The Divine Deli

A recent Newsweek article suggests that Americans are more Hindu than Christian in their worldviews. I guess this shouldn't be a surprise. Hinduism is essentially a pluralistic religion, so as the West migrates toward pluralism, its religious views will be more and more compatible with Hinduism—regardless of the fact that the average Joe knows nothing about the nuts and bolts of Hinduism and thinks "dharma" is the business venture behind the mysterious island in the TV drama, LOST.

"Stephen Prothero, religion professor at Boston University, has long framed the American propensity for 'the divine-deli-cafeteria religion' as 'very much in the spirit of Hinduism. You're not picking and choosing from different religions, because they're all the same,' he says. 'It isn't about orthodoxy. It's about whatever works. If going to yoga works, great—and if going to Catholic mass works, great. And if going to Catholic mass plus the yoga plus the Buddhist retreat works, that's great, too.'"

The problem is not that this divine deli exists—it always has. The problem is that the church has decided to sell its products at the same deli. Unfortunately, our "product" is too costly, the flavor is not always appealing to the palate and the rewards of "using" the product are often not realized until the death of the user.