Aussie Gospel Distortions?
At our Red Door Small Group, we recently finished watching the documentary series called ‘American Gospel’ alongside our Red Door mini-series in the book of Galatians preached by Josh and Tibor.
The message of the film was that the American culture has distorted the gospel by adding promises of “the American dream” of health wealth and prosperity or subtracting from the gospel due cultural factors like the influence of postmodernism. With your knowledge of both cultures, do you think the Australian culture has the same emphasis in churches? If not, can you comment on some dangers and distortions from our Australian culture of the Gospel? What may be typical in Australian churches for us to be alert to? ~ Joanna Justus
Hi Joanna, thanks for your insightful question!
I think the challenges facing the gospel in Australia are subtly different to those facing the American church. At the root of this are the differences between our cultures in general.
For example, American* culture is a lot more entrepreneurial than ours. People are generally much more motivated to start new businesses, look for new opportunities, and work towards self-actualisation. Essentially, America is seen by most Americans as a land of opportunity for those willing to work for it.
Conversely, Australians tend to think of themselves as already having most of what they want. There have been no wars fought on our lands, there are few threats to our safety, and our abundance of natural resources has shielded us from the worst of history’s financial woes. Furthermore, the government here is much (much) more inclined to redistribute wealth through social services etc., so Australians have less incentive to build something for themselves.
To use a biblical metaphor, Americans see themselves as the Israelites in Egypt, working towards a vision of the Promised Land (which, by the way, is why every new President is seen as a type of Moses come to deliver them).
Australians, conversely, know they are no longer slaves in Egypt (life is too good!) but often find themselves grumbling about everything anyway (just as the freed Israelites did.)
Perhaps the Prosperity Gospel has taken root in America far more than it has here because Americans are looking for someone or something to help them realise their dreams.
You say Jesus can make me rich and healthy and successful? Sold!
If we have a similar prevailing sin in Australia it’s Lifestyle Christianity. This phenomenon has been around for a while, but social media has turbocharged it. It tends to take root in “successful” churches, i.e. churches that have a recognisable ‘brand’, are wealthy, and are attracting a crowd (in person and online). They are the church version of an influencer: rich, attractive, and well-known. My daughter would say they have skibidi sigma rizz.
Like the Prosperity Gospel, Lifestyle Christianity makes much of material wealth, but it also prizes high self-esteem, successful marriages, happy families and advancing careers.
Which raises the question: How is it any different from secular Australian culture? The answer is: it isn’t. Honestly, there’s almost nothing distinctive about it. Which is why it’s both easy for an Aussie to join such a church, and just as easy to leave.
And lest you think that this is only a danger for “those” churches (the skibidi ones), I think there’s a Home Brand version of this in churches that look a lot more like ours. They may not have the massive congregation, or the money, or the social media reach, but they’re worshipping the same Lifestyle idols. We can add “Jesus” to our songs, but we all know what we’re really worshipping.
Joanna, this has turned into a longer answer than I planned, but let me finish by alerting us to one more danger for Aussie Christians: we don’t know how good we’ve got it.
This is true of us as a culture in general. Our national anthem boasts of the abundance we possess in land, wealth, and liberty, and it speaks truly. To live in Australia is an incredible privilege. Yet we take it for granted and often focus on what we don’t have.
This undoubtably infects our relationship with God himself. How often do we find ourselves overwhelmed with gratitude to God for his grace, not just in providing what we have, but in giving us New Life in Christ? We hear Paul talk about “the riches of his grace, which he lavished on us” (Ephesians 1:8) but do we feel and act like it’s true?
I’ve had the joy (and felt the shame) of worshipping with Christians in other countries who pour out their hearts with genuine thanksgiving to God for his grace. More often than not, these Christians live in poverty-stricken cultures that look absolutely nothing like ours, and certainly nothing even approaching the carefully curated image of Lifestyle Christianity.
But they have Christ. And Christ plus nothing equals everything.
Love, JS
*Speaking of a unified ‘American culture’ is obviously problematic since we are talking about a nation of over 300 million people spread over a vast area. America is essentially a mono-lingual Europe, meaning culture varies widely from region to region.
