As an Evangelical Christian who makes no secret of being on the political left, I have an additional sensitivity to the political and social stance of many church organisations.
There was a time, not so many years ago, when the politics of an Evangelical Christian could be discerned with ease. Issues such as abortion, sexuality, the Cold War, social justice, race and so on were easily summed up in a few glib sentences. I was once told, for example, that I could not appear on the platform of a certain annual Christian event because I held views that were "iffy", "non Christian" and "unscriptural" on some social issues.
Times have now changed. Evangelical Christians have undergone massive changes in our attitudes across a whole range of issues. It is no longer as easy as it was to predict the politcs of a British Evangilical Christian.
I was fascinated to come across this article from Walter Russel Mead. He writes from an American perspective where many Evangelicals simply gave up on the mainline churches. This has happened in this country to a lesser extent. Starkly put: we are in the empty mainline churches wondering where the young people are, whilst they worship down the road at an overcrowded car boot church in a school hall.
Walter has picked up the same changes that I have detected amongst Evangelicals and "fundamentalists". However he makes a radical challenge to the mainline churches, one that I suspect resonates with our experience in the United Kingdom.
Just a taste of what Walter says:
Beginning really with Billy Graham’s pilgrimage, for two generations evangelicals have been working to free themselves of cultural detritus (culturally determined views on race and on the place of women in society, for example) while holding on to the vital principles of the fundamentalist core — doctrines like original sin, the atonement, and a strong belief that God, however mysteriously, acts in history.
The heirs of the modernists, I fear, have not really had this ’second stage’ movement. If anything, the most noticeable trend in many mainline denominations has been to go farther down the road of the modernists......
......The mainline churches seemed to feel that little of value was really lost when the fundamentalists left. The modernists won the fight with the fundamentalists, after all. They ended up with the big buildings, the prestigious and academically well respected theological schools, the patronage of the social elite, the bully pulpits that commanded attention and respect, the control of the denominational machinery. Why look for anything more?
In truth, the split impoverished the mainline churches as much as it did the fundamentalists. Modernity in religion became progressively unglued from the foundations of Protestant faith; the mainline churches lacked the kind of compelling, burning message of faith that would have kept new generations of educated, thoughtful believers engaged in the church. For too many mainline congregations, faith faded into a habit, and the habit faded away.
I feel that too much energy is expended by some Methodists and other denominations trying to prove that we are not like the "fundamentalist" nutters down the road, when in fact there have been massive changes, of which we are unaware because we have been holed up in our denominational bunker.
It's a challenging article. I'd be interested to have some comments from the several non-Evanglicals who read this blog
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
4 comments:
I have read the article and I am unconvinced that it is possible to simply apply an analysis of the US situation to the UK.
When I look at British Churches such as New Frontiers key elements of Walter's analysis seem to break down eg "(culturally determined views on ... the place of women in society, for example)"
The article posits that in the US Evangelicals left the mainline Churches as fundamentalists and have now rethought their theology so that they are less fundamentalist while mainline churches are solidly non evangelical.
That may be the case in the US, I have no experience to know.
But the splits in the UK are surely somewhat different. Our situation was already very different to the US (having an Established Church that very much denies a separation of state and church is just one example).
I don't mean this as a defence of any part of the British Church nor as an attack on any other but I do not think we are helped by assuming that an American analysis can be directly applied here.
From a very preliminary and limited view of the current US scene, I think that there is some truth in what the author says. The way I'd phrase it is that many of the mainline churches have lost a collective passion for Christ.
In my view as a non-evangelical, the failing of the evangelical paradigm is that it sees Christianity as something to be marketed for a purchase: "Here is our good news, isn't it wonderful, don't you want to buy it?" Whereas I see Christian discipleship more like trying to convince someone to undertake a life-long commitment to mountain climbing: "The path will not always be easy but it's the most worthwhile trip you can ever take."
There is necessarily some "uncertainty" and "fuzziness" in the latter view because each of our journeys will be different although Christ and the Holy Spirit will be constant. Unfortunately, that leaves me and other non-evangelicals wide open to the evangelical judgment of being wishy-washy and lacking in certainty.
I continue to believe that "the problem" that the church has with bums on pews is that the culture has changed. In the US, it is becoming increasingly less necessary to attend church just for the sake of appearances. In the UK, of course, it's not been necessary to do so for 20 or 30 years. If one believes that all these "keeping up appearances" people were true believers and that Christianity is an attractive product that is easily and attractively sold, then one will persist in trying to reinvent the old model of church. Sadly, churches in the UK and the US are still trying to do this.
If one believes that Christian discipleship is a difficult journey that the minority of people will want to undertake, then one will not approach this whole affair with the mindset of "bums on pews equals true revival".
I genuinely believe that we need to give up our "numbers equals success" mindset and concentrate on Christ, on justice, ethics, truth, self-giving love and service.
"I genuinely believe that we need to give up our "numbers equals success" mindset and concentrate on Christ"
Well Pam I think we would all say "amen" to that!
There are just two issues:
Firstly, we do have a "great commission" to proclaim the Good News. We surely do want others to share in what we have found on our varying journeys.
Secondly, the bums on seats fund the work of our institutions. The more of us there are, the better in order to promote that Good News and the values which go with it.
Secondly, the bums on seats fund the work of our institutions. The more of us there are, the better in order to promote that Good News and the values which go with it.
All that is true.
And the more that people know that you want them in your church in order to fund the work of your institution, the worse your witness is.
The only people who can't see through our neediness to grow our institution is us. That is not following Christ.
We do have a "great commission" to proclaim the Good News. We surely do want others to share in what we have found on our varying journeys.
That I agree with. But I also think that as long as we're in it for our own sense of success, that God is going to keep us humble. God can be ironic like that.
Post a Comment