The Idolatry of "Good Person" Christianity

The False Religion of Our Day

In 2005, sociologist Christian Smith and his coauthor Melinda Lundquist Denton coined the term “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism” (MTD) to describe the prevailing religious view of modern youths.

While it can look like fancy sociologist-speak, it breaks down quite easily. It’s moralistic, because you should strive to be morally good. It’s therapeutic, because you receive comforts like answered prayer and the hope of heaven. And it’s deism, because it sees God as not making any hands-on demands of our lives.

As a concept, their term is brilliant. We are surrounded by millions of people who want the comfort and soothed conscience a religion brings without actually submitting themselves to anything.

As a term, it’s not as brilliant. It can be a bit of a mouthful. I’ve started calling it “Good Person” Christianity because that’s the self-branding of so many MTD adherents. They are not worried about being holy or righteous in God’s sight, because they have convinced themselves they are “good people” and that’s enough.

In reality, it’s just the latest form of idolatry.

How is it idolatry?

It’s idolatry of self. By taking up deism, we become the captains of our own ships. Anyone can say “I’m a good person,” because they themselves are the arbiters of what is good.

To that end, being a good person can mean anything. This is why you see so many claiming to be Christians while supporting LGBTQ causes or abortion or any of the other celebrated sins of our day. This is why so many others claim to be Christians while living exactly like the world. You can even show up to church every week while doing whatever you want Monday-Saturday without feeling the slightest twinge of guilt.

And, anyone can convince themselves of whatever therapeutic feeling they want, because they are their own god. “Of course I’m going to heaven. I’m a good person.”

This is why we must not mince words about two key doctrines

First, the doctrine of sin.

It’s pretty hard to square “I’m a good person” with “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). It doesn’t matter how good you think you are when God sees even your best deeds as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). No amount of good deeds outweigh the bad, because the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

In the age of a “He Gets Us,” timid Jesus, there is no sense of the wickedness of sin that plagues every human heart. “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” type of preaching needs to be balanced with grace-filled preaching. But grace-filled preaching also needs to be balanced with “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” type of preaching.

This is why the Gospel is such good news. If your sin isn’t a big deal, then Jesus’ death isn’t that big of a deal. “To whom little is forgiven, the same loves little” (Luke 7:47b). It is because sin is so ugly and costly that the Gospel says so much about God’s love (Romans 5:6-8).

Second, the doctrine of discipleship.

The words “obedience,” “holiness,” “righteousness,” and “submission” do not exist in Good Person Christianity. Luke 9:23 with its demands to deny self, take up a cross, and follow Christ is a foreign concept. Who needs all that when you can just “be a good person” and call it a day?

Christianity is the end of self. You don’t get to claim ownership of any part of your life when you sign it over to Christ’s Lordship. A Christianity which goes along with God so long as He agrees with our sensibilities and desires is no Christianity at all.

Here’s where I’m going to take a break from being “too negative” and give some due credit to the churches of Christ.

Good Person Christianity, on the level it is seen in broader Christendom, just does not fly in most of our congregations. We are people of the book, and that false religion doesn’t align with the book at all.

I think it’s a tremendous feather in our cap that when you see some celebrity living the Hollywood lifestyle, getting pregnant out of wedlock, spewing profanity, etc. and then saying “I’m a Christian,” they almost certainly do not mean “I’m a member of the church of Christ.”

To that end, I want to exhort us to double down on our strength. We take the Bible literally, and we take it seriously. So let’s excel still more in our teaching and church discipline. What a world drowning in “Good Person Christianity” needs to see is a counter religion that sets the bar for holiness as high as God sets it. We’re shining the light they need to see… let’s determine to shine it even brighter.

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For more on MTD, check out this week’s Think Deeper Podcast episode, ‘Don’t “Follow Your Heart’”

For a deeper dive on how to live out a fully-committed lifestyle, check out Transformed Faith, a book I co-wrote with Dr. Brad Harrub on 13 of the day’s most pressing issues for Christians.

And, go give Dr. Brad a follow on his new Substack!