Is "Christianity in America" dying?
Browsing through some of my favorite magazines last Thursday evening at Books-A-Million, the cover story for "Newsweek" magazine jumped right out at me. It declared: "The Decline and Fall of Christian America". At first, I thought I may have been seeing things, so I dropped the sports magazine I was reading to pick up the Newsweek and read further. And I find out that the article - written by John Meacham - did in fact suggest that we are entering some sort of post-Christian era because for the first time in our history, the percentage of people in this nation that identify themselves as non-religious has entered the double digits (going from 8% in 1990 to 15% today); the article basically focuses on results from a 2009 American Religious Identification Survey (you can read the entire article by going to this link http://www.newsweek.com/id/192583)
I believe that John Meacham - a writer whom I admire because he tends to be objective - used some hyperbole in this article because I don't really think we are now a post-Christian nation. Some would even suggest with the increase in spiritual yearning during these tough economic times, that church attendance is booming more than ever in many circles, especially in "non-denominational" circles. More people in America still identify themselves as Christians compared to any other religious affiliation, even though the number has dropped from 86% in 1990 to 76% now. The survey also found out that the majority of those who identify themselves as non-religious live in the NorthEast, to which I know many conservatives would suggest is because of their liberal political views (lol). I do think, however, that the situation is a little more complex than the article really suggests.
I don't think it is so much that we are entering a post-Christian era in America, but I do believe that there is a spiritual revolution going on, even in Christian circles. For too long now, there has been this not-too-subtle suggestion that to be an Evangelical Christian in America means that you are supposed to have a specific political view and ideological outlook (so much so that some even wondered how you could really call yourself a Christian and vote for anyone not a Republican). But this narrow outlook on the complexities and subtleties of our lives negates to acknowledge the fact that certain demographics, while staunchly conservative on most moral/cultural issues, are more liberal on social/civil rights issues. For instance, some analysts said that the reason why proposition 8 passed in last year's elections in California was because even though most African-Americans voted for Obama, they voted for proposition 8 because most people in the "black church' are firmly opposed to gay marriage. This just goes to show that the labels that we often use to describe people and their political views are not always completely appropriate or clear cut, because we are not all on one extreme or the other as the media would love to suggest.
We are often led to believe that we are either in complete agreement with the likes of Bill Maher, Keith Olbermann and their co-horts in the "liberal media" or we completely agree with the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Fox News and the talk show hosts on conservative radio. But neither side is a complete arbiter of the truth, and it is so unfortunate that the nature of politics suggests that you can NEVER admit that your side is sometimes wrong and the other side sometimes right, because politics at its very core is about winning and demonizing the "other" side. That is why the term "bi-partisanship" will always be an oxymoron. To even remotely agree with the opposition in any arena is political suicide.
This is why we are having this subtle shift in the spiritual lives of many people in this nation. More and more voices that refuse to box Jesus' message into a political corner are emerging. I think of authors like Brian McLaren (Everything must change), Frank Viola (Pagan Christianity), David Kinnaman (UnChristian), Wayne Jacobsen (So you don't want to go to church anymore), Dan Kimball (They like Jesus but not the church), Cornel West (Democracy Matters), Micheal Eric Dyson (Can you hear me now), Jim Palmer (Divine Nobodies), William P. Young (The Shack); these are just a few names that are transforming the way we see Jesus' message played out in our society. I once read that if your "god" hates the same people that you hate, then you can be sure that you have created God in your own image. And for too long now, we have used our faith as a demarcating tool to determine who the "enemy" is, and that enemy has one word marking his identity - liberal. But as I study the teachings of Jesus, I am struck by two things - one, he said "my kingdom is not of this world", in other words, I don't operate the way the world operates, you see "love" as a reward to be earned, I love even the most "despicable amongst you" (hence his affinity for attracting the most notorious sinners of his day); secondly, without fail, it seems that the more religious a person was during Jesus' day, the more that person despised him. Could it be that religion at its very core, being rooted in self-righteousness, tends to hate the message of Jesus because it takes us off our illusionary pedestals that say "I am better than John Doe or Jane Doe" because I believe "x" or do "y" and they don't?
There is a lot of hyperpole in suggesting that Christianity is dying in America. I just don't believe this is true. And while there is no doubt that this nation was founded and highly influenced by Judeo-Christian principles, it is not completely accurate to say that we are a "Christian nation" because the Bible is not our Constitution. We are neither completely secular nor are we completely religious, and we should be glad that our Constitution protects the rights of a person to worship God or not to worship him. Seeing the way that religion incorporated as Sharia law in some Muslim countries, trust me, we don't want to live in a nation that adopts a certain religious belief as law, because then the question becomes, which "brand" of Christianity do we adopt: Lutheran? Catholic? Methodist? Baptist? "Non-denominational', Anglican, Presbyterian etc? Which theology? Calvinist, Arminian etc? Besides, do we really want to strictly enforce some of the Laws mandated in the Old Testament, like stoning women to death for adultery, a practice that, believe it or not, still takes place in some devoutly religious nations of the world? Even if we found a way to somehow make every command in the Bible a legal mandate in this country, it would not necessarily make us more moral, it would only heighten fear and increase the level of hypocrisy.
Hopefully, we will get to a point where we stop making rash judgments about one another based on our perceptions of other people's spiritual beliefs and simply realize that any spiritual journey that takes you away from loving others and seeking to put compassion into practice eventually does more harm than good. I believe this to be the central message of the Gospel of Jesus...
