In recent days, conservatives have attacked the Episcopal Church. The reason? The church has just concluded its once every three-year national meeting, and in this gathering the denomination affirmed a liturgy to bless same-sex unions. Conservatives assert that the Episcopal Church's ever-increasing social and political progressivism has led to a precipitous membership decline and ruined the denomination.
Many of the criticisms were mean-spirited or partisan, continuing a decade-long internal debate about the Episcopal Church's future. However, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat broadened the discussion, moving beyond inside-baseball ecclesial politics to ask a larger question: "Can Liberal Christianity be Saved?"
The question is a good one, for the liberal Christian tradition is an important part of American culture, from dazzling literary and intellectual achievements to great social reform movements. Mr. Douthat recognizes these contributions and rightly praises this aspect of liberal Christianity as "an immensely positive force in our national life."
Despite this history, however, Mr. Douthat insists that any denomination committed to contemporary liberalism will ultimately collapse. According to him, the Episcopal Church and its allegedly trendy faith, a faith that varies from a more worthy form of classical liberalism, is facing imminent death.
His argument, however, is neither particularly original nor true. It follows a thesis first set out in a 1972 book, Why Conservative Churches Are Growing by Dean Kelley. Drawing on Kelley's argument, Douthat believes that in the 1960s liberal Christianity overly accommodated to the culture and loosened its ties to tradition. This rendered the church irrelevant and led to a membership hemorrhage. Over the years, critics of liberal churches used numerical decline not only as a sign of churchgoer dissatisfaction but of divine displeasure. To those who subscribe to Kelley's analysis, liberal Christianity long ago lost its soul--and the state of Protestant denominations is a theological morality tale confirmed by dwindling attendance.
That was 1972. Forty years later, in 2012, liberal churches are not the only ones declining. It is true that progressive religious bodies started to decline in the 1960s. However, conservative denominations are now experiencing the same. For example, the Southern Baptist Convention, one of America's most conservative churches, has for a dozen years struggled with membership loss and overall erosion in programming, staffing, and budgets. Many smaller conservative denominations, such as the Missouri Synod Lutherans, are under pressure by loss. The Roman Catholic Church, a body that has moved in markedly conservative directions and of which Mr. Douthat is a member, is straining as members leave in droves. By 2008, one in ten Americans considered him- or herself a former Roman Catholic. On the surface, Catholic membership numbers seem steady. But this is a function of Catholic immigration from Latin America. If one factors out immigrants, American Catholicism matches the membership decline of any liberal Protestant denomination. Decline is not exclusive to the Episcopal Church, nor to liberal denominations--it is a reality facing the whole of American Christianity.
Douthat points out that the Episcopal Church has declined 23% in the last decade, identifying the loss as a sign of its theological infidelity. In the last decade, however, as conservative denominations lost members, their leaders have not equated the loss with unfaithfulness. Instead, they refer to declines as demographic "blips," waning evangelism, or the impact of secular culture. Membership decline has no inherent theological meaning for either liberals or conservatives. Decline only means, as Gallup pointed out in a just-released survey, that Americans have lost confidence in all forms of institutional religion.
The real question is not "Can liberal Christianity be saved?" The real question is: Can Christianity be saved?
Liberal Christians experienced this decline sooner than their conservative kin, thus giving them a longer, more sustained opportunity to explore what faith might mean to twenty-first century people. Introspective liberal churchgoers returned to the core of the Christian vision: Jesus' command to "Love God and love your neighbor as yourself." As a result, a sort of neo-liberal Christianity has quietly taken root across the old Protestant denominations--a form of faith that cares for one's neighbor, the common good, and fosters equality, but is, at the same time, a transformative personal faith that is warm, experiential, generous, and thoughtful. This new expression of Christianity maintains the historic liberal passion for serving others but embraces Jesus' injunction that a vibrant love for God is the basis for a meaningful life. These Christians link spirituality with social justice as a path of peace and biblical faith.
Unexpectedly, liberal Christianity is--in some congregations at least--undergoing renewal. A grass-roots affair to be sure, sputtering along in local churches, prompted by good pastors doing hard work and theologians mostly unknown to the larger culture. Some local congregations are growing, having seriously re-engaged practices of theological reflection, hospitality, prayer, worship, doing justice, and Christian formation. A recent study from Hartford Institute for Religion Research discovered that liberal congregations actually display higher levels of spiritual vitality than do conservative ones, noting that these findings were "counter-intuitive" to the usual narrative of American church life.
There is more than a little historical irony in this. A quiet renewal is occurring, but the denominational structures have yet to adjust their institutions to the recovery of practical wisdom that is remaking local congregations. And the media continues to fixate on big pastors and big churches with conservative followings as the center-point of American religion, ignoring the passion and goodness of the old liberal tradition that is once again finding its heart. Yet, the accepted story of conservative growth and liberal decline is a twentieth century tale, at odds with what the surveys, data, and best research says what is happening now. Indeed, I think that the better story of contemporary Christianity is that of an awakening of a more open, more inclusive, more spiritually vital faith is roiling and I argue for that in my recent book, Christianity After Religion.
So, Mr. Douthat asks, "Can Liberal Christianity Be Saved?" But I wonder: Can Liberal Churches Save Christianity? The twenty-first century has yet to answer that, but I think we may be surprised.
Follow Diana Butler Bass on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dianabutlerbass
Paul Brandeis Raushenbush: Religious People Celebrate LGBT Pride
David Briggs: Hold the Judgment: Changing Attitudes on LGBT Issues Defy Religious Stereotypes
Rev. Susan Russell: Episcopalians Work to Put the 'T' in Equality
David Lose: Do Christian Denominations Have a Future?
