God is like someone who is always there for you; I don’t know, it’s like God is God. He’s just like somebody that’ll always help you go through whatever you’re going through. When I became a Christian I was just praying, and it always made me feel better. (fifteen-year-old Hispanic conservative Protestant girl from Florida quoted by Smith)
[Religion matters] cause God made us and if you ask him for something I believe he gives it to you. Yeah, he hasn’t let me down yet. [So what is God like?] God is a spirit that grants you anything you want, but not anything bad. (fourteen-year-old white Catholic boy from Pennsylvania quoted by Smith)
God’s all around you, all the time. He believes in forgiving people and whatnot, and he’s there to guide us, for somebody to talk to and help us through our problems. Of course, he doesn’t talk back. (seventeen-year-old conservative Protestant girl from Florida quoted by Smith)
We’ve been looking at America’s Default Religion, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. We’ve looked at the first 3 statements of the unofficial creed here, here, and here. This time, we will see a further aspect of the therapeutic and deistic nature of this religion in considering the unofficial creed’s fourth statement.
via Moralistic Therapeutic Deism Part 5: Who’s the Boss? — Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary
