The term Moralistic Therapeutic Deism was first coined in the 2005 book, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers by Christian Smith and Melina Lundquist Denton. In it, the authors described a blithe, happy, non-demanding, feel-good spirituality experienced by American teens. But as church observers looked more closely, they saw this worldview permeating well beyond teen culture. Today, it is a powerful–and seductive–competing worldview that has taken root in the American church. It is, in essence, a popular but fake form of Christianity.
In general, those with a Moralistic Therapeutic Deism worldview would not self-identify with this worldview. Individuals with this worldview tend to think they have a Biblical Theism worldview, but they are missing key aspects. Moralistic Therapeutic Deism worldview is like a softened and distorted version of Biblical Theism. It takes the aspects of the Biblical Worldview that seem to be easy and bring joy, and tend to ignore the aspects that require self-denial and hard decisions. The main focus of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is to live a happy and good life, but it also recognizes that God created and ordered the universe and is the sovereign ruler of the universe.
According to Smith and Denton, five basic beliefs are associated with Moralistic Therapeutic Deism:1. “A God exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.” 2. “God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.” 3. “The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.” 4. “God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when needed to resolve a problem.” 5. “Good people go to heaven when they die.”
God is viewed as a beneficent deity who desires our happiness and meets our needs in times of crisis or trouble. Other important attributes of God are often overlooked or ignored, including God being Holy (requiring us to recognize, confess and repent of our sins), a God of Justice (He has standards for our behavior that are demanding and often times interrupt our happiness), a God in the person of Jesus Christ who suffered for our sins (meaning, we often suffer as well), and God being triune (three persons, including His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit). It is often referred to as “Christless Christianity.” In Biblical Theism, God is triune, multi-dimensional, and far more than loving, although that is a central characteristic.
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is characterized by a shared set of moral principles. God is our Provider and is there for us when we need Him but generally stays removed from our daily activities. God exists predominantly to help humans in our suffering or to help us with our problems. The main way that God is involved in humans’ lives is through this problem solver role.
There is less focus on sin, salvation, repentance, and servanthood than is seen in the Bible. Moralistic Therapeutic Deism tends to downplay or ignore the Gospel message of Christianity, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, willingly died on the cross for our sins so that we could have eternal life. Instead, this view proposes that it is essential for people to live outwardly good lives filled with good works and just behavior because after death, individuals that lived a “good” life will enter Heaven to spend eternity with God in happiness. They will have “earned” their salvation, a reflection of the Eastern concept of karma.
This worldview lends itself to some subjective tendencies because what one person perceives to be a “happy and good life” could be very different from another person. While Moralistic Therapeutic Deists believe that God defines the basic moral foundation, the rest is really up to personal interpretation and “feeling”.