Can Liberal Christianity Be Saved? - NYTimes.com
Can Liberal Christianity Be Saved? - Page 2 - Catholic Answers Forums
What sustains a church best? Tiny communities with limited connections to the outside world.
What destroys one? An influx of new ideas and influences.
Religion is just six different kinds of toast. And not the kind you get pictures of Mother Mary on.
Sorry, I have no interest in goody-goody do-good projects, or in making the world a better place. I want my metaphysical thrills, my woo-woo, my peak experiences. If the church won't provide that, because of their moralistic, manipulative puritanism they can eat shit. The church has nothing else to offer that isn't available cheaper and better from secular sources.
If churches don't provide religion--that is, the experience, the thrill, the sense of the supernatural they're worthless.
I was once considered liberal. When I was young I had a teacher explain one group helps the poor and another the wealthy. Being a Christian, I wanted to be on the side of the poor and the disenfranchised. I haven't lost that feeling, but when you don't believe in everything in a group; you get kicked out of it. I am glad you shared your testimony. Dietrich Bonhoeffer spoke of the wonderful gift and blessing when Christians can come together. I am not coming together with you in physical presence; but when the world is recreated in the eschaton, say hello to me. I want you to encourage you to keep living out that faith. You and I both know what joy is, why should we listen to what the world calls happiness and fulfillment when it has only been the shadows. I think of Hebrews 12 in this case. I exhort you to remember you are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses and you are running the race. Thank you for your comment.
- Phil
[[Jesus foretold that his teachings would be subverted. He said:
“The kingdom of the heavens has become like a man that sowed fine seed in his field. While men were sleeping, his enemy came and oversowed weeds in among the wheat, and left.”
Surprisingly, when servants brought the evil deed to the man’s attention and asked for permission to collect the weeds, the man said:
“No; that by no chance, while collecting the weeds, you uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest; and in the harvest season I will tell the reapers, First collect the weeds and bind them in bundles to burn them up, then go to gathering the wheat into my storehouse.”
—Matthew13:24-30
As Jesus explained, the man who sowed wheat in the field represents Jesus, and the seeds he planted represent true Christians. The enemy who sowed weeds among the wheat represents “the Devil.” The weeds represent lawless, apostate men who falsely claim to be servants of God. (Matthew13:36-42) The apostle Paul gave further details of what would happen. He said: “I know that after my going away oppressive wolves will enter in among you and will not treat the flock with tenderness, and from among you yourselves men will rise and speak twisted things to draw away the disciples after themselves.” —Acts20:29,30 ]]
Is Religion Losing Its Influence?
http://www.watchtower.org/e/200702/article_03.htm
The Whale, Jonah, the Flood, Noah's Ark, the world being 6000 years old, earth being the center of everyhting, genesis in 6 days, ...
Yes. Either everything in the book is true or not.
“LET’S make the world a better place. Let’sget rid of religion.” That is what Dutch philosopher Floris van den Berg recommends in his published lecture entitled “How to Get Rid of Religion, and Why.” Around the world experts in various fields of knowledge are likewise promoting the abolition of religion.
A dove
“The world needs to wake up from its long nightmare of religious belief,” declares Nobel laureate and physicist Steven Weinberg. The idea that the evils of this world could be greatly minimized by eliminating religion has been loudly articulated in recent years. Books against religion proliferate and are quite popular.
Leading scientists have gathered to discuss what they consider to be the urgent need to eradicate religion. An emerging wave of atheists is flooding the media with their unapologetic hatred of religion. Are these well-respected thinkers on the right track?
http://www.watchtower.org/e/201101/article_04.htm
For hundreds of years, some of the most traditional parts of the church had rites to bless same-sex friendships. I will admit (pace John Boswell) that sexual activity between the partners was not specifically contemplated. Nevertheless, these rites resembled marriage rites, and the burden of proof would be on anyone today who tries to maintain either that it never happened, or that use of the rites was usually preceded by some kind of enquiry or promise to ensure that it would not happen.
Loneliness and neglect of the elderly are problems as severe in contemporary society as ever, if not more so. Hence the need for friends to make a commitment to each other is as great a need. This constitutes an excellent reason for this tradition to be restored. That a part of the church dares to do so is peculiar grounds for anathema-- and even more pecular when the criticism is that the church is disregarding tradition.
Sticking with a death oriented religion that promises eternal damnation to all the people on earth if they don't become believers is not working any more.
Christ was more than just a great human being. He was the Word that became flesh and walked among us. He was God. Don't be part of the mob shouting "Crucify Him! He's not who he claims to be!"
But there is another author and another book that, several years ago presaged this developing great renewal. He is (since retired) Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong and his book is WHY CHRISTIANITY MUST CHANGE OR DIE.
And it is changing, as increasing numbers of Progressive Christians are responding to a new Spirituality that is focusing more on the teachings of Jesus and less on the Religion of traditions. Christianity is not dying. It is being reborn.
"..you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
'These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men.'
Yes, there have been some good fruits, but I suggest they come not from the Religion, but from the hearts of good people who would be what they are WITHOUT the religion, filled with a Spirit of universal goodness.
Christianity IS dying, but only in the sense that it is being reborn into a new universally developing Spirituality.
For the SURVIVAL and ADVANCEMENT of humankind.......I CERTAINLY HOPE NOT!
...and right-wing Xian fundamentalism has driven millions away from Christianity in pure disgust.
I don't think religion poisons everything it touches ... just everything it tries to force.
the druids had the same confidence once as well.
How many extinct religions are there?