Just heard the following ad (on Fox News Sunday) for ChristianMingle.com, a dating site for Christians. Here is the 15-second narration, which was spoken over pictures of happy couples:
You’re single. You’re Christian. And you’re looking for a meaningful relationship. Find God’s match for you at ChristianMingle.com. Sometimes we wait for God to make the next move, when God is saying “It’s your time to act. The next move is yours.” Join free now. At ChristianMingle.com.
I bold-faced the key line, because it represents a distinct way of thinking that we see in a lot of popular Christian teaching today, particularly in suburban Protestant mega-churches (Joel Olsteen is an exemplar). Bridging Traditionalist thinking, i.e. “I need to obey God”, and Modernist thinking, i.e. “I need to express and succeed”, the message is: “God wants me to succeed.”
Though newly ascendant in mainstream Christianity (and reviled by conservative Traditionalists), this kind of “modernist spirituality” has long been a part of western culture, often seen in astrology and tarot columns in the popular media. For instance, in 30 seconds on astrology.com I found:
Reveal your destined road with a portrait of your soul’s intention for this lifetime, and start taking steps along your own personal life path.
Replace soul with God and you could be a Christian mingler!
