The New Legalism?

Here is a great passage from an article by David Zach in the March/April 2011 issue of Modern Reformation magazine:

When Christianity is linked as tightly to behavior as it has been in twentieth-century American evangelicalism, it should come as no surprise when it is widely perceived as bad news: a noose that breeds hypocrisy and neurosis in its followers.

Of course he means by the required behavior in "twentieth-century American evangelicalism," as the "don't-do this or that" approach that so many churches promoted. But today we have the New Legalism which I've written about before here. But to summarize: this is a "do this" approach which is just as deadly as the old-time "religion" of don't do's. I am going to be very interested down the road in about 5 or 10 years to see the burn out from this "new" system. The one that says in order to be a "Jesus Follower" you must do this or that (i.e. helping the poor, interpreting the Bible in a Marxist sense of social justice, etc.). One day, in the not too distant future, the young adults of today who are following this "new" Christian Left system will be just as burned out as the old time legalists and then after them, the Christian Rightists. This new legalism may not look legalistic, but believe me, it's just that "old time religion of legalism."