‘Cheap Grace’

Robert Schuller, in addressing the problem of declining membership in the United Methodist Church (Times, Jan. 18), has fallen into two heresies to which church leaders are particularly susceptible these days.

The first is the mindless equation of congregation size with effectiveness in preaching the Gospel, the assumption that a church with 10,000 members is somehow “better” or more “successful” than one with only a few dozen or hundred communicants.

The second heresy stems from the first but is much more insidious. If the pews are to be kept packed Sunday after Sunday, the people must be told what they want to hear, not what they need to hear.

The teachings of Jesus, with their radical implications for all aspects of life, are watered down in favor of pop psychology and reassurances that affluence, power, and insatiable ambition are signs of divine favor. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian murdered by the Nazis, had a name for this kind of sham religion. He called it “cheap grace.”

No matter how large or small they may be, communities of Christians who have rejected cheap grace in favor of the genuine article will continue to thrive long after the Crystal Cathedral has been converted into an oversized greenhouse.

JOSEPH M. RAWLS

Los Angeles