Posted on 07/11/2005 8:25:05 PM PDT by CyberAnt
[I recently received some literature from a book club I belong to. In this literature was the description of a book, which really stirred me (a book I have not read and do not intend to purchase).
The book title interested me because I have seen this transition of people in my own church – we have people from every denomination – and we’re a very conservative evangelical church. I thought some of you would be interested to know that this is going on – while the ACLU is trying so hard to erase every vestige of Christianity from American life. Right under the noses of the ACLU, people are making the choice of a more conservative church – instead of the liberal type the ACLU wants people to believe is occurring. This is what peaked my interest. I don’t know this author or his credentials – but his statements seemed relevant.]
Why, in this age of moral relativism, liberal churches are dying and conservative ones are booming.
It’s a trend: in this anything-goes age, ever-larger numbers of people are opting for tougher moral standards. Millions are streaming out of churches that preach the Gospel of If It Feels Good, Do It, and are finding homes in houses of worship that preach a more traditional and more demanding religion.
Churches that have ditched Christian doctrine in favor of an unremitting advocacy of the Democrat Party platform, like the Episcopalians and Unitarians, are hemorrhaging members – while conservative churches like the Southern Baptists are gaining members in record numbers.
In “Exodus”, Dave Shiflett explores this encouraging trend. In the process, he shatters numerous myths about the “religious right”, and gives all American conservatives a new source of hope. He tells the story of mainline decline and traditionalist growth through the eyes of individuals on both sides of the divide: interviewing both liberals and conservatives, he goes to the heart of why there are so many refugees from the mainline denominations streaming into conservative Roman Catholic, evangelical, and Orthodox churches.
Of course, ever since the Episcopal Church chose an openly gay bishop, the demise of mainline Protestantism has been a foregone conclusion. It is clear not that in a generation or two conservative Christians will be the only Christians left. But never before has an author gone behind the scenes of this great social transformation the way Shiflett has. He reveals why liberal pastors have cast aside tradition and Christian belief in a vain and ultimately fruitless attempt to remake and “modernize” their churches.
Best of all, Shiflett marshals an impressive array of facts to undermine numerous common stereotypes about conservative believers. Easily led, uneducated yahoos? Hardly! Shiflett shows that conservative Christians are better educated, wealthier, and wiser in the ways of the world than anyone in the media establishments gives them credit for.
Shiflett even reveals that many of those who are currently flocking to conservative churches aren’t fully conservative themselves; some even don’t agree with all of their new churches’ teachings on conservative hot-button issues like abortion and divorce. Others don’t believe that every word of the bible is literally true.
But Shiflett demonstrates that whether conservative or more left-of-center, the new members of conservative churches have one thing in common: they’re tired of being told by their religious leaders that anything goes. They’re longing for the traditional Christian message of hope. In “Exodus”, Shiflett renews that hope in the soul of every true Christian.
Inside the Christian conservative revolution:
> One conservative Christian’s assessment - “mainstream [liberal] Protestantism, in any culture transforming sense, is finished in America”
> Why the undemanding GOD preached in liberal churches was initially popular, but has proved increasingly unsatisfying to a growing number of members and former members of those churches
> How secularism creates a spiritual vacuum that a dynamic faith will eventually fill – and how, in Europe, that faith increasingly is Islam
> A liberal Episcopalian priest explains the mechanism by which his church neutralizes Scriptural admonitions it finds inconvenient and inconsistent with modern PC sensibilities
> The latest Episcopal Church controversies over homosexuality; not the first blow to traditional faith, but the last straw in a thirty-year assault on traditional Christianity
> How the Episcopal Church’s sustained attack on traditionalism has sapped the church’s energy – and created multitudes of new Catholics, Orthodox, and evangelicals
> Liberal Christianity: how it broke its final ties with Biblical authority as long ago as the 1950’s
> How all the historically Baptist universities in the United States have been lost to unbiblical liberalism
> The trivialization of solemn rites by mainline churches – including Ash Wednesday observed with ashes made of human blood
> “We are winning the abortion issue”: one conservative Christian leader’s confident assessment of today’s political situation
> Same-sex marriage: how this issue has become a flashpoint and key difference between liberal and conservative churches in America
> How the Catholic Church is moving in a conservative direction today after suffering for a generation the negative effects of a wave of liberalism
> A Southern Baptist leader who agrees with and energetically preaches – the Catholic Church’s traditional teaching on abortion and contraception
> Why religious denominations have proved no different from political groups
That's because the two belief systems are mutually exclusive.
