Michael Spencer of the Christian Science Monitor is saying that within 10 years Evangelical Christianity will collapse. It will coincide with deterioration of the mainline Protestant denominations and will fundamentally change Western Culture. Along the way intolerance of and hostility towards Christianity will rise to the point where many will see Christianity the opponent to the common good. Perhaps if they didn't complain of persecution when they weren't we might believe it when they are.
Here are the reasons why Spencer believes the collapse will happen:
* Evangelicals combined their religion with the culture wars and politics, making them a threat to cultural progress. They confused religious faith with in believing in a cause.
* Those efforts depleted their resources to the point that they haven't adequately trained the next generation. In spite of all that's spent on youth ministers, the young know how to be culture warriors, but not Christians. They don't know how, in the face of a hostile culture, to articulate why Christianity is good. I personally believe, when done as Jesus intended, Christianity *is* good for the culture.
* The money will dry up.
What will remain?
* Because the Evangelical "good" is seen as "bad" by the rest of the culture, many ministries (such as feeding the poor) will take on a less distinctly Christian face.
* Preaching will shift from doctrine to pragmatic relevance, motivation, and personal success, further weakening the message.
* Catholic and Orthodox churches will grow as Evangelicals seek a new church home.
* There will be an attempt at reform through theological renewal, though perhaps not go far enough to be called a Second Reformation. These reformers face issues of biblical authority and doctrine.
* Perhaps renewal will come through Asian and African missionaries coming to America.
* The existing united front on the culture war will fragment.
The open question is whether this will bring Christianity back to actually following Christ. I'm one of those who think that much of the current church, at least the part that makes itself heard in the popular culture, has missed the point of the whole enterprise. Alas, Spencer thinks we probably can't shake off such things as the vacuousness of the megachurch nor the gospel of prosperity. The "purveyors of the evangelical circus" will still sell their wares.
On the good side the loss of political clout will replace cultural and political entitlement with church integrity as a countercultural movement. Christianity will renew its vitality and members will strive to hear the authentic voice of God.
I see the collapse of the Evangelicals a good thing because the antics of their loudest members over the last couple decades have done a lot to damage the reputations of Christians in general. That's a big reason for the decline in almost all denominations, Evangelical or not. Another big reason is the Christianity they shout isn't what Jesus taught and doesn't make sense to the secular society.
Spencer describes himself as a Postevangelical Reformation Christian.
That Fundie decline has already started.
Frank Rich wonders if Bush ignored an intelligence briefing about Bin Laden in August 2001 because he was preparing a big speech on stem cell research. To put it another way, stem cells were a big deal at the time. Obama just reversed Bush's stem cell rules -- without much noise. Oh sure, the anonymous successors to the dead, retired, and disgraced family-values dinosaurs (Falwell, etc.) sent out their emails to supporters but it didn't amount to anything. It seems we have decided that moral scolds are a luxury we can't afford at the moment. The same was true with Prohibition after the 1929 stock crash and the 1925 Scopes monkey trial.
There is another aspect at work. A lot of the family values leaders don't have exemplary lives -- Limbaugh (apparent GOP leader) is on his 3rd wife and has had drug addiction problems, Gingrich is on his 3rd wife, Mark Foley, David Vitter, Larry Craig, the Palins, etc., the list is long -- and Obama does. He obviously loves his (first) wife and dotes on his daughters.
In addition, the party they infiltrated has been thoroughly discredited. The GOP is seen as the cause of the economic meltdown. Their wedge issues don't work so well. They don't want to talk about Bush or the doomed demographics of their racist base.
Also like the 1930s, Americans aren't turning towards religion in tough times (in spite of the claims of the remaining scolds). They are, as then, turning to social consciousness and economic and social justice. Sounds good to me.
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