Has Protestant decline been caused by the involvement of
Protestants
in politics ? Any such conclusion, whatever opinion polls
may say,
is ridiculous on the face of it. All kinds of Protestants
in American
history were involved in politics. Was Protestantism in
decline in
FDR's time, in Teddy Roosevelt's time, in the time of
Ulysses Grant
or the time of John Quincy Adams ? Each of these presidents
were
overtly religious, unlike lip-service and de facto
unbelieving "Protestants"
of more recent times : JBJ, Nixon, Ford,
Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton ,
and now Obama.
The believing recent Protestant presidents give us a clue
about what went wrong.
Carter and George W. Bush, as different as they are,
nonetheless have a
fundamental commonality : Reducing
questions of faith to thought-free
bromides or to thought-free pieties, or to thought-free
metaphors
used to make political points. Carter made use of every
modernist
myth he could find, Bush 43 made use of every conservative
Christian
platitude he could remember. In each case we had religious
simpletons
"witnessing" for their faith, Carter reducing Protestantism
to helping
the poor, Bush reducing that faith to belief in Jesus,
nothing else
required. Both effectively discredited Protestantism.
As for opinion polls, and one that was specifically cited
in Diana Bass'
otherwise carefully crafted article, as often as not such
surveys are
totally meaningless. If you were a computer scientist you
would
care less if a majority thinks that a data "cloud" exists
in cyberspace ;
what counts is that it exists in hardware form and only in
the form
of real world circuits, transformers, and electrical power.
If you
were a medical researcher you would care less if a
majority believes
that AIDS can only be spread via sexual contact ;
you know better
since it can be transmitted via blood transfusions, eating
food
prepared by infected food handlers, and even by such things
as sitting on a toilet if a previous user had lesions on
his derriere.
There are times when public opinion polls are completely
worthless..
The reason for the decline of Protestant Christianity ought
to be
obvious : Growing perception that it is
irrelevant, especially
this perception among the young.
The simple fact is that there are fewer and fewer
Protestant thinkers
among us. Those that come most clearly to mind, like a
number of
Biblical archaeologists, operate in specialities that
by-and-large
have little public impact. Also in this category are
scholars of
ancient languages. Would-be thinkers among Evangelicals
( broadly considered ) like Pat Robertson, for all their
good
intentions, cannot be considered genuine intellects at all,
indeed,
too often they are laughing stocks. Otherwise, to consider
the
Religious Left, commitment to the Bible, the core text of
Christian faith, is languishing or close to non-existent.
Instead we find dubious or even absurd social causes
elevated to divine status --such as homosexual
"marriage"--
and the message of scriptures ignored or ridiculed.
As long as today's Protestants remain divided into their
current
"liberal" and "conservative" factions don't expect
Protestantism
to experience revival. There may be exceptions to the
rule,
as among Hispanic Charismatics and Pentecostals, but
for the most part the tide of history has turned in a
different direction. In so many words, Protestants
have brought it on themselves.
Which is not an anti-Protestant rant. My desire is for a
revival
of Protestant heritage in religion, and you could hardly
expect
less from someone who regards Luther as a great hero and
someone to emulate as much as possible. But Luther was
neither a Right Christian or a Left Christian. He did his
utmost to be both a ruthlessly honest and critical Bible
scholar, and from him derives most of what became
modernist scholarship, but also was on fire with Biblical
faith, which of anyone ever alive, he took the most
deadly seriously.
Unfortunately, I don't see this kind of Protestant leader
anywhere
in America , or even on the horizon. But that is what it
will take.
Billy
------------------------------------
Huff Po
Author, "Christianity After
Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual
Awakening"
RIP: The Death of Protestant Politics
Posted: 05/01/2013
On April 25, the Washington Post ran side-by-side
obituaries of Howard Phillips and Robert Edgar in its print
edition. The two men, one 72 and the other 69, died within
three days of each other.
Those obituary notices, however, are the only time the two
were on the same page. In life, they were opposites in faith
and politics. Howard Phillips, a layman, helped establish
the new Christian Right. Bob Edgar, a United Methodist
minister, was a liberal seminary president and former head
of the National Council of Churches.
