Jesus stated that his purpose was to “proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God.” But what does this mean? There are many popular explanations. One of the newest is moralistic therapeutic deism (MTD).

The acronym MTD stems from empirical findings articulated in a book published by sociologists based on their observations of the spiritual lives of American teenagers. The following is a summary of their findings.

In 2005, sociologists Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton examined the religious and spiritual lives of American teenagers from a wide variety of backgrounds. What they found was that in most cases, teenagers adhered to a mushy pseudo religion the researchers deemed Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD). MTD has five basic tenets:

A God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth.
God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when he is needed to resolve a problem.
Good people go to heaven when they die.

This creed, they found, is especially prominent among Catholic and Mainline Protestant teenagers. Evangelical teenagers fared measurably better but were still far from historic biblical orthodoxy. Smith and Denton claimed that MTD is colonizing existing Christian churches, destroying biblical Christianity from within, and replacing it with a pseudo-Christianity that is “only tenuously connected to the actual historical Christian tradition.”^[i]

What the researchers discovered was that most teenagers have a desire to gather with others who have spiritual interests. They want to feel good; this is the therapeutic component. They want to improve their ability to be a better person; this is the moralistic component. And they want to acknowledge God but not too deeply; they seem to view God as impersonal (not involved in their lives). This means they are interested in knowing about him but not knowing him. And certainly, they don’t want him interfering with their lives unless they need help. Consequently, a deistic view of God serves their purpose well; this is the deism component.

MTD provides support to practices that historically have been considered sin by orthodox Christianity, such as abortion, cohabitation, homosexuality, transgenderism, and homosexual marriage. These cultural practices have been normalized in many world cultures. And many organizations that claim to be Christian have not stood against these sinful practices but rather endorsed them as a means of accommodating and attracting people.

Here is our business tip. Wise organizational leaders and managers understand that Jesus is Lord of all, no exceptions. Accordingly, Jesus is Lord of all organizations. Therefore, the proper way to lead and manage an organization is in accordance with Scripture. To function any other way is humanistic, which will ultimately end in failure. The MTD message is incompatible with Christianity as historically understood by orthodox Christians. To build sound, efficient, and effective organizations, one of the key predicates is to build with people committed to orthodox Christianity as evidenced by their lifestyle.

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[i] Rod Dreher, The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation (Penguin Publishing Group, Kindle Edition), 10.