God is Not a Vending Machine
You don't have to watch anime for very long to notice some things about Japanese culture that are very different from the West. It's one of the things that draws me to it, actually, and one major difference I find fascinating is the completely different spiritual world. Shinto is an "animist" religion, where everything has a kami, a "god" or spirit, roughly equivalent - by my reckoning - to a patron saint. But what struck me as particularly different from what I'm used to is the notion, presented in more than one show, that the kami depend on having believers. Ones with many believers or worshippers are big and powerful. Ones with few are small and weak, and even in danger of disappearing. Thus the kami are inclined to grant their believers' wishes, so as to keep them believing.
Now, I know better than to judge an entire religion based on a few anime episodes. I'm sure they've misrepresented some things (you should see how Christianity looks in anime sometimes), and I'm sure there are a lot of deeper concepts and beliefs that never get mentioned. But the notion that the gods have to bribe their believers in order to keep them believing is an odd one. It turns the god/human power dynamic completely on its head.
And yet... sometimes I feel like there are American Christians who think the very same way. Or at the very least, they see the dynamic between God and humanity as basically transactional, a spiritual quid pro quo. At first, that can look scary, because it can present God as a demanding taskmaster, forcing obedience in order to gain his favor. But once you convince yourself that you've met all God's demands, that you've said the right prayers, gone through the right rituals, believed the right things, and so on, the power dynamic is reversed. You checked all the right boxes, so God must accept you! And what's more, now that you've gained God's favor, you're in a position to look down on others who haven't measured up. You can judge in God's place!
You can see how this plays out in our country. Today, most of the Evangelical church is so convinced of its rightness, so convinced that they've checked all the boxes, that they'll put someone totally antithetical to their values in charge, just so they can have access to the power he wields. What a deal! A deal with the devil.
But God is not a vending machine, and "salvation" - however you choose to define that - is not a business deal. It doesn't work that way.
One of the most famous Gospel verses, one of the ones most often used by Evangelicals hoping to win converts, is John 14:6. Jesus is asked what the way to reach God is, and he replies, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Note that he does not say, "No one comes to the Father except by believing certain things about me." Or "No one comes to the Father except by praying this certain prayer about me." Or "No one comes to the Father except by joining this religion dedicated to me." Evangelicals use this verse as a way of getting others to conform to their rules - but I read it differently. When Jesus says, "No one comes to the Father except through me," he's saying that he's the one who decides. And he can do that any way he wants to, including ways that we in the Christian church might not recognize or acknowledge. It's not our job to tell God what he can or can't do.
God is not a vending machine, and "salvation" is not a business deal. God is a living being - is "being" itself, beyond what we mere mortals can even comprehend. What God wants is relationship, with all its ups and downs, disagreements and reconciliations, joys and hardships. Relationships are a lot more rewarding than business contracts. Hard to believe in our money-obsessed culture, I know, but it's true.
In that light, it's entirely possible - if not likely - that there are people in non-Christian cultures, or practicing non-Christian faiths, or even being "spiritual but not religious," who are ahead of the game. If they're looking for some kind of communion or harmony with the spiritual or the mystical - even if they don't really understand what that means - then at least they're looking in the right place. Am I saying they're "saved," in the Evangelical sense? How the heck would I know? That's not my job. But they may be a lot better off than a self-satisified soul who thinks he's got God under contract.
Now, I know better than to judge an entire religion based on a few anime episodes. I'm sure they've misrepresented some things (you should see how Christianity looks in anime sometimes), and I'm sure there are a lot of deeper concepts and beliefs that never get mentioned. But the notion that the gods have to bribe their believers in order to keep them believing is an odd one. It turns the god/human power dynamic completely on its head.
And yet... sometimes I feel like there are American Christians who think the very same way. Or at the very least, they see the dynamic between God and humanity as basically transactional, a spiritual quid pro quo. At first, that can look scary, because it can present God as a demanding taskmaster, forcing obedience in order to gain his favor. But once you convince yourself that you've met all God's demands, that you've said the right prayers, gone through the right rituals, believed the right things, and so on, the power dynamic is reversed. You checked all the right boxes, so God must accept you! And what's more, now that you've gained God's favor, you're in a position to look down on others who haven't measured up. You can judge in God's place!
You can see how this plays out in our country. Today, most of the Evangelical church is so convinced of its rightness, so convinced that they've checked all the boxes, that they'll put someone totally antithetical to their values in charge, just so they can have access to the power he wields. What a deal! A deal with the devil.
But God is not a vending machine, and "salvation" - however you choose to define that - is not a business deal. It doesn't work that way.
One of the most famous Gospel verses, one of the ones most often used by Evangelicals hoping to win converts, is John 14:6. Jesus is asked what the way to reach God is, and he replies, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Note that he does not say, "No one comes to the Father except by believing certain things about me." Or "No one comes to the Father except by praying this certain prayer about me." Or "No one comes to the Father except by joining this religion dedicated to me." Evangelicals use this verse as a way of getting others to conform to their rules - but I read it differently. When Jesus says, "No one comes to the Father except through me," he's saying that he's the one who decides. And he can do that any way he wants to, including ways that we in the Christian church might not recognize or acknowledge. It's not our job to tell God what he can or can't do.
God is not a vending machine, and "salvation" is not a business deal. God is a living being - is "being" itself, beyond what we mere mortals can even comprehend. What God wants is relationship, with all its ups and downs, disagreements and reconciliations, joys and hardships. Relationships are a lot more rewarding than business contracts. Hard to believe in our money-obsessed culture, I know, but it's true.
In that light, it's entirely possible - if not likely - that there are people in non-Christian cultures, or practicing non-Christian faiths, or even being "spiritual but not religious," who are ahead of the game. If they're looking for some kind of communion or harmony with the spiritual or the mystical - even if they don't really understand what that means - then at least they're looking in the right place. Am I saying they're "saved," in the Evangelical sense? How the heck would I know? That's not my job. But they may be a lot better off than a self-satisified soul who thinks he's got God under contract.
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