Reading the twinned death notices was a like reviewing a
history of twentieth century Protestantism. Over the last
century, conflict rent American Protestantism in two:
Protestant fundamentalism found mostly in evangelical and
non-denominational churches; Protestant liberalism preached
and practiced primarily in mainline churches. Phillips, a
fundamentalist, and Edgar, a liberal, represented and
embodied these two parties in American religion. And their
lives - as well as their passing - points to both the
successes and the erosion of what was once the America's
majority religious tradition.
In the last years of the 20th century, both fundamentalist
and liberal Protestantism underwent huge transformations. A
key player in the ascendency of political fundamentalism,
Howard Phillips helped move conservative theology to the
center of the Republican Party, forging links between
economic and social conservatives. According to Julie
Ingersoll, religious studies professor at University of
North Florida and expert on the Religious Right, "It's hard
to overstate Phillips' influence in the transformation of
the more secular mid-century conservatism of Barry Goldwater
and William F. Buckley into today's religiously-inflected
conservatism." Although Phillips would later reject the
Republicans to found the Constitution Party, his influence
remains strong among various conservative political interest
groups, Christian home-schooling movements, and Tea-Party
evangelicals.
Robert "Bob" Edgar was not as historically lucky. By the
time he came into national religious leadership, the
mainline Protestant religious community was in decline.
Although the institutions he inherited had once been
significant players in both religion and politics, by the
late 20th century they were plagued by membership loss and
identity crises and burdened by unresponsive institutional
bureaucracies. Amid the decline, however, Edgar spoke
powerfully for Protestant social justice, served in
Congress, saved an important seminary from closure, and
injected new life into the National Council of Churches. His
life and ministry demonstrated the best of his tradition,
reminding Americans that liberal Protestantism, while
numerically smaller than it once had been, still played a
significant social role to defend the poor and marginalized
As leaders of their respective communities of conservative
and liberal Protestants, Phillips and Edgar excelled.
Whatever their theology and politics, however, and with
whomever one happens to agree, they also were contributing -
somewhat unwittingly - to the overall decline of American
Protestantism.
In 1960, when Phillips and Edgar were young men,
Protestants made up 66% of the population and were a strong
religious majority in a nation of diverse faiths. By 2012,
the percentage of Protestants in the United States slipped
to 48%, making American Protestantism for the first time
ever in the nation's history a minority faith (a large
minority, to be sure, but still a minority). To be sure, the
decline hit liberal mainline churches first. Since 1995,
however, large declines have happened in both liberal and
conservative Protestant churches. Although both
fundamentalism and liberalism show some local strength, and
the religious right demonstrates continued political
influence, American Protestantism as a whole is becoming a
shadow of its historic self.
So, where have all the Protestants gone? They are swelling
the ranks of America's fastest growing religious group: the
"nones," also called the "unaffiliateds." And why are they
leaving church? According to a recent Pew survey, 67% of the
"nones" report that they are angry that religious
institutions are "too involved with politics." Evidently, a
large number of Americans see religion as contributing to
the nation's partisan divide instead of being part of the
solution. For whatever meaningful work either Phillips or
Edgar did, their legacies remain with us: a fractured and
declining Protestant community, one with little patience for
faith and partisanship, a theologically thinned
understanding of politics, and increasing attention on
institutional survival and personal piety rather than the
common good.
I am a liberal, mainline Protestant and have always admired
and largely agreed with Bob Edgar. And I have long
criticized the Religious Right. But the odd coincidence of
their passing gives pause, inviting reflection on the
relationship between faith and politics in our society. What
has this long century of Protestant conflict and division
cost us a nation, whether one is a Protestant or not, in
terms of our moral, ethical, and theological resources?
Might there be a better way for Protestant politics in the
future, a way that heals instead of wounds? Or, is this the
final RIP to the old Protestant political culture? Whether
one is a conservative or a liberal, a Protestant, Catholic,
Jew or Muslim, Phillips' and Edgar's last gift may be to
remind us that political power and devout faith are a potent
and sometimes oft-putting blend. As the recent history of
American Protestantism proves, when faith becomes the
servant of partisan politics, even a great religious
tradition can lose its soul.
-- 