This, like David's essay, deserves serious commentary. Will try to get to this later, when time allows. Billy ========================================== 4/13/2012 1:10:06 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, [email protected] writes:
>From one of the blogs I just cited. Don't know much about them, but what I've seen I like so far... _http://www.christandpopculture.com/elsewhere/tim-keller-ross-douthat-and-ch ristianitys-decline-in-the-us/_ (http://www.christandpopculture.com/elsewhere/tim-keller-ross-douthat-and-christianitys-decline-in-the-us/) Tim Keller, Ross Douthat, and Christianity’s Decline in the US Over at Redeemer’s _City to City Blog_ (http://redeemercitytocity.com/blog/view.jsp?Blog_param=420) , Pastor Tim Keller has written a post in which he interacts with some of the ideas in NYT columnist _Ross Douthat’s_ (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/rossdoutha t/index.html) upcoming book entitled _Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics_ (http://www.amazon.com/Bad-Religion-Became-Nation-Heretics/dp/1439178305) . Per the publisher’s request, Keller does not quote from, or offer a formal review of, Douthat’s book, but instead pens a post regarding Douthat’s essential premise: Christianity has been and still is in decline in the United States. Keller calls Douthat’s ideas “essential reading for all Christians seeking to understand Christianity’s relationship to culture in the US.” While that may seem to some people an overstatement, I don’t think it an exaggeration. Most people recognize this premise as a reality (whether they view this decline as a problem or a victory is another question). However, far fewer people seem to recognize the essential nature of the problem, much less the sense in which they might be participating in it. While Keller’s post is worth reading in full, one particular section is noteworthy. Referencing Douthat’s second chapter, Keller offers five “major social catalysts” for Christianity’s decline since the 1960′s: 1) First, the political polarization that has occurred between the Left and Right drew many churches into it (mainline Protestants toward the Left, evangelicals toward the Right). This has greatly weakened the church’s credibility in the broader culture, with many viewing churches as mere appendages and pawns of political parties. 2) Second, the sexual revolution means that the Biblical sex ethic now looks unreasonable and perverse to millions of people, making Christianity appear implausible, unhealthy, and regressive. 3) Third, the era of decolonization and Third World empowerment, together with the dawn of globalization, has given the impression that Christianity was imperialistically “western” and supportive of European civilization’s record of racism, colonialism, and anti-Semitism. 4) The fourth factor has been the enormous growth in the kind of material prosperity and consumerism that always works against faith and undermines Christian community. 5) The fifth factor is—that all the other four factors had their greatest initial impact on the more educated and affluent classes, the gatekeepers of the main culture-shaping institutions such as the media, the academy, the arts, the main foundations, and much of the government and business world. What’s striking to me is how self-evident these points seem even here at Christ and Pop Culture. All you need to do is read Alan Noble’s column “ _Citizenship Confusion_ (http://www.christandpopculture.com/tag/citizenship-confusion/) ” each week to see how confused a good many Christians are about points 1 (political power posturing) and 3 (the perpetuation of racism and imperialistic kingdom-building is more than an impression, is it not?). Or take, for example, some of the comments in Faith Newport’s most recent “ _The Female Gaze_ (http://www.christandpopculture.com/asides/the-female-gaze-great-expectations/) ” column to see almost word-for-word evidence of point 2 (Christianity’s “old fashioned” sexual ethic). One commenter suggested the following regarding sexual ethics from a Christian perspective: Having a discussion based on intellect, exploring ideas other than the ones we have shoved down our throats every Sunday, admitting that the things we ’ve been told might not be entirely accurate or relevant anymore[.] . . . Christians today are so against questioning the Bible, the church teachings, and “the way it’s always been” and I cannot be a part of something so disconnected from logic. While point 4 (materialistic consumerism) is in many ways connected with the 1st point (political power posturing), the 5th factor seems especially important: those in charge of the major culture-shaping institutions have been most significantly affected by the first four factors. For a thorough examination of this top-down institutional phenomenon, UVA sociologist _James Davison Hunter’s_ (http://www.amazon.com/To-Change-World-Possibility-Christianity/dp/0199730806/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334017491&sr=1-1) book, To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World, is an absolute must-read. Or, at the very least, Carissa Turner Smith’s excellent _essay_ (http://www.christandpopculture.com/featured/to-change-the-world-there-are-better-reasons-for-engaging-culture/) on Hunter’s book is well worth the time. What seems especially evident is that Christians recognize the above issues but often misunderstand the nature of them. How many see Christianity’s decline as a culture war that needs to be won by electing the right political officials? Or, how many see Christianity’s decline as attributable to risque television programs and increasing rights for homosexuals, and yet overlook our in-house troubles with sexual promiscuity and essentially-dead marriages? Or, how many see Christianity’s decline as a battle to be won with the Middle East? Or, how many see Christianity’s decline as the slow uprising of “socialism,” and thus the repression of financial and material prosperity? Or finally, to speak to the 5th point, how many Christians see Christianity’s decline as the triumph of “leftist” institutions, and yet fail to equip and support people to enter into these institutions instead of perpetuating the _scandal of the evangelical mind_ (http://www.amazon.com/Scandal-Evangelical-Mind-Mark-Noll/dp/0802841805) ? In my opinion, Keller pointedly adds to the discussion when he invokes Lesslie Newbigin: Lesslie Newbigin blames the marginalization of Christianity in the West on the outworking of the 18th century Enlightenment—which promoted the sufficiency of individual human reason without faith in God—for a great deal of the shift. In this he understands historical patterns as being caused by ideas and intellectual trends working their way out through a society’s institutions. I see no reason why Newbigin’s history-of-thought approach and Douthat’s sociology-of-knowledge approach cannot both be right. The story of autonomy’s enthronement and steady decay centers on the imperative to qualify freedom with self-restraint. If nothing else, the 20th C. taught us that Reason itself isn’t a sufficient cultural authority. Indeed, you might say that the decline of Christianity comes down to this issue of cultural authority, from who it derives, and how it ought to be achieved. Perhaps, in our attempts to maintain a dominant cultural position and fend off any decline, we have in many ways become a religious mirror of what it is we are fighting against by adopting a stance more concerned with the kind of freedom that forces the Other to submit to one’s purposes. It’s that false freedom that is essentially self-absorption cloaked in nobility. It’s no secret nor coincidence that Christianity flourishes when people are willing to put their lives on the line to love their enemies. It’s urgent that we American Christians reevaluate our purposes and cross-check them with He whose name we claim to bear witness. Christian love is costly, but not more costly than selling our souls to achieve America’s driver seat. Particularly when not only do the ends not justify the means, but the means aren ’t even producing the ends. We need to take seriously the outlined factors above, and learn how “love the Lord your God” and “love your neighbor as yourself” might be judiciously applied to them. Christianity’s resuscitation to authenticity in this part of the world depends on it. -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: _http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism_ (http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism) Radical Centrism website and blog: _http://RadicalCentrism.org_ (http://radicalcentrism.org/) -- 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
