When you blend all the pieces and attitudes towards religion together, the result is a new religion: Moralistic, Therapeutic, Deism. Here is its' creed:
1. God exists who created and watches over us.
2. God wants people to be good/nice/fair as in the Bible and most religions.
3. The central goal of religion and all of life: be happy and feel good about yourself.
4. God is not particularlly involved in life except to fix problems.
5. Good people go to heaven when they die, and most people are good.
The point is not that these concepts in themselves are new--in fact, they largely echo the U.S. founding fathers (very few of whom were in fact Christian, which I wish some conservative Christian politicians would just admit) "Creator" and "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" language. What's significant is that the Christian church has always held that these concepts were not really Christian. So what was once a philosophy that was clearly distinct from Christianity has now subversively colonized Christianity (and all religious traditions in America, really) to where there is no religious tradition at all. At least, none that the children involved in the churches can clearly articulate.
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