Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD) is a term often used by Christians to describe lukewarm members of their faith. Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is not a conscious position as much as it is a rejection of certain parts of Christianity while seeing the wisdom in some of the thought. It is defined by the following beliefs: God created the world and watches over it, God wants people to be nice to each other, the goal of life is to be happy, God doesn't intervene unless absolutely necessary and that good people get to go to heaven when they die.
There are some obvious references to what Deists believe in there. Most notably, that God created the world, and that God doesn't intervene (or at least not very often). Christians think of MTD as a position held subconsciously by someone straying from actual Christian doctrine. Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is curated to be what feels nice to believe. Good things happen to good people, bad things happen to bad people, and God is the ultimate force that makes it all happen. There are certain positives and negatives within MTD with regard to Deism.
The major positive to note is that it lends support to the theory that Deism is more commonplace and widespread among the general population than most people realize. Not every churchgoer or believer is identical, and the existence of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism suggests that a good proportion simply attach a Christian framework to their worldview despite not sharing many of the thoughts. In actuality, they might be Deists identifying as Christians. This is probably true of any major religion to varying degrees. If people attach less Theist baggage with God, they are more likely to identify with Deism. The emphasis on morals is also commendable, as morals have intrinsic value in themselves and are not extrinsically valued dependent on other things.
However, not all is good and proper with Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, and it mainly has to do with the T in MTD. Moralistic Therapeutic Deism caters to certain preconceptions common amongst laymen. It is a set of beliefs that is nice to believe in, but is not exactly coherent or philosophically astute. Any sound worldview requires a careful deduction of its conclusions from valid premises, but Moralistic Therapeutic Deism describes the general set of views of people who don't carefully think about what is true. There is no easy substitute for rational, dedicated philosophical inquiry.
The consequences of believing what "feels nice" rather than what is true are present within the Deist community as much as they are in other faiths or religions. Spiritual Deism is almost always exactly a one-to-one of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism because it doesn't have any safeguards against picking and choosing beliefs on the basis of their "niceness". Without reason acting as a guide, anyone can claim angels showed them the truth, or that our dreams were inspired by God and a form of revelation. Not all Spiritual Deists are guilty of this, and the problem rests not exclusively with them but, there does exist a problem. The reason behind wanting to reclaim the Classical Deist label was to differentiate ourselves from this sort of thought.
Within this, there is a lesson to be learned in how to approach talking about Deism with other people. Often, in the attempt to refute religions, Deists appeal to intuitive truths that contradict certain religious topics. This can be a very useful tactic, but can go very wrong quickly. If it is the sole method employed during discourse without backing in a strong Deist philosophical tradition, it is very easy to get suckered into intuitive "truths" which are really just feel-good comforts. The need to create a strong philosophical tradition is just as important (if not more) than refuting other worldviews. Before doing the latter, we should focus on the former.