of the US, but of many countries (too bad, they got the African leaders hooked on that way of life...)
I guess it's bad to make blanket statements about American Christianity in general, as there are so many dedicated believers over there, it's really touching & beautiful...some of the best google results on any Christian topic I seem to get from there or in English in general
In Germany you "feel" since a long time the effect of the overbearingly used historical critical method...I do believe, that one should acknowledge within faith & reason the results of the respective liguistic capacities, but to rely
so much/solely on them, that vast portions of the Bible become apocryphical writings, written under pseudonyms, is just a "lame game", to sink "one's boat"
I haven't finished reading the book of Bart D. Ehrman : Misquoting Jesus.The Story behind who changed the Bible and why...he was/is someone one would consider born again, from his testimony...teaches now at the University of North Carolina...having before learned at Moody Bible institute, Wheaton College and then Princeton Theological Seminary...
What he writes doesn't "sound" much different, then what many German Profs have taught in the last century...I want to say: American scholar's become " much more critical"
For much "fun", just have a look, how the European Community/council views creationism...close to horrific their bigoted attitude...in school I never had the chance to hear anything else...it's compulsory, although close to 40 years back for me :