Stephen Oladotun Akinduro
Browsing through some of my favorite magazines last Thursday evening at Books-A-Million, the cover story for "Newsweek" magazine jumped right out at me. It declared: "The Decline and Fall of Christian America". At first, I thought I may have been seeing things, so I dropped the sports magazine I was reading to pick up the Newsweek and read further. And I find out that the article - written by John Meacham - did in fact suggest that we are entering some sort of post-Christian era because for the first time in our history, the percentage of people in this nation that identify themselves as non-religious has entered the double digits (going from 8% in 1990 to 15% today); the article basically focuses on results from a 2009 American Religious Identification Survey (you can read the entire article by going to this link http://www.newsweek.com/id/192583)
I believe that John Meacham - a writer whom I admire because he tends to be objective - used some hyperbole in this article because I don't really think we are now a post-Christian nation. Some would even suggest with the increase in spiritual yearning during these tough economic times, that church attendance is booming more than ever in many circles, especially in "non-denominational" circles. More people in America still identify themselves as Christians compared to any other religious affiliation, even though the number has dropped from 86% in 1990 to 76% now. The survey also found out that the majority of those who identify themselves as non-religious live in the NorthEast, to which I know many conservatives would suggest is because of their liberal political views (lol). I do think, however, that the situation is a little more complex than the article really suggests.
I don't think it is so much that we are entering a post-Christian era in America, but I do believe that there is a spiritual revolution going on, even in Christian circles. For too long now, there has been this not-too-subtle suggestion that to be an Evangelical Christian in America means that you are supposed to have a specific political view and ideological outlook (so much so that some even wondered how you could really call yourself a Christian and vote for anyone not a Republican). But this narrow outlook on the complexities and subtleties of our lives negates to acknowledge the fact that certain demographics, while staunchly conservative on most moral/cultural issues, are more liberal on social/civil rights issues. For instance, some analysts said that the reason why proposition 8 passed in last year's elections in California was because even though most African-Americans voted for Obama, they voted for proposition 8 because most people in the "black church' are firmly opposed to gay marriage. This just goes to show that the labels that we often use to describe people and their political views are not always completely appropriate or clear cut, because we are not all on one extreme or the other as the media would love to suggest.
We are often led to believe that we are either in complete agreement with the likes of Bill Maher, Keith Olbermann and their co-horts in the "liberal media" or we completely agree with the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Fox News and the talk show hosts on conservative radio. But neither side is a complete arbiter of the truth, and it is so unfortunate that the nature of politics suggests that you can NEVER admit that your side is sometimes wrong and the other side sometimes right, because politics at its very core is about winning and demonizing the "other" side. That is why the term "bi-partisanship" will always be an oxymoron. To even remotely agree with the opposition in any arena is political suicide.
This is why we are having this subtle shift in the spiritual lives of many people in this nation. More and more voices that refuse to box Jesus' message into a political corner are emerging. I think of authors like Brian McLaren (Everything must change), Frank Viola (Pagan Christianity), David Kinnaman (UnChristian), Wayne Jacobsen (So you don't want to go to church anymore), Dan Kimball (They like Jesus but not the church), Cornel West (Democracy Matters), Micheal Eric Dyson (Can you hear me now), Jim Palmer (Divine Nobodies), William P. Young (The Shack); these are just a few names that are transforming the way we see Jesus' message played out in our society. I once read that if your "god" hates the same people that you hate, then you can be sure that you have created God in your own image. And for too long now, we have used our faith as a demarcating tool to determine who the "enemy" is, and that enemy has one word marking his identity - liberal. But as I study the teachings of Jesus, I am struck by two things - one, he said "my kingdom is not of this world", in other words, I don't operate the way the world operates, you see "love" as a reward to be earned, I love even the most "despicable amongst you" (hence his affinity for attracting the most notorious sinners of his day); secondly, without fail, it seems that the more religious a person was during Jesus' day, the more that person despised him. Could it be that religion at its very core, being rooted in self-righteousness, tends to hate the message of Jesus because it takes us off our illusionary pedestals that say "I am better than John Doe or Jane Doe" because I believe "x" or do "y" and they don't?
There is a lot of hyperpole in suggesting that Christianity is dying in America. I just don't believe this is true. And while there is no doubt that this nation was founded and highly influenced by Judeo-Christian principles, it is not completely accurate to say that we are a "Christian nation" because the Bible is not our Constitution. We are neither completely secular nor are we completely religious, and we should be glad that our Constitution protects the rights of a person to worship God or not to worship him. Seeing the way that religion incorporated as Sharia law in some Muslim countries, trust me, we don't want to live in a nation that adopts a certain religious belief as law, because then the question becomes, which "brand" of Christianity do we adopt: Lutheran? Catholic? Methodist? Baptist? "Non-denominational', Anglican, Presbyterian etc? Which theology? Calvinist, Arminian etc? Besides, do we really want to strictly enforce some of the Laws mandated in the Old Testament, like stoning women to death for adultery, a practice that, believe it or not, still takes place in some devoutly religious nations of the world? Even if we found a way to somehow make every command in the Bible a legal mandate in this country, it would not necessarily make us more moral, it would only heighten fear and increase the level of hypocrisy.
Hopefully, we will get to a point where we stop making rash judgments about one another based on our perceptions of other people's spiritual beliefs and simply realize that any spiritual journey that takes you away from loving others and seeking to put compassion into practice eventually does more harm than good. I believe this to be the central message of the Gospel of Jesus...
Stephen Oladotun Akinduro
posted by Stephen O. | 12:10 PM
2 Comments:
To which I would add, Amen!
But thus is not a new problem for Christianity, as it was being taught in the first century.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Galatia, "It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery."
Amn Sherwood, Amen!!
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