I haven't yet read the whole study released Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life titled, "U.S. Religious Landscape Survey," just some of the news reports. But what I have read confirms what I see on the road every week. U.S. citizens are on the move religiously. Many people are not staying in the churches of their upbringings. "This is not your parents' church," many now could say as they show up on Sunday mornings. But where are they going? What we have known for a long time now is backed by the data -- namely that many evangelical churches are growing, and especially congregations that are "non-denominational" or "unaffiliated." And a decline in Catholic Church attendance is being somewhat offset by an influx into the country of Catholic immigrants.
But what most struck me about the Pew Study was that U.S. citizens are moving to places where faith is "personal." I bumped into one of the authors of the new study, John Green, at the Washington, D.C., CNN studios yesterday afternoon where we were both doing commentary on the results. And John confirmed the conclusion about the attractiveness of more personal, dynamic, and vibrant faith communities. But, as I said to the CNN correspondent who, of course, asked about the political implications of all this, personal doesn't neccessarily mean private, conservative, Republican, Religious Right, abortion, and gay marriage.
On the contrary, what I see rising up all around the country is a new evangelical agenda focusing on poverty, the environment and climate change, human rights, war and peace, and, yes, the sanctity of human life -- but much more broadly applied to include places like Darfur and the 30,000 children who died again today globally of unnecessary poverty and disease. Why pit unborn children against poor children? Rather, let's see them all in the category of the vulnerable that Jesus calls us to defend. In fact, my observation is that a concern for social justice is breaking out precisely at the places and in the people where faith is more personal. After all, as I often preach on the road, "God is personal, but never private." Many people are now hungry for a faith that is powerful enough to change their lives, their relationships, their neighborhoods, their nation, and their world. Churches that just focus on doctrine or on principles will continue to lose people to churches that offer a personal faith that cares for the world. When faith is no longer restricted to just our private lives, but breaks out into the world, new things can happen. Like revival.
Jim Wallis is the author of The Great Awakening
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I sure hope he's right.
And the surprising fact is some of the biggest victories over the Christian fundy wingnuts have been at the hands of other Christians. Judge John E. Jones, a Lutheran, did a brilliant laid down the law on the creationists, ruling in the PA case that "ID" (creationism) is NOT science.
And the best arguement totally debunking creationism as a sure fire way to lead children to becoming atheists n their adult years is here, from a religious, home schooler mom:
http://theupsidedownworld.wordpress.com/2008/02/25/teaching-creation-science-or-id-a-formula-for-putting-your-childs-christian-faith-at-risk/
So come on, Carter Christians, keep fighting the good fight against the nutties!
Non-literalist evangelicals like Wallis still quickly stress "strengthening the family" as an issue, which they well-know is already well-established (by the religious right) as policy positions specifically opposing same-sex civil unions and gay marriage, and often opposing even anti-discrimination legislation relative to housing and employment for gay Americans, or benefits (and responsibilities) for same-sex couples relative to health care, taxation, and inheritance.
Until Wallis and self-proclaimed progressive evangelicals begin defining human rights as INCLUDING gay issues and defining strengthening gay partnerships (which wouldn't even require gay marriage) as also being a part of the larger "strengthening the family" agenda they readily embrace, very, very few gay Americans would ever feel welcomed or comfortable in even the most progressive evangelical church, no matter how "personal" and non-doctrinal the congregation fancies itself to be.
It's great that progressive evangelical churches want to fight poverty in Darfur. I think it would be great if they also demonstrably gave a darn about things like the high rate of suicide among gay teens and the rise of anti-gay bullying in local high schools.
I'm not sure progressive evangelical churches are really up to acting locally and affecting the hearts and minds of *friends and neighbors* relative to how they treat *each other,* a task that is more difficult than affecting their hearts and minds about how they they might help combat a sweeping global issue--one probably not directly affecting friends and neighbors yet--of poverty and the environment.
Thank you for pointing out what's been the elephant in the room. Until the "progressive" religious movement accepts gays, without the platitudes of "we are all sinners, and it's just another sin, like adultery", they will never have moral authority. The pro-family agenda is anti-gay, and it doesn't need to be. Even gay people come from families.
And, in the wake of this unAmerican, unconstitutional and unGodly Bush/Cheny regime, this nation now teems with hopeless people!
It ain't brain surgery!