"Ya Mama Don't Dance. . ." (Thoughts on Moralism -- Part I)

The protagonist in Sarah Dunn's semi-autobiographic novel The Big Love makes an interesting statement regarding modern evangelical Christians:

"I was raised as an evangelical Christian, a real born-again, a tribe which completely lacks a comedic tradition and is almost entirely missing an intellectual one. . .Because I realize I don't have to tell you this -- people hate evangelical Christians. They hate, hate, hate them. They hate the Christian right, they hate the Moral Majority, they hate Jerry Farwell, they hate the pro-lifers, they hate people with the little silver fish on the back of their minvans, they hate the guy at the office with the weird haircut who won't put money into the football pool."

Although this comes from Alison, Dunn's fictional character, it rings painfully true. Why does the world view modern evangelical Christians in this way?

Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton, two researchers from UNC, Chapel Hill, have described the new American religion as "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism." While Smith and Denton's studied the beliefs of teenagers, they recognized that most teenagers share the views of their parents and what is being taught in their churhes. Gene Veith's article A Nation of Deists describes the essentials of this new religion. "[T]his creed is a far cry from Christianity, with no place for sin, judgment, salvation, or Christ. Instead, most . . .believe in a combination of works righteousness, religion as psychological well-being, and a distant non-interfering god."

Have we traded in the promises of God for the Gospel according to Dr. Phil?