THE PLATTE

 For years I have heard American Christianity criticized from many angles and I believe much of the criticism is justified, don't you? 

Unless you care to make a case that modern American church life and practice looks exactly like what Jesus and the New Testament writers describe and command, in which case I will wait and hear you out.

Often, criticism is mean-spirited, judgmental and unproductive. But - more rarely - criticism can be offered as rebuke, warning, or correction, with only the best interest of the target in mind. 

I hope my criticism falls into the second category. I hope it is "speaking the truth in love". I believe it is the outgrowth of high expectations and high standards that are widely unmet. 

Often untried, even. 

As a church, we are missing out on incredible experiences for ourselves and profound impacts on the broken world around us.

One of the most common criticisms I have heard of the American church is that it is "a mile wide and an inch deep", meaning it is quite widespread, but accomplishes very little. Stagnating. 

I happen to think that criticism is on point. 

I looked up the source of the idea and found it was adapted from the original author, a man named Edgar Nye, who spoke not of the church, but of the Platte River out West. Here it is as published in the Juniata Sentinel and Republican, July 31, 1889 in Mifflintown, Pennsylvania:

"The Platte river is a queer stream. It has a very large circulation, but very little influence. It covers a good deal of ground, but is not deep. In some places it is a mile wide and three-quarters of an inch deep." 

Now, I found that historical tidbit interesting, but then I looked at how Nye's blurb continued and I felt it came across as downright prophetic if applied to American Christianity:

"It has a bed of quicksand, which assists it very much in drowning people. The Platte makes very little fuss about it, but succeeds in being quite fatal. You might cross that river without even getting your hose wet, and then again you might find that in crossing the stream you had struck an entirely new country, from whose bourne no traveler returns."

So, those who step in find one of two outcomes: either they barely get their feet wet, or they get sucked down to the bottom and drown.

Prophetic? Or am I being too harsh?