The coming evangelical collapse...
The Christian Science Monitor published a fascinating story today.
"Within two generations, evangelicalism will be a house deserted
of half its occupants. (Between 25 and 35 percent of Americans today
are Evangelicals.) In the "Protestant" 20th century, Evangelicals
flourished. But they will soon be living in a very secular and
religiously antagonistic 21st century.
This collapse will herald the arrival of an anti-Christian chapter
of the post-Christian West. Intolerance of Christianity will rise to
levels many of us have not believed possible in our lifetimes, and
public policy will become hostile toward evangelical Christianity,
seeing it as the opponent of the common good."
One of the charges, "...Our young people have deep beliefs about
the culture war, but do not know why they should obey scripture, the
essentials of theology, or the experience of spiritual discipline and
community. Coming generations of Christians are going to be
monumentally ignorant and unprepared for culture-wide pressures."
I"m wondering what others think of this article.
;-) Paul
I have to confess I only skimmed the article; also that I'm not much of a good "future predictor" myself. Perhaps he's right. Gut-level the feels sort of scary and bad - but evangelicalism is not God.
Two connecting points in the last couple of weeks; well maybe three.
1) My experiences in Kenya and Egypt - the folks I was with there were on fire for the Lord and passionate about using drama as an outreach. I couldn't cite stats on how the church is doing there or the effect of drama, but it was exciting.
2) Heard a sermon at Southlake Foursquare by Dinesh D'Souza. Fascinating speaker - the gist of what he was saying was that we as Christians need to be informed about our faith and how to answer for the hope that is within us in an increasingly secular society. For example, quoting from the Bible proves nothing to an atheist. What are other facts we can marshall that will speak to them on their playing field?
3) My book group last night. There are a couple of women there who are very hostile to Christianity; who can almost always be counted on to paint Christians with a broad negative brush. But last night another woman shared her amazing conversion story - basically went to church at a very low time in her life, and when the sermon was over, she just sat there sobbing uncontrollably. And then I tried to define salvation in terms they might hear, in response to comments about Anne Lamott such as, "Is she saved?" "She thinks she is." "Saved from what?" "From herself." "I don't need to be saved." I have a feeling that one day one of the negative women might hear that still, small voice. The other seems to have a super thick wall around her. But wouldn't it be just like God to break through what seems unbreakable...
Judy