Religion: Salvation by Incantation

The biggest threat to Protestantism today is Fundamentalism and popular evangelism, according to Charles Clayton Morrison, retired editor of the Christian Century. "What a travesty of the Christian faith this idolatry of a book called the Bible has been," he writes in the current Century, "[as well as] the false representation of what 'the Bible says.' How can one understand what the Bible says without knowledge of what the Bible is?

"The repetitious emphasis upon the exceeding sinfulness of man and the exceedingly simple way of enjoying the forgiveness of God by registering one's repentance in the signing of a card—this would be like playing a child's game if it were not done under such solemn pretension . . . The glib promise made over and over again that one thus 'receives the forgiveness of his sins and will go to heaven' discredits Christianity in the eyes of discerning men and women ... Its success in winning thousands by the incantation of an uninterpreted formula must be measured against the vaster number who have been perplexed and even alienated from Christianity by this perversion of it."