Bob believed in democracy, and he believed that Christians should fight for the common good. It was devastating to learn of his sudden death this week in a dark time when his prophetic vision has never been more sorely needed.

It's useful to recall this longstanding association between the Protestant mainline and the Christian intelligentsia as stories enumerating mainline decline pile up.

The death of George McGovern -- the son of a Methodist minister and himself briefly a seminary student at a Methodist institution -- is a reminder of the good of that Protestant reform impulse, rooted in the Social Gospel movements of the early and mid-20th century.

While many mainline churches say "we want young people," they don't really. If young adults actually showed up and joined their church for good, the change they'd naturally bring with them would be stark, even off-putting.

Even as U.S. Christians have changed their views dramatically on issues such as same-sex marriage and women clergy, they have overwhelming held fast with the traditional view of the resurrection.

We are smothering God. And our church. We're engaged in an unholy combination of implicit theocide and communal suicide.

I imagine Rob Bell feels a lot like I have on many occasions: it's not that the critics have understood what I'm trying to say and have explained why they disagree. They've misrepresented what I'm trying to say and have explained why the misrepresentation is audacious and ludicrous.

Walker is listening to One Person and One Person only: Jesus speaking directly to him. God, evidently, has directed him on his current path.

The point is not that Televangelists are scoundrels, or that many Christian pastors are hypocrites, but that these grand ministry failures represent examples of what many mainstream churches have, in desperation, come to believe is relevant.

The future is uncertain, but I'm convinced that there is a future for the essence of mainline Christianity -- a healthy, meaningful future that will continue to play a role both in society and in the hearts and minds of individuals.