Ernie: There is a book that I highly recommend to Christian believers.
Still have not read all of it but a major portion and enough to know that it is jam packed with undeniable empirical truths that nobody can wish away. It is also, in so many words, based on false premises. Even so, the empirical research findings are all-too-true. This is a 2016 book by Robert P. Jones, The End of White Christian America. Jones appeared on C-Span back in 2017 and is smart and articulate You can set aside about the "white" in the title, it applies just as well to Korean Evangelicals, or swarthy Hispanic Evangelicals, or anyone else. The numbers don't lie. Traditional Evangelical religion is in serious trouble. Basically it has gotten to the place where the "mainline" churches got in the 1970s and 1980s, heading for demographic collapse. Basically the young simply don't "buy it," they can't believe it. I think you know this very well. This does not effect their elders, nor believers in their 40s or 50s, say, etc, but if the young walk out the result is inevitable, churches start to die off. Like the Evangelical church I attended a few months ago, everyone in it old and gray, with a contingent in wheel chairs. And what is the Evangelical response? Why, more of the same, of course. Nothing else is imaginable. Also, like I said, nothing less is needed than a major New Reformation. What this must mean is a radical re-interpretation of faith. I think it is fair enough to say that even if an Evangelical is attracted to the concept of a new reformation what he (or she) necessarily thinks of is pretty much the same thing they have been believing and doing all along, but more snazzy. Which, needless to say, is to miss the point entirely. My approach is to try and create something new, really new, along the lines of Clement of Alexandria. And altogether relevant to people who follow Asian faiths of different kinds, not as grudging concessions, but whole-heartedly, not uncritically, yet with enthusiasm. I deeply appreciate Evangeline's sincere faith and her witness for Jesus. I cannot express this adequately in words, it is heartfelt. What a terrific woman and what a great witness for Christ. But now and then she mentions non-Christian faiths and, at least so far, every time she does her evaluation is close to 100% negative. And this sort of opinion is not limited to her, it is true for close to 100% of Evangelicals I have known in my entire life. And that is at the core of the problem and, to be completely honest, I do not see this changing without a spiritual earthquake 9.0 on the Richter Scale. An atomic bomb, in other words. To also be sure, Rbt Jones doesn't get it either. He treats demographics as if numbers are God. As if ideas can't sway multitudes, new ideas, that is. I think he is quite right about old ideas, once past their expiration date no-one buys them any more. But he leaves out passion just about entirely and, when paired with new ideas, passion can move the world. Please don't get me wrong. It is not a new idea to say, "I really, really love Jesus, now more then ever, That is my new idea." Actually that is not a new idea at all, it is exactly what multitudes of the young cannot believe. It is pure pietism from Azuza in 1916. Sure, you can find exceptions, there always are exceptions. But are you serious about the young, or not? Think of Bart Ehrman. He started out believing pretty much what any pietist believer has faith in. Or think about Ross Douthat, also a youthful Evangelical. And, to speak personally, that is where I was in my youth, also. None of such people could, after a point, continue to think that way. Ehrman became an Atheist. Douthat became a high church Catholic. I became an ecumenist with prophetic ideas. Which says to me that the future must be very different than anything that 99% of Evangelicals think it should be. You are free to disagree. Fine with me. No problem with that. But if one's goal is the willing acceptance of the young in a religious faith, then what? Do you really think that a new reformation will be Azuza Mark II? I sure do not. I think it will be more like Martin Luther Mark II, complete with major political upheavals and a war against Islam. More to the point, I think it will be partly Buddhist in character and partly "other," even if the core will be Christian and Biblical. It is all about your -anyone's- vision of the future. Billy -- -- 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 --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
