Over time I realized just how ingrained individualism is in our culture, and just how much harm that can do (the refusal of many people to wear masks to protect their neighbors from Covid-19 is a perfect example). But it wasn’t until recently that I realized just how deeply ingrained individualism is not only in our culture, but in the theology of the white American church.
I’m a firm believer in the Latin American theology called integral mission. This theology says that mission has two parts. We have to preach the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ, and we also have to work to make this world look more like the Kin-dom of Heaven. As theologian René Padilla said, we can’t talk about how many people died without knowing Christ, without also talking about how many of those died of hunger. When I preach, this is the gospel I share. I share the good news of Jesus, and I talk about the injustices of the world and charge people to go out and do something about it. But in the last couple of years I’ve gotten a lot of backlash for preaching that way, and it took me some time to realize that it’s rooted in a theology of individualism.
Most churches, including the one I grew up in, teach their kids that to be good Christians, we have to do things like go to church regularly, read our Bibles, pray, and put money in the offering plate. Extra good Christians might volunteer for mission projects or serve on committees or other such things, but what we’re essentially taught is that faith is personal. The things that we’re told make a “good Christian” are things that primarily impact our own personal spiritual lives. We praise those people who go above and beyond those things to serve others in their churches and communities, but they are seen as having especially exceptional faith that we may aspire to, but don’t really expect of most of our members. Just going out and feeding hungry people is a sign of great faith. Going out and trying to do something to end hunger for good is practically unheard of in churches. And this isn’t a new phenomenon. We’ve been teaching this kind of theology for decades. In the vast majority of US churches, everyone, from our oldest to our youngest members has been told that faith is personal, between the individual and God. We do things like going to church to build our own faith and help us grow closer to God as individuals. We’ve created an individualistic version of Christianity.
So when someone comes along and starts preaching that God is calling everyone in the church to go out and work for justice and make this world look more like the Kin-dom, many of the people sitting in our pews don’t take it very well. I finally realized that when I told my church “we have to go out and work for justice,” they were hearing, “I don’t think you’re a good enough Christian because you’re not doing this.” They were hearing, “I think the way you were taught to be a good Christian is wrong.” They’ve been told their whole lives that if they went to church and read their Bible and so on, then they would be good Christians (what makes one a “good Christian” and why we should do these things is a discussion for another day). But now I’m adding something else to their to do list. I’m telling them they’ve been missing something their whole lives. And I’m adding something that isn’t necessarily for their benefit, but for the benefit of our neighbors. They were taught faith is personal, between the individual and God, that we go to church to improve our own lives. Now they’re hearing faith is collective, that we are meant to use our faith to benefit everyone around us.
It’s contrary to American individualism. Individualism says, “me first,” but Jesus never taught us that. He taught us to put the good of the community first, to look out for our neighbors, to provide for their needs, even if it means giving sacrificially of ourselves. Christianity is not individualistic. Christianity is a collective faith. But somewhere along the line we’ve lost sight of that. If we want our churches to work for justice and peace in this world, first we have to challenge this individualistic, “me first” theology. Christianity was never just about me and my personal faith. Christianity is about community. It’s about lifting each other up, defending and providing for the weakest among us, and loving our neighbors as ourselves. It’s time that we stood up and said individualism has no place in our churches.