Douthat is on to something important. Some of his conclusions match my own. First, the % of Americans who can be reached by Evangelicals is limited. The era when "great revivals" --as in the 1850s or even the 1950s-- could sway multitudes ( in the 19th century large percentages of people ) is, if not completely a thing of the past, less and less likely, and even modest scale revivals are increasingly uncommon. 2nd, mainline Christianity has pretty much "collapsed." Actually a better way to think of it is to say that mainline Christians now follow a different religion altogether even though they still use the old vocabulary. Call it "pious Leftism," or Christo-Secularism, or Civil Religion but with actual traditions and property, or in some cases call it a synthesis of Bible-free Christianity with Political Correctness / multi-culturalism. In any case, that "half" of all Protestants involved is no longer Christian as the term was used historically. In the process, mainstream churches, when I was growing up maybe 2/3rds of all Protestants, maybe more, is now in the 40s somewhere and declining year by year, inexorably. Now and then you hear about a mainline congregation that actually is growing, but all such cases are isolated and reflect local situations that are not typical elsewhere. 3rd, heresy is normative throughout American "traditional" religions, essentially Christianity and Judaism. While Douthat doesn't say so, this includes among Evangelicals. It is less obvious among Catholics, who are good at maintaining the forms of their faith, but "cafeteria Catholicism" has been a tradition of its own since at least the 1960s or 1970s and, if anything, it is more popular now than at any time in the past. Judaism can almost be defined as Jewish heresy, it bears so little resemblance to Judaism of the past, a trend that even exists among the Orthodox even if not as pronounced. But after this I part company with Douthat. He seems to say that a return to some version of Christian orthodoxy ( 'traditionalism' cie vous plait ) is possible if only the troops got psyched up for doing so and a few resolute leaders stepped up to the plate. To me that scenario is a pipe dream. Granted, exactly this can happen locally when circumstances are favorable. And I am not counting out the appeal of "identity religion" --if you are Italian surely you have feelings for "the" Church-- but in a polyglot society, that is, a religiously pluralistic society, this sort of thing becomes more and more difficult to promote and, once launched , to sustain --as a religious activity. What seems to me to be happening is a nationwide search for a new kind of religious perspective , one that makes sense in a multi-cultural nation, but not a viewpoint that accepts Leftist multi-culturalism as valid, or, anyway, as not more than one consideration out of several. Necessarily this will be unorthodox, necessarily it will reaffirm many past religious traditions, and necessarily it will be American in very basic ways. This has emerged nowhere on the scene but it is what seems to me to be the leitmotif of multitudes, where change in the spiritual marketplace is headed. Could be wrong, this is a conclusion based on a lot of reading and anecdotal evidence but with no comprehensive research study to support such a view. However, this does seem to be the road that we are traveling. Billy ==============================================
NYT Columnist at Q Conference: Bad Religion, Not Atheism, Replacing Christianity By _Michelle A. Vu_ (http://www.christianpost.com/author/michelle-a-vu/) , Christian Post Reporter April 11, 2012|1:15 pm The New York Times' youngest-ever op-ed columnist and also one of the few conservative Christians at the esteemed newspaper, Ross Douthat, made the case at the Q Conference Tuesday evening that it is not atheism that is replacing American Christianity, but bad religion. During an interview with Michael Cromartie, vice president at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., Douthat presented key points from his soon-to-be released book, _Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics_ (http://www.amazon.com/Bad-Religion-Became-Nation-Heretics/dp/1439178305) , in which he examines the historical story of institutional Christianity in America and then makes the case that heresy – which includes the prosperity gospel – is threatening American society. "The overview basically makes the case that what has happened in American religion over the last 50 years is not that the country has grown more secular in any meaningful way. And in fact, if you look at certain factors of religiosity in American life – people reporting direct experiences of God and spiritual experiences, even belief in miracles and afterlife – there is evidence that America is more religious now than in 1945 or 1955," said Douthat at the Q event in Washington, D.C. "But it is also less – I used the word heretics in my subtitle because I think America is less orthodox Christian than it used to be. And that is driven in large part by the decline of the institutional Christian churches – both Catholic and Protestant." The mainline church has more or less collapsed and the Roman Catholic Church is in a slow but steady decline, observed the Catholic columnist. And while the evangelical church has stepped into the void, there appears to be a "ceiling" in its appeal and ability to bring people into its fold. Thus making room for heresy in America's religious landscape, Douthat asserts. The author examines heresy in America by looking at the prosperity gospel – the relationship between money and religion in American life; therapeutic religion – which includes Elizabeth Gilbert's book that inspired the Julia Roberts-starring film "Eat, Pray, Love," and the spirituality pushed by Oprah Winfrey, Eckhart Tolle, and Deepak Chopra; and finally, Douthat looks at politics and religion and the politicized heresy promoted by both sides. For the prosperity gospel chapter, Douthat revealed to the Q audience that he starts with Joel Osteen and also talks about Trinity Broadcasting Network. And for the politics and religion chapter, the author noted how different this presidential election looks from a religious perspective. Obama previously attended a church headed by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose "highly politicized theology was self-consciously at odds with much of historic Christian practice and belief," writes Douthat in an _April 8 op-ed_ (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/08/opinion/sunday/douthat-in-2012-no-religious-center-is -holding.html?_r=1&ref=rossdouthat) based on his forthcoming book. And now, Obama is an "unchurched Christian." Likely Republican nominee Mitt Romney is a member of the Mormon church, which is still looked upon with suspicion by most Americans regardless of political affiliation. Only Rick Santorum looks relatively similar to the traditional Christianity of half a century ago, but "in a nation as religiously diverse as ours, a staunchly orthodox Christianity can seem like the weirdest heresy of all," he writes. Cromartie also steered Douthat into discussing same-sex marriage, the sexual revolution and why Christians have a hard time to articulate their case against homosexuality. Christians have a hard time explaining why homosexuals shouldn't marry because of the state of heterosexual marriage, Douthat said, particularly in a culture where no-fault divorces exist. "Christians ended up in the position of basically saying, well, we have a culture where marriage means whatever people want it to mean," the New York Times columnist said. "And heterosexuals are more or less going to do what they please, but we are holding the line for this 2 percent of the population that historically have been stigmatized and persecuted." The annual Q Conference, founded by young evangelical leader Gabe Lyons, brings together some 700 Christian participants from April 10-12 to the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in downtown D.C. to hear prominent church and cultural leaders give short presentations with the aim to spur discussion and help Christians think of innovative ways to shape the church's future role in culture. The interview session between Douthat and Cromartie was only 18 minutes long, the most given to any Q Conference presenter or panel. The Q format only allows three-, nine-, or 18-minute long presentations. Douthat, who writes mostly on politics for the Times, concluded with a warning note during an election year: "The most important thing for Christians in my line of work or who are directly involved in politics is to be always be aware that it is staggeringly unlikely that the particular policy positions, of a particular party, of a particular time and place, matches perfectly with God's will for humanity," Douthat stated. "And therefore, if you are a Christian involved in politics, you have an obligation to keep at the forefront of your mind that there must be at least one place where you think God has a different view from your party." -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
