Our Own Personal Jesus
In 1989, the electronic music band Depeche Mode had their biggest hit: “Personal Jesus.” It sounded like a sardonic twist on authentic faith, musing about living life “second best,” but no worries, you can rest assured that “your own personal Jesus” will be a forgiver. You can “reach out, touch faith,” have someone “hear your prayers... someone who cares” because you have “your own personal Jesus.”
Songwriter Martin Gore said that it was meant to be a song “about being a Jesus for somebody else, someone to give you hope and care.”
Now, in 2025, there is little doubt how the song would be interpreted.
According to sociologist Landon Schnabel we are experiencing a time of “individualization,” which he describes as “a phenomenon in which people increasingly craft their spiritual lives according to personal values, rather than institutional dictates.”
So, the rise of the nones is about the rejection of church attendance and denominational affiliations, not personal spiritual practices. But those practices, and whatever beliefs may accompany them, are highly individualized. They are, as sociologist Robert Bellah once described, about “the sacredness of the individual.” Or as Schnabel writes, “The ‘nones’ aren’t simply rejecting religion; many are reimagining it on their own terms.”
This is, of course, a mark of metamodernism, which, if new to your thinking, you can listen to a short podcast on its many dynamics HERE. Historically, people began with a set of assumptions and from that, came to ethical conclusions. Now, we begin with our personal ethical sensibilities and search for (or invent) a spirituality that supports those sensibilities.
The foundation of this thinking is not new.
In 1966, Joseph Fletcher released a book titled Situation Ethics. Fletcher challenged the role of rules in the making of moral decisions, maintaining that one must determine in each and every situation what the most appropriate thing to do is. If it is determined that what is “appropriate” demands the suspension of established “rules,” so be it. Moral values become a matter of personal opinion or private judgment rather than something grounded in objective truth. This was so entrenched by the late 1980s that Allan Bloom, reflecting upon his role as a university educator, maintained that there “is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of. Almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative.”
What is different is that now, instead of truth being seen as merely relative, truth is seen as highly authoritative—but the source of that authority is the individual.
It brings to mind the words of French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, who said, “Man is the being whose project is to be God.”
Or to simply create their own personal Jesus.
James Emery White
Sources
“Personal Jesus,” Wikipedia, read online.
Landon Schnabel, “America Isn’t Becoming Less Spiritual. It’s Becoming Differently Spiritual.” Religion News Service, April 14, 2025, read online.
James Emery White, Hybrid Church (Zondervan), order from Amazon.
Joseph Fletcher, Situation Ethics.
Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today’s Students.
Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism and Human Emotions.
Photo Courtesy: ©GettyImages/sticker2you
Published Date: April 28, 2025
James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and a former professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His latest book, Hybrid Church: Rethinking the Church for a Post-Christian Digital Age, is now available on Amazon or from your favorite bookseller. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit churchandculture.org where you can view past blogs in our archive, read the latest church and culture news from around the world, and listen to the Church & Culture Podcast. Follow Dr. White on X, Facebook, and Instagram at @JamesEmeryWhite.
Originally published April 28, 2025.
