"McChurched"

Rep. Stan Moody, president of the Christian Policy Institute

Maine State Rep. Stan Moody (D-Manchester) is alarmed.

After serving two terms in the Maine House of Representatives, Moody sees the political system adrift with secular humanists running out of ideas and the Christian Right abandoning its faith for a moral code it is itself incapable of following.

Just released, his book, McChurched: 300 Million Served and Still Hungry (Just Write Books, Topsham, Maine), is an impassioned appeal to millions of American Christians who have been pushed out of an evangelical church that has lost its bearings in its worship of the American Dream of health, wealth, financial success and nationalism.

Calling the evangelical church a "Christian Ghetto," Moody systematically dismantles the foundation on which the Christian Right has built its power base – the illusion of America as a Christian nation and its own moral superiority:

It comes down to a simple formula. Those (Christians) making the racket in the public square want to restore in America what they consider to be its former Christian roots…Their approach is hardly distinguishable from any other political movement, and they are not averse to condemning others with biblical pronouncements that are familiar only to those in the Christian ghetto that passes as church.

A case in point is the current call by Republican leadership in Washington for a Constitutional amendment codifying marriage as between two people of the opposite sex.

"With Evangelicals enjoying the same divorce rate as the rest of our society, this is another denigration of the faith," Moody declares. "Marriage is a sacrament of the church and ought to be reinforced there first. Instead, we are attempting to make it a sacrament of the State. Evangelicals have sacrificed their trust in a sovereign God for the appearance of morality rather than its inner reality.

"They no longer believe that the God they profess to worship is capable of reforming America through the church. As a result, we as a nation are faced with two opposing humanist agendas (liberal and conservative) that have factored God out of the business of governing." That, in Moodys opinion, spells disaster for America.

"If religion, taken as part of a larger social context, is no longer operative, then we are left with the conclusion that cultural problems can be solved only through political or military means.
"The world is in dire need of a message of hope from a church gone mad."

Despite the current condition of the church, Moody believes that there is and has always been a remnant of believers that he calls the Church in Exile. It is to them that he appeals.

McChurched is a must read for concerned, thoughtful believers who are confused by the seemingly inconsistent actions of those claiming to speak for God. Failing to follow the teaching and example of Christ is a deadly prescription for the church and for American life. He refers to that phenomenon as "Christian Atheism."

Moody is devoting his time and energy to raising a voice for thoughtful believers of the Church in Exile. Through his organization, the Christian Policy Institute, he intends to continue publishing policy papers on social and economic issues and be an advocate for change.