With some decades under my belt, I am astounded at he evolution, or in my view, the devolution of Christianity in the U.S. Having been raised Catholic and then converting to Fundamentalist Protestant Christianity during my mid teens, I have been fortunate to view Christianity from both sides of the isle. By my early twenties I had abandoned both movements but then re-enaged with the Catholic tradition for a dozen years or so during midlife. Today I am unattached to either movement, and reject religious dogma generally, but New Testament scripture remains the single most influential force in my life. The basic principles of non-violence, non-materialism, empathy, and care for others, are the principles which dominate New Testament scripture. Sadly, Christianity seems to have abandoned these teachings.
Christianity has become intolerant, judgemental, unaccepting of outsiders, steeped in prosperity gospel nonsense, hateful, and warrior minded. All of this in direct contravention of New Testament thought. We are human, certainly, and will never reach perfection, but the role of Christianity is to hold forth the ideals of Jesus, along with those of the New Testament writers, notably Paul.
The teachings of: love, respect, accommodation, the rejection of materialistic values, the rejection of violence; while likely unattainable in this life, are values which Christianity should put forth, and we should never tire in our struggle to achieve these ideals. We will fall short of the ideals, but they are the ideals we should strive towards–always.
But increasingly we move in the opposite direction. The problems in this Nation are fixable, but they will only be fixed when we adhere to the plain language of New Testament thought untainted by clever theological arguments. This is not to imply that people need to be religious, subscribe to religious mythology, or perceive God in an institutionally sanctioned manner; it only implies that the principles set forth in the New Testament, particularly the Gospels, are the principles which can save us from our baser selves. There is no intent here to exclude other religions from this discussion, the major religions share many foundational tenets, and to the extent adherents to these other Faiths have also strayed from these foundations, the world would be better served if they also returned these principles.
Much of what passes as Christianity these days is anti-Christ in Christian clothing. Only the Christ spirit will overcome our anti-Christ behaviors, however that Christ spirit is labled within the various religious and humanitarian traditions.