Christianity in Crisis!

Christianity in America is in a crisis.

It is not a theological crisis.

It is not a doctrinal crisis.

It is not a moral/ethical crisis.

It is not a science/faith crisis.

It is an identity crisis. 

Such a crisis is nothing new. When the ancient Israelites were about to enter the Promised Land God gave them strict instructions to maintain their chosen identity. 

They didn’t!

As one reads the story of Israel in the Hebrew Scriptures one senses a gradual loss of identity by the people of God. It eventually caught up with them. The consequences were dire.

There’s a technical term for this loss of identity. It is syncretism.  Syncretism is defined as “the amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought” (online dictionary)—a hybrid blend of faith and culture.

The Hebrew Bible is replete with passages reflecting God’s displeasure with Israel’s attempt to mimic her surrounding culture. The Israelites sank to an all time low when they mimicked the hideous Canaanite practice of child sacrifices.

They lost their identity as  people of Yahweh.

Of course this is nothing new. According to the late author and philosopher René Girard we humans all have a desire to mimic those around us, to want what they have, to covet another’s prized possession, to be like another. Such mimicking is what lies behind human conflicts, according to Girard.

Such mimicking eventually led to the demise of Israel both as a kingdom and as nation. 

Yet America is not Israel. We exist in a much different culture, in a much different place, in a much different time and in a different time zone to be sure. But the desires of the human heart are not any different today from what we might expect of the ancient Israelites (Girard’s point in fact).

There has been almost universal recognition of the demise of Christianity in the West and in North America. Churches are declining. Congregations are getting smaller and older. Financial resources are drying up.

The reasons for this decline perhaps are many and complex. The solutions to negate this decline are at the moment unclear.

But here is what is clear: American Christianity in its most popular form in the United States today looks very dissimilar to the early Christ movement that literally turned its world upside down with its radical devotion to Christ.

Somewhere along the line Christianity began losing its identity. Some claim it began in the 4th century under the Roman ruler Constantine. We’ve compromised that early non-violent peace loving agape centered movement known as “the Way” and have become an unrecognizable religion of the State. I believe the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard offered a similar 19th century critique of Danish Christianity. 

We’ve invented a theory of war that justifies the killing of other human beings by Christians and aptly named it the “Just War Tradition,”thus  allowing the Church to sanction what once was taboo for believers: War!

Interestingly enough, Christians in the first two centuries were forbidden to serve in the Roman army because of their adverse views on war and violence. After the 4th century it became a requirement to embrace Christianity (Constantinian style that is) in order to serve in the military.

We enslaved thousands of Africans and justified institutional slavery by cherry picking verses right out of the Bible in support of such an atrocious practice. We subjugated women and relegated them to a form of second-class citizenry while appealing to the Scriptures for support.

Today we marginalize those within the LGBT community while also appealing to the Scriptures and proof texting our position of such exclusion.

Yes we have climbed into bed with our culture and have become cultural warriors as we confess, “Jesus is Lord” out of one side of our mouths while at the same time reciting, “I Pledge allegiance to the flag” out of the other side. No thought is given to the apparent contradiction between these two confessions.

Because we have lost our unique identity as Christ followers we have also lost the respect of the culture-at-large. We have lost the much-needed voice of protest because no one cares what we have to say, for we sound no different from the other cultural warriors around us.

Is there hope for reversing the decline of Christianity in America?

I would suggest that it is but only as we rediscover whose we are and who we are by peeling off all those layers of cultural sediment that conceal our true identity as radical Christ followers. 

Until such time we will just be ordinary American Christians who look no different from anyone else.