"Christianity Under Attack"

muddle's picture

Someone wrote anonymously in the Free Speech section:

If Christianity is faltering, who is to blame but the Christians who put their faith on the back burner while they vacation and play?

I will not say that the points made are unimportant.

But I think that a larger issue looms in the background.

If Christianity is on the decline in an increasingly secular society, it is chiefly because it is increasingly perceived as not being among the options for anyone of any intellectual integrity. On most campuses, it is viewed much as I personally view, say, Scientology or the beliefs of the Raelian UFO cult--just plain goofy.

If Christian people think that their beliefs have any claim to truth, then what is called for is a generation of believers who are committed to making an intellectually sound case for those beliefs--and encouraging the work of first rate scholars who are capable of engaging skeptical scholarship on its own terms. (GK Chesterton compared St. Francis and St. Thomas: "Between the book-hater and the book-lover, between the wildest of all missionaries and the mildest of all professors, the great fact of medieval history is that these two men were doing the same great work: one in the study and the other in the street." The current generation of Christians seems not to value the work of the study.)

But instead, they have spent their time splashing about in kiddie pools, supposing that their message will be received if reduced to sound bytes, catchy bumper stickers and Nashville-produced pop music. Joel Osteen draws an audience of thousands to offer them the saccharine message, "Be nice to your garbage men. Bring them a Coke on a hot day." (Next week's message: "Be kind to your gardener. Bring him a 7-Up when you see him toiling out in the sun")

As historian Mark Noll wrote in The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, "The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind."

Christian ministers seem to suppose that their message should appeal chiefly to the felt needs of people in our society. A billboard reads, "Depressed? Lonely? Anxious? Jesus is the answer." Perhaps that is true. But if this is the chief appeal, then Jesus is marketed as a product that competes with, say, Prozac. Or Yoga.

And if the primary appeal of your congregation is that people will have a sense of community, fellowship and belonging, please note that various cults may boast the same thing. The Heaven's Gate people discovered in their new, white sneakers and matching jogging suits likely enjoyed fellowship over their Kool Aid.

Please don't tell me how coming to Jesus is an effective means to combating crabgrass in my lawn or achieving financial success. Tell me why I should suppose that what he said is true. If it is not true, then it is not worth the bother.

By all means, take your children to church, as the Free Speech author suggests. But if you do not see to it that they think through the tough questions with integrity (rather than spurious arguments), then you had better insulate them properly by teaching them that thinking is itself of the devil. Else, when they get to college and find that what they have been taught is assaulted on many fronts, they are likely to shuck it off along with other childhood stories of faeries, elves and angels.

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Main Stream's picture
Submitted by Main Stream on Sat, 04/25/2009 - 10:50am.

"If Christianity is on the decline in an increasingly secular society, it is chiefly because it is increasingly perceived as not being among the options for anyone of any intellectual integrity."

It is not only a perceived lack of "intellectual integrity" that Christianity has been saddled with. I believe that Christian's most certainly have themselves to blame for their decline, at least in our own country. There seems to be so many Christian groups in the news that have taken on a hostile and/or anti-social tone or that have embraced a platform that reeks of hate, intolerance, anti-science or misogyny. Groups like Westboro Baptist Church, "Yearning for Zion", Creationists/ID'ers, anti-gay/anti-choice, plus, the pedophile priest debacle that has forever stained the Catholic church. Just look at Heritage Church in our own community that hosted the Creationism forum recently, taking on science and evolution. I find this absolutely distasteful that a church would embrace the anti-science mantra of creationism/ID and I would personally have a difficult time taking my children to a church like this, especially now when my own child is learning about evolution in her science class. Talk about a total disconnect!

Christian churches have thrust themselves into the political arena and they have lost members and converts because of their actions. I honestly believe that this is the main reason for declining numbers in Christianity. When I was growing up in California during the 60's, we attended a Presbyterian church fairly regularly. During one of the many anti-war rallies in Berkeley during that time, a Presbyterian minister hand-cuffed himself to an anti-war protestor who was being arrested, thereby, getting himself arrested in support of the protestor. I remember distinctly my mother saying that she would never go back to our church again because the Presbyterian's had become "too political" for her. We never did go back and found another church to attend that was very a-political in nature and in the business of "saving souls" so to speak. It was actually a really nice church, very warm and welcoming, full of love and kindness for everyone, no mention of anti this or anti that. Church, was again, a place for my family to congregate and receive a wonderful message of love, kindness, forgiveness and hope. A message many modern churches have forgotten and placed on the back-burner. Instead, there is now an underlying message of all things political and it makes most people squirm in the pew when they hear political thought in church.

