Godmen and Cuddley Jesus

Mary Angelita Ruiz writes in First Things about how both trends in evangelicalism (warm fuzzy Jesus and the opposite, Mean and Wild Jesus) are symptoms of a disease which is the need to create Jesus into who we want and need him to be. She says :

[The Godmen movement is] mockable—and yet all such movements are trying to react against the bad and seek the good. The Jesus Mean and Wild men are confronting a serious problem. Many Christians are frustrated by the Christianity presented to them: too polite, too sunny, too nice to help them in their struggles. GodMen uses the straight-talking, guns-blazing atmosphere of its meetings to help its participants deal with sexual temptation and sin.

The aim of meditating on Christ is to know him and love him—all of him: the judge, the spouse, the brother, the child, the friend, the king, the shepherd. The aim of imitating Christ is to become like him. There are no shortcuts. Slogans, self-help books, rallies, makeovers—these will not substitute for worship of Christ, not as we might like him to be, but as he is.

Read the whole thing here.

(HT: Think Christian)