What Do Jonathan Edwards and McDonalds Have in Common?

by Josh Moody

Driving back over the Appalachians from a family wedding in Canada we passed Stockbridge. This town was the lesser known base of operations for Jonathan Edwards’ missionary labors. More famously, Edwards resided in Northampton, the central location for the dramatic revivals of the Great Awakening in New England of the Eighteenth Century.

Being something of an Edwards aficionado I was aware of the Edwards Stockbridge connection. I wasn’t cognizant of the even less well known relationship between Edwards and McDonalds until, as we hurtled by Stockbridge in our minivan, we decided that time had come to eat. And there and behold we did what surely would have surprised the famous evangelical leader: we picked up a Drive-Thru McDonalds.

It occurred to me to wonder whether there was anything that Edwards and McDonalds have in common. Could it be that the slight guilty feeling as I munched the salty fries was reminiscent of the stellar theological tome “Original Sin” penned in self-same Stockbridge? Was our choice to do a Drive-Thru right there and right then predetermined in a classically philosophically charged “Freedom of the Will” fashion? Or even was the can-do spirit of the frontier that surrounded Edwards’ missionary journey represented, albeit somewhat differently, by the can-do franchise dominance of fast food chains in America?

Whimsical thoughts aside, I also began to wonder how (whether) Edwards would critique McDonalds. Could Edwards have been approvingly involved in a sort of “Super Size Me” Puritan Jeremiad of fast food gut busting obesity issues in the modern west? Or, rather more pointedly, how is it that the Puritan genetic code in the foundation of the country has managed to be expressed in mercantile relations of Big Macs and milkshakes? Was there something in the original theological code that was liable to be taken in such a direction, or has modern life encapsulated the gospel (sanitized it) in gilded cage commercial enterprises?

I am not the first (and certainly not the last) to ask about the development of corporate American sensibilities from its Puritan foundations. What makes the question significant, though, in a contemporary sense, is that there are other more grating comparisons that are apparent to the watchful eye than even Edwards and McDonalds. How is it that a city with many large (even mega) churches can have signs on its highway to pornographic boutiques? What is happening in our church culture when a school teacher can remark that it is the church kids who are most often in trouble with the principal? What do the terms Christian, biblical, evangelical, Baptist, mean when their linguistic heritage is downgraded by their associated behavioral aberrations?

What does Jerusalem have to do with Rome? What do Edwards and McDonalds have in common? In case any are confused I have nothing against McDonalds. The Stockbridge Drive-Thru is not the first I have frequented. I’m just asking what it means to have an authentic spirituality as a Christian these days. It seems that Jesus had a simple answer to that: “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (John 14:15).

In our appropriate and worthy desire to be involved with church and all that is allied with Christianity, let us not forget to ask ourselves also about more than our community connections. Let us ask ourselves about our spirituality. Let us, this New Year 2006, be careful to examine our life style. Let us fall in love with Jesus again. Not merely be enthusiastic for his organization, or celebrate this or that movement or emphasis. Let us have our hearts open to His Spirit and His personal involvement with us. Let us embrace God not as a product to be marketed by our churches but as a person to be worshipped.