Churches have changed because our world has changed. I also believe that declining numbers can be attributed to 9/11 and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. It sickens people to see suicide bombers blow themselves up, taking innocents with them, in the name of Allah/God. The message so many of us are receiving these days is that "religion kills" or "religion is hostile." What do our kids see on the news everyday? War between the religions, whether it is between the Jews and Arabs or the U.S. and Iraq/Afghanistan. And the underlying reason for these conflicts is religion. No longer is religion/church a safe haven for some of us to congregate and "feel the love" and escape the atrocities of the world that we see on the news everyday. The church has brought the atrocities and absurdities into the sanctuary, politicized it, and also require their members to embrace it in order to feel accepted within the congregation. And this is what has become unacceptable to many of us.

Should modern day churches embrace modern day issues? Maybe not. Does Joel Osteen preach about gays and abortion? Or does he talk about love and kindness and offering the gardener a Coca-cola? Maybe this is why his simple message of love and tolerance has been embraced by so many followers.


muddle's picture
Submitted by muddle on Sat, 04/25/2009 - 11:17am.

I also believe that declining numbers can be attributed to 9/11 and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. It sickens people to see suicide bombers blow themselves up, taking innocents with them, in the name of Allah/God. The message so many of us are receiving these days is that "religion kills" or "religion is hostile."

I think you're right about this. Not a few people have observed that the so-called "New Atheism" rode in on the wake of 911. Hitchens, in particular, has appealed to acts of terrorism (he calls them "Islamofascists") has evidence that religion itself is evil.

Of course, strictly speaking, this is rather like observing the atrocities of some dictatorial regime and coming away with the more general conclusion, "Government is a wicked institution."

By the way, a friend of mine debated Hitchens earlier this month on the question, "Does God Exist?" As the blogger who runs the commonsenseatheism site put it, after actually attending the debate, "William Lane Craig spanked Hitchens like a foolish child." I cannot wait to see the videos. There are a few snippets up on YouTube already, but not the entire thing.

Meanwhile, the entire debate between Bill Craig and atheist Peter Atkins, held here in ATL at the Carter Center in '99, and moderated by Wm. F. Buckley, is up on YouTube. It's in 11 installments. There are some great moments.

Craig vs. Atkins Pt. 1


sniffles5's picture
Submitted by sniffles5 on Fri, 04/24/2009 - 10:12am.

I think you've hit upon a bit of a sore point in modern day Christianity: the rise of Christian anti-intellectualism.

I think the beginnings of modern Christian anti-intellectualism took root in the late 1990s. In a nutshell, Christian anti-intellectualism could be summed up as "God said it, I believe it, the end."

President Bush made anti-intellectualism somewhat trendy in the 2000 debates when he was asked who is favorite philosopher was (Jesus, of course) but couldn't explain why Jesus' teachings were important, only that they WERE important. I think that line of reasoning has a tremendous appeal to a certain strata of society, those that are absolutely sure of their beliefs to the point that they'd never bothered to investigate the foundation of those beliefs.

There is a common belief (no pun intended) that the Republican party co-opte the Christian message over the last quarter century and infused and grafted their own message on top of Christian beliefs (remember "Jesus wanted big nuclear weapons systems", anyone?). I'm not sure if this is still true (or if it was, indeed, ever true) but the Republican party has been complicit in helping "dumb down" the Christian message for the masses, turning Christian thought into bumper-sticker theology, more or less.

There comes a point of diminishing returns, though, a point where the proverbial Everyman takes notice and frowns and says "now wait a gosh-darn minute here...." The overreach of Christian dogma began to infuse both the little debates (the Grand Canyon bookstore hawking Christian propaganda that the Earth was only 6000 years old) to the big debates (a clump of cells in a petri dish is the functional equivalent of a human being). (Sorry, Muddle, couldn't resist).

I think that certain Christians are bewildered when mainstream America "pushes back", hence the feeling of their values being "under attack". And I think it's a direct consequence of attempting to foist Christian values coercively upon the public via force of law and presidential signing statements, as opposed to good ole fashioned "retail Christianity", the hard business of saving one soul at a time.


muddle's picture
Submitted by muddle on Fri, 04/24/2009 - 11:13am.

I think there is much that we agree upon here.

There is indeed "the hard business of saving one soul at a time."

There is also the honest business of engaging in genuine, open and honest debate in the public square. Instead, what we find are religious people attempting to make an end run around all of that and forcing the school boards to place warning stickers in biology texts.
Alternatively, there are whole groups ignoring the issues altogether as if it is unimportant.

I think it is rather silly when I hear someone saying (as I heard recently), "I became an atheist when I realized that all of the Christians that I knew were homophobic." It is silly because whether theism (as opposed to naturalism) is true is chiefly a question of metaphysics. I might as well reject the Second Law of Thermodynamics on the grounds that the professor who introduced it to me turned out to be a pedophile.

Still, there is this point: Look around at the evangelical scene of the past two or three decades. As evangelical author (and Atlanta native) Philip Yancey observed, the word "evangelical" has grown putrid in the mouths of many, and this is because of a perceived stridency and aggressiveness in the political sphere, while these qualities seem accompanied by ungraciousness and a general anti-intellectualism.

Who can blame people for not wanting to join in the fun?


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