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Thieves in the Temple
The Christian Church and the Selling of the American Soul
Basic Books
It’s becoming commonplace – first government, and then arts organizations, colleges, schools are being “reinvented” in the business model. Even the PTA is remaking itself in the corporate model. So, we should hardly be surprised to find that churches are doing exactly the same thing. In response to congregations that increasingly demand that their churches be shaped by what members want, churches are increasingly serving up entertainment, easy listening, and approval.
Jeffrey MacDonald is an award-winning national reporter on the religion beat, and also an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ, who for four years was the minister at a small church outside of Boston. In Thieves in the Temple: The Christian Church and the Selling of the American Soul, he takes us on a tour through this new religious landscape. He sees churches bending over backwards to accommodate the wishes of an increasingly self-absorbed membership, and abandoning the unique authority that the church has long had in American society to push back against the tide, to challenge the conventional wisdom.
Today, no American institution is as capable of speaking to the nation’s conscience as the church. But when religion is no longer expected to make us better, and instead is charged only with making us more comfortable, it loses that authority. Indeed, MacDonald worries that if market driven forces are left unchecked, the future church is unlikely to produce visionary figures like Martin Luther King, who by provoking us, and making usuncomfortable with the status quo, moved society, not just church-goers, to change for the better.
Thieves in the Temple offers an original perspective on the state of the church in America today, which, while it looks mainly at mainstream Protestantism, also speaks broadly and passionately to people of all faiths, and to anyone interested in the role of religion in a society committed to democracy, justice, and equality.
“MacDonald’s journalistic prowess makes this book a thought-provoking challenge to today’s church.”
–Publishers Weekly
Jeffrey MacDonald’s website can be found at www.gjeffreymacdonald.com
Foreign editions of Thieves in the Temple
To inquire about international rights please contact Basic Books.