Christians are pro-life, anti-homosexual behavior, pro-family, pro-America.
Democrats (as defined by the national platform which ALL democrats support (else they would change parties)) are pro-abortion, pro-homosexual behavior, anti-family and anti-America.
So if someone claims to be both Christian and democrat they are lying about either being a Christian or about being a democrat. And since the democrats are the party of liars it's a pretty good bet they are lying about being Christian
(There is one exception to this, that is the person whose daddy was dem and whose grand daddy was dem and therefore they are dem. They believe in conservative values but still vote dem due to tradition. I'm not sure if these folk can be Christian as I'm not sure they have the mental awareness to be able to make that decision)
Link?
What about those with split views? Quite a few voters are conservative on economic and foreign policies but liberal on social policies and sit in the Republican Party. Are they Christians?
Also many voters are liberal on economic and/or foreign policies but conservative on social policies, and many of them are in the Democratic Party.
Also the Democratic platform was by no means approved by all the delegates, just like the Republican platform had dissenters as well.
They are double minded and trying to put their own righteousness above God's.
They are double minded and trying to put their own righteousness above God's.
They are double minded and trying to put their own righteousness above God's.
When people have lived lives very far from God, with much sin, sometimes it's difficult to get all the way back to Him all at once. I suspect that churches like Lakewood are often a first step on their members' long walk back to God. There's nothing wrong with that. For all of us are meant to grow in Christ, not to stagnate.
read later
This is what happens when "moderates" have kids. We have local evangelical/fundamentalist churches that are busting at the seams because parents are looking for moral teaching for their children.
Yes, I have observed changes in many as they have children and they get older, especially at an age when the children start making decisions for themselves. It does NOT diminish the fact though, that the primary responsibility for teaching the children morals lies with the parents. They are the primary influences (or lack of it) on a child's life. One shouldn't look to others for the purpose of being a substitute in this regard.
Yes, I have observed changes in many as they have children and they get older, especially at an age when the children start making decisions for themselves. It does NOT diminish the fact though, that the primary responsibility for teaching the children morals lies with the parents. They are the primary influences (or lack of it) on a child's life. One shouldn't look to others for the purpose of being a substitute in this regard.
Post # 42 is apparently referring to the Danielle Van Dam case. Her neighbor, David Westerfield, was convicted of her murder here in San Diego in 2002.
The girl's parents did testify in court to a party on the night she was abducted.
You can do a search on "Van Dam" or "Westerfield" here on Free Republic and you will get a great many threads on this case.
This is the fist I have heard, though, on the parents being church goers.
I live in San Diego, and I remember that trial.
I agree .. their church supported them. What ever happened to them. Did they sell their house and move away ..?? I know that was talked about for some time, but I never heard whether they actually moved or not.
Yes, it is a "great opportunity". The danger is a Pastor who is not strong enough to take on that challenge and allows the more "moderate" people to try to change what is preached.
People need to pray for their Pastors - wisdom and discernment.
Well .. my goodness .. that is great news.
People are leaving churches, period - reagardless of the reason. Smaller, conservative churches are growing because people who still want to attend church can't stand the liberalism, but the overall trend is that for every ten people quitting a liberal church, two or three join conservative churches and the rest choose to remain unchurched.
That's good .. mine are the same.
Well .. that may be partly true .. but unless people are totally soured on "church" - many of them are eventually drawn in through friends, or a ministry they see on TV.
Since our Pastor went on the radio, we have drawn in a lot of people who were looking for that type of message.
Thanks John. Good comments. I agree.
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