Jeff – A Christian can feel spiritual fulfillment in the face of worldly disaster, but that doesn’t mean we’re immune to the disaster. We straddle the realms of the spiritual and the physical, and we’re pulled by both. We’re never completely divorced from either and hence the perception of hypocrisy by non-believers.

The Christian walk is a journey, not a destination, and we never reach that destination in this life, but God honors our faith-however imperfect-along the way. It’s his mercy, and not our perfection upon which our salvation rests.

I agree that this isn’t solely a Christian problem. But I write mostly for a Christian audience, so I’m speaking directly to their situation. It’s futile for anyone (Christian or not) to look for fulfillment in material things.

As far as Christians not being happy, I think it’s important to remember that even after you accept Christ you are still a work in progress. Yes, we must strive to attain perfection, but we must acknowledge the fact that we will not reach perfection in this life. Christians need to be living lives that show the evidence of their salvation and of God’s love working through them. But non-Christians need to realize that Christians are still humans. They will make mistakes. They will never be perfect as God is perfect. That is why there are unhappy Christians and “sinful” Christians. We have been freed from the consequences of sin, but we must still struggle against sinning in this life.

Finally, I just want to point out that going to church services every week doesn’t make you a Christian.

I agree with your points. There have been far too many great and devoted Christians who were quite poor to believe that material wealth is evidence of God’s favor. And this point is further reinforced by the fact that there are far too many wealthy people who don’t know God at all. I think we tend to forget that the many of the promises we read in the Old Testament were specifically to the Israelites during their time in Israel. We’d do better to study Jesus’ promise to us that we will have troubles and adversity in this world – but we don’t need to fear because He has overcome the world!

In my opinion, the entitlement mindset is crippling Americans.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

The American Dream–in it’s current material-wealth- is-everything perversion–has sucked a lot of Christians into a soft version of the prosperity gospel. Not the blatant “if you give $10 to God, he’ll bless you with $100″, but the Old Testament version where we might be tempted to believe that God is blessing our piousness with material wealth–ie, material wealth is evidence of God’s favor upon us.

The other is the way it’s corrupted the secular interpretation. If the American Dream is all about the quest to accumulate more possessions, where do integrity, freedom and justice fit in? Should we wonder why our freedoms are disappearing when we’re singularly consumed by the “right” to own a home or the “right” to a high priced college education for our kids?

When money (and what it buys) is the measure of all things, a whole bunch of good things are withering on the vine…

I’m often guilty of that type of thinking as well. But I tend to think of Jesus’ warning to take care of the log in your own eye first. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t admonish, encourage, and teach other Christians as we learn to follow Jesus better. But it does mean that we should carefully examine ourselves first and be cautious before quickly condemning others who don’t measure up to our standards (as opposed to God’s standards).