Can Liberal Christianity Be Saved?

[redbeardiam]

I found this NY Times op-ed piece interesting.

It talks about the nearly 25% decline in attendance in the Episcopal church over the decade from 2000-2010.
An excerpt from the conclusion:

Quote:"the Christianity that animated causes such as the Social Gospel and the civil rights movement was much more dogmatic than present-day liberal faith. Its leaders had a “deep grounding in Bible st
udy, family devotions, personal prayer and worship.” They argued for progressive reform in the context of “a personal transcendent God ... the divinity of Christ, the need of personal redemption and the importance of Christian missions.”

Today, by contrast, the leaders of the Episcopal Church and similar bodies often don’t seem to be offering anything you can’t already get from a purely secular liberalism. Which suggests that per haps they should pause, amid their frantic renovations, and consider not just what they would change about historic Christianity, but what they would defend and offer uncompromisingly to the world."

[Mominator]

(08-06-2012 10:24 PM)redbeardiam Wrote:  I found this NY Times op-ed piece interesting.

It talks about the nearly 25% decline in attendance in the Episcopal church over the decade from 2000-2010.
An excerpt from the conclusion:

Quote:"the Christianity that animated causes such as the Social Gospel and the civil rights movement was much more dogmatic than present-day liberal faith. Its leaders had a “deep grounding in Bible st
udy, family devotions, personal prayer and worship.” They argued for progressive reform in the context of “a personal transcendent God ... the divinity of Christ, the need of personal redemption and the importance of Christian missions.”

Today, by contrast, the leaders of the Episcopal Church and similar bodies often don’t seem to be offering anything you can’t already get from a purely secular liberalism. Which suggests that per haps they should pause, amid their frantic renovations, and consider not just what they would change about historic Christianity, but what they would defend and offer uncompromisingly to the world."

I think that is a good article. I'm actually shocked the liberal NYT would publish an op-ed that criticized liberal Christianity.

Whatever happened to just the Bible being taught and preached!? That's what my husband and I are looking for now. We left the IFB almost a decade ago and haven't been back to church since then. We are thinking of Non-denominational church though instead of a mainline Christianity.

I do think "gay marriage" is a huge turnoff b/c most of America does believe in traditional marriage and the proof of that is all 32 states that voted to ban it, did. Even CA voted to ban it TWICE. That would be proof this issue is a problem for most of us. I mean, it's a basic Christian foundation that God created a marriage to be b/t a man and wife.

[Presbygirl]

Great article red!

The article I am posting, is approaching GenX and GenY from an employers point of view. However, I do think that one can take the identity of GenX and Y and see how the institution of the the Church may not be appealing to them.

Obviously, not all people of those two generations fall into the category of super-self indulgent. And one interesting thing to note is that these two generation like close relationships with their families. Could that be a key idea when thinking through how the church could show Jesus to these two generations? Not in the sense that all churches should cater to their wants, but in the sense of how the communications comes "down" from the church?

Don't know. One of my hunches is that GenYers see the church just like a corporation. So, they automatically right it off. I am GenX and have one other GenX sibling. I also have 4 GenY sibs. We are very different in how we view life in general and definitely Christianity too.

Edit: forgot to post the article! Here it is: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wire...-workplace

[bean]

Not sure if liberal Christianity "needs" saving, someone already took care of that 2000 years ago....on a serious note, there are people like me who have returned to their childhood roots in progressive churches. I love the grace filled message, the teaching that every single person is an inherently beautiful child of God, and that we need to worry not just about eternity but also need to make this place better. It's a message focused on the essence of humanity. When I read about Jesus, I get the sense he was the guy sticking up for the poor, the downtrodden, the "sinner", the cast-out, the sick, the forgotten, the children. Love and accept people for who they are...

Attendance may be declining in some churches. Our congregation has gained a few families.
As far as the Bible being taught, yep...we get that too!

I did 12 years in what some would describe a fundy-lite church. I am a proud ELCA member today.

And it was a great article, Redbeard! PG, I will read your article after I take care of some chores!

[RobMille]

Saw that a while ago. Douthat is a spectacular writer, and covers religion about as well as anyone. If I ever find time to read a book again, his "A Nation of Heretics" is at the top of my list.

[Tooktheredpill]

It's not just liberal Christianity that needs saving:

Quote:Membership in the Southern Baptist Convention dropped again over the last year, according to a new report. The largest Protestant denomination in the country now counts less than 16 million members.

This marks the fifth straight year the SBC has lost members. Primary worship attendance has also dropped by 0.65 percent to around 6.16 million.

One Southern Baptist and researcher lamented that the denomination is not only experiencing decline but an acceleration of decline.

Compared to a 0.15 percent drop from 2009 to 2010, membership fell by 0.98 percent from 2010 to 2011.

"Based on the trend of annual percent change in SBC total membership, we are catching up with the Methodists, and will match their decline rate consistently by 2018," said Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research, in his b(log. "This trend points to a future of more and faster decline -- and it is a 60-year trend."

http://www.christianpost.com/news/so-bap...-up-76608/

Conservative Evangelicalism (not to mention fundamentalism) is in a state of crisis, IMO. There are significant academic challenges to the very heart of what defines Evangelicalism that remained unaddressed (i.e. inerrancy, et al.). These issues will increasingly surface with the spread of information via the internet.

Liberal Christianity has at least tried to work with the challenges that modern scholarship brings to faith. Maybe the approach taken by Mainline Christianity is failing; however, at least this branch of Christianity isn't living in denial about where we are in terms of biblical and scientific scholarship.

[redbeardiam]

(08-09-2012 12:22 AM)Tooktheredpill Wrote:  It's not just liberal Christianity that needs saving:

Quote:Membership in the Southern Baptist Convention dropped again over the last year, according to a new report. The largest Protestant denomination in the country now counts less than 16 million members.

This marks the fifth straight year the SBC has lost members. Primary worship attendance has also dropped by 0.65 percent to around 6.16 million.

One Southern Baptist and researcher lamented that the denomination is not only experiencing decline but an acceleration of decline.

Compared to a 0.15 percent drop from 2009 to 2010, membership fell by 0.98 percent from 2010 to 2011.

"Based on the trend of annual percent change in SBC total membership, we are catching up with the Methodists, and will match their decline rate consistently by 2018," said Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research, in his b(log. "This trend points to a future of more and faster decline -- and it is a 60-year trend."

http://www.christianpost.com/news/so-bap...-up-76608/

Conservative Evangelicalism (not to mention fundamentalism) is in a state of crisis, IMO. There are significant academic challenges to the very heart of what defines Evangelicalism that remained unaddressed (i.e. inerrancy, et al.). These issues will increasingly surface with the spread of information via the internet.

Liberal Christianity has at least tried to work with the challenges that modern scholarship brings to faith. Maybe the approach taken by Mainline Christianity is failing; however, at least this branch of Christianity isn't living in denial about where we are in terms of biblical and scientific scholarship.

Sure. The difference is that Stetzer is forecasting decline if things don't change, but with the Episcopalians we're looking at history at this point. That 23% drop doesn't even include the last couple years of absolute turmoil experienced in their denomination.

I think I had confirmation bias looking at this article the first time - it confirms the narrative many of us are familiar with. That doesn't change the data about decline, though.

While I am not entirely comfortable with conservative evangelicalism I'd be far less comfortable in episcopal-style liberalism. I've occasionally contemplated what it might mean to jump to an Anglican communion, but that is not reasonable or realistic for me at this point. Thankfully, there are a whole lot of shades of gray between CEs and theological liberals. I am okay with not quite fitting perfectly anywhere I go.