Posted on 06/08/2015 8:37:40 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Tear down that cross and toss it in the wood chipper because the American church is toast. So goes conventional wisdom after recent revelations from the Pew Research Center, which found that in just 7 years, the percentage of Christians in the United States dropped nearly 8 points.
The news was met with uncontrolled fits of glee from liberal publications like Salon, where author Patricia Miller gloated that the benefits from the decline of Christianity would be, “huge.” No doubt the scores of natural disaster victims around the globe who have profited from all the atheist relief trucks rolling in would agree.
But far more annoying than the juvenile taunts of clueless journalists were the myriad of suggestions that poured in from “Christian” thinkers as to how to right the ship, or Ark if you prefer.
The most common refrain echoed repeatedly in both religious and mainstream media was that the church desperately needed to become culturally “relevant” to survive. For some, that term merely implies ministers in jeans and fog machines. I have my own preferences in that regard, but they are just that -- preferences. My serious objection is reserved for those who intend the cry for “relevance” in a substantive rather than superficial manner. These are the voices calling to deliberately neuter the confrontational truth of Christianity to compromise with the spirit of the age.
Take the recent Washington Post op-ed by Rachel Held Evans. Evans pinpoints what she sees as the real problem when she chastises Christianity for being too “judgmental” and “exclusive.” In other words, she yearns for a church more open-minded and inclusive of alternative ideas, beliefs and lifestyles.
I suppose there is some merit to what she is saying if the sole purpose of the church is to fill seats on Sunday mornings.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
When you water down the Word expect to drown.
It’s not AMERICAN Christianity that is committing suicide. It’s AMERICA that is committing suicide.
**Take the recent Washington Post op-ed by Rachel Held Evans. Evans pinpoints what she sees as the real problem when she chastises Christianity for being too “judgmental” and “exclusive.” In other words, she yearns for a church more open-minded and inclusive of alternative ideas, beliefs and lifestyles.**
There is such a place. Unitarians will welcome people who want was she is searching for.
American Christianity isn’t committing suicide... the country is.
Were that the case, the mainline sects would be thriving and the Evangelical and conservative sects would be suffering from empty pews. Instead, the exact opposite is happening.
Why is that?
Just getting rid of the dead wood.
John 15:1
1”I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2”Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.”
RE: Unitarians will welcome people who want was she is searching for.
How do Unitarians explain the mutually exclusive claims of say, Islam and Christianity?
Islam tells us that: 1) Jesus is NOT the Son of God; 2) Jesus did NOT die on the cross. Those are BASIC Christian tenets without which there is no Christianity.
Is the Unitarian Church telling us that you can believe in both?
If so, they are teaching us to believe in nonsense.
Rachel Held Evans is an inspiration of mine. I am working on a book called ‘The Subversive God’ about how God worked in a manner that cut across the cultural and social expectations of people in the Bible. Often I am nagged with doubts about whether or not I am qualified to write a book like this. Then I realize that Rachel Held Evans gets taken seriously as a “Christian thinker” and my fears evaporate.
Christianity as practiced (or more to the point, not practiced) is failing everywhere it has been abandoned, in most of Europe and much of North America.
G.K. Chesterton once wrote, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found too difficult and left untried.”
True when he said it, and even more true today.
Protestant Revolution is now the Protestant devolution.
During those 7 years, we imported probably around 2 million or more of non-Christians.
In a lot of places in the Middle East Christians are not leaving the faith...they are just being put in the ground before their natural time to expire. And we have a leader that has no problem with that. He may say he does but it is only talk to calm the Christians here...and they are easily calmed.
The answer was given to us in the parable of the sower.
Wayside, rocky or thorny..
Or 30/60/100. 6 ‘categories’ for lack of a better word of any person.
What is awesome is to see a 30/60/100 even in Israel’s exodus that could measure where believers are on their own individual journeys.
It isn’t just Protestants.
This is nonsense. What the Pew study showed was that the entire decline in Christianity was from the Churches which are doing precisely this. It is the apostate Mainstream Churches (Episcopalians, ELCA, Methodists and PCUSA Presybys)and the "relevant" seeker sensitive churches which are declining at a rapid rate. The Churches which practice orthodox biblical based Christianity are doing just fine or actually increasing. There was a decline in the Catholic church but my bet is the Catholic decline is also among the marginal not really Christian in the first place Catholics. I've heard them referred to as "chreaster" Catholics (ie the ones who only go to church on Christmas and Easter). In my book this is a good thing and is just a manifestation of the Church winnowing the wheat from the tares.
Yes...let’s examine south of the border which is largely catholic....that’s out future.
Anyone ever seen a Pew Research Poll and think it was accurate? No-it is always twisted to try to influence public opinion.
Putting the catholic thing aside. Are the countries South of the USA that different from us governmentally at this point in American History? Just asking.
And it is successful in bringing humanity to Christ. Man thirsts for truth, for love, for God.
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