Is American Christianity in Trouble?

Is American Christianity in trouble? I am afraid that it is.

Most of the old Mainline denominations that once flourished in the 1950s are a shadow of their former selves. Many of their churches are just waiting for the last of their aged members to pass away in order for their obituary to be written.

This is not good news for Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists, or Congregational churches such as the United Church of Christ. For the moment the best these old ecclesiastical giants can do is receive palliative care to keep them comfortable.

But the rest of American Christianity is not fairing so well either. The once proud Evangelical juggernaut, the Southern Baptist Convention, is also experiencing decline and has been for the past 15 years, declining in both baptisms, membership, and worship attendance.

Now the extent of this Evangelical decline continues to be debated. A quick Google search will reveal diverse opinions as to whether the Evangelical tribe in America is shrinking or growing. 

Yet in spite of these diverse opinions I predict that the Evangelical tribe will trend towards accelerated decline within a generation and there is good reason for this. 

Once the Evangelical Church began focusing on political and cultural war issues in the 1980s the seeds of decline were planted. Once the populous understood that the Moral Majority was really about access to political power rather than family values, the Evangelical movement in America began to lose steam.

The major cultural war issue that continues to energize many Evangelicals and win votes for conservative politicians is abortion. This was a huge platform item for the Moral Majority and for many conservative Evangelicals still today.

But let me be clear before I continue: Concern over pro life issues is all well and good so long as it includes war and capital punishment.

Christianity in America today is experiencing an identity crisis. If anything many Christians are suffering from delusions of grandeur when it comes to the Christian mission in America. We are not the hope of America. 

Christianity, as it is popularly understood and practiced today, is not going to save America simply because the church and America are not identical. It certainly is not going to make America Great Again, whatever that means.

The voice of Protestant America is fading fast from the octave range of many Americans. In other words, not too many are listening to the church anymore. They are turning the volume down or simply turning us off. They are telling us that our actions speak louder than your words. 

Now there are many critical and complex reasons why Christianity has lost its place of privilege in American society (whether you believe this or not), but one in particular comes to mind and has been hidden in plain sight within our own Bible:

We have abandoned our “first love” (Revelation 2:4).

We have abandoned the core teachings of Jesus, who first inspired the Christian movement. We have supplanted the Sermon on the Mount and other critical teachings of Jesus with a nationalist ideology/theology that offers lip service to Christ but  looks nothing like him at all. We have lost our baptismal identity.

We have forgotten that the church’s primary task is not to change to world, but rather be that part of the world that has been transformed by Christ (This claim is attributed to pastor Brian Zahnd). 

Many Evangelicals have reduced Jesus to a patriotic zealot bent on saving America. They have co-opted Jesus into their nationalistic agenda to make America look like it did perhaps in the 1950s when father really did know best and men wore flat top haircuts and women stayed at home and were . . . well just women. 

Predictions are tricky but here goes: 

Much of Protestant Christianity, as we practice it today, is going to continue trending towards decline and possible death. This includes current expressions of both Mainline and Evangelical Christianity in America. 

The part of Christianity that will survive this period of decline and death will be that remnant who rediscovers its first love in Jesus Christ as true Lord. This will be the remnant who reclaims their unique baptismal identity, not as zealous patriots, but rather as faithful followers of Jesus the true Messiah.

So is Christianity in trouble in America?

Yes, so long as it continues to masquerade as a nationalistic religion of the Empire.