The Decline of Evangelicalism

Yesterday, Christine Wicker wrote an interesting piece published in the Dallas Morning News entitled, "The Great Evangelical Decline.

The basic theme of the piece is that evangelicals are not as prominent in America as published reports indicated (i.e., there aren't really as many believers in America as most people suppose). That's something I've been suggesting for a long time.

Wicker then offers three reasons why that is so:

• Alcoholics Anonymous and all its 12-step offspring…
• The second attack came within the church as American evangelicals themselves became less willing to proclaim that they are the only ones saved.
• And along comes The Pill. It's merely one of the insidious attacks science has launched against traditional religious faith, but it is surely the most successful. Nothing in history has changed human relations as much as that little white pill.

These surely are not the only reasons, but I would agree that they are contributing causes; and I don't agree with all her conclusions:

Evangelical leaders defend their stance by claiming that God doesn't change and that neither does sin. But sin does change. Slavery wasn't sin once. Now it is. Taking a wife and a concubine wasn't sin once. Now it is. And God – or our understanding of what God is, which is all we actually have – changes, too.

I think that the Scriptures are quite emphatic that neither sin nor God are mutable. Nor were slavery, adultery and fornication once right in the eyes of God and now they are wrong. They have always been sin and always will be.

However, the piece is worth reading for the thought it provokes about what has gone wrong in the evangelical church.

When the Bible is attacked

I haven't looked at the newsstands recently, but my suspicion is that since it is a holiday season, there is soon coming a questioning of some measure of Biblical faith. Perhaps it will be another new gospel, or perhaps the discovery of a lost ossuary, or perhaps another tomb of Jesus, or another fiction book purporting some new truth about Christ.

Darrell Bock has written "When the Media Became a Nuisance" (subtitle: "How to respond to the next blockbuster book/documentary/movie that questions traditional Christianity") anticipating such an event, and how individuals and the church can respond in God-honoring ways instead of much emotional hand-wringing.

His summary:

We need to understand that public discussion of the Christian faith has changed—permanently. So the next time you hear an earth-shattering announcement about Jesus from the media, don't get angry. Rather, take three deep breaths, sit down with your Starbucks coffee, and watch how the announcement is treated on blogs and other media. Above all, prepare yourself for the opportunities it presents.