As a newly ordained pastor, I was surprised and dismayed by the ego-centric, 
that I found to be rife in my congregation. When fellow pastors confided similar concerns about their own congregations, I began to wonder whether this “please me” approach to faith was in fact taking hold in churches across the country. What I found in my news reporting suggested that it was. I then asked the deeper question: can churches, including my own, shape people for the better if they’re constantly pressured to affirm and please people just as they are? I hypothesized no: churches fail to shape character when they serve up, in ordinary business fashion, the entertainment and therapy that churchgoers increasingly demand. My research, sadly and unequivocally, confirmed my hypothesis. This phenomenon has huge implications for American society, but no one else is telling the story. That’s why I wrote [Thieves in the Temple].
While America has had a dynamic religious marketplace for centuries, this consumerist shift began after World War II and became pronounced in the 1960s. At that time, Americans in significant numbers began dabbling in Eastern religions and otherwise individualizing their spiritual paths according to personal preferences. Within two decades, this sensibility had become so prevalent that it was common even among conservative evangelicals, who demanded that their churches affirm their lifestyles and politics – or else they’d go worship elsewhere.
G. Jeffrey MacDonald
[original interview]
