Blandianity is the religion beloved of the public square, and of the BBC. It allows discussion of all points of view as if all were equally valid. It facilitates the search for truth, without declaring the truth. It searches, but never arrives, since many of its practitioners believe this to be a futile exercise. It enables experience without truth and feelings without faith. So, if it feels good you may do it, and no one may tell you it is harmful.

But it is not true Christianity. It is not true to the message of Jesus. For that declares God’s point of view: that we are all sinners, deserving God’s wrath, and will, if we do not repent of our sin, experience that wrath for all eternity. It declares God’s truth: that Jesus is the only way — “the way, the truth, and the life”, in his own words (John 14:6) — by which we may experience God’s forgiving grace and escape the wrath to come. It constrains our experience by The Truth, enabling us, by God’s grace, to live lives pleasing to him. And it gives prominence to faith over feelings, so that we have a sure guide to life in all its varied experiences, and live it to the full and to God’s glory. For our faith is in the True and Living God, our Maker and Redeemer, who alone is fit to guide us, and who alone knows what is best for us.

Why settle for the bland when you can have the real thing? It’s easy to be bland, but better to be real, despite the difficulties it entails, since we live in a world addicted to mediocrity and scared of reality.