Is the American Evangelical World ABout To Collapse?

Perhaps we shall all be entering the Catacombs together!!

Rod Dreher has a habit of posting the most doom and gloom pieces on his blog that they all seem to run together . This one though caught my eye. See A coming Evangelical collapse?

Now to many Evangelicals I suspect they could not imagine this. But I must say there is some merit to this piece.

Fortress Catholicism in America looked unsinkable too in the 50's and early 60's. It took not even a decade to see that was not true. I think many of the problems that we saw then as to the Catholic Church but were well hidden are being seen in the Evangelical movement. For various reasons though the Catholic faith was much more affected by the numerous revolutions that hit in the late 60's and 70's. Something we are now just recovering from.

Now all things are not great on the Catholic side as Rod shows and links to via the recent Amy Wellborn post. (Be sure to read GRAMPS comment though at Amy's place that does show some problems with that survey that is discussed).

To further complicate the problem the Evangelical movement did not see some of the real dangers that the Catholic Church did at the time. The Chickens are coming home to roost so to speak.

The whole piece is worth reading . He says this is occurring among other things:

1. Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and with political conservatism. This will prove to be a very costly mistake. Evangelicals will increasingly be seen as a threat to cultural progress. Public leaders will consider us bad for America, bad for education, bad for children, and bad for society.

The evangelical investment in moral, social, and political issues has depleted our resources and exposed our weaknesses. Being against gay marriage and being rhetorically pro-life will not make up for the fact that massive majorities of Evangelicals can't articulate the Gospel with any coherence. We fell for the trap of believing in a cause more than a faith.

I disagree with the above to a certain extent. First of all what is the point? Was it a mistake to speak out against evil? I am not sure I will call that a mistake. How can a Church sit on the sidelines of moral, social and political issues? In fact are not some of the problemsthat still plague Southern White Evangelicals is the sins of their fathers for not SPEAKING OUT against the evils of a State mandated racial caste system and thus they are still tarred with it.


2. We Evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young people an orthodox form of faith that can take root and survive the secular onslaught. Ironically, the billions of dollars we've spent on youth ministers, Christian music, publishing, and media has produced a culture of young Christians who know next to nothing about their own faith except how they feel about it. Our young people have deep beliefs about the culture war, but do not know why they should obey scripture, the essentials of theology, or the experience of spiritual discipline and community. Coming generations of Christians are going to be monumentally ignorant and unprepared for culture-wide pressures.

4. Despite some very successful developments in the past 25 years, Christian education has not produced a product that can withstand the rising tide of secularism. Evangelicalism has used its educational system primarily to staff its own needs and talk to itself.

This I think hits something big and important. I live in the Bible belt and I must say I see for the lack of a better work a dumbing down of my Protestant and Evangelical neighbors as to the faith.

For instance how often do I hear "It doesn't matter what you believe as to Theology but just Believe in Jesus!!!" Christianity is a tad more than just about believing in Jesus. It is also about the total Godhead which includes the Father and Holy Spirit. There is a reason why the Early Churches most heated battles was over the Trinity. When the Trinity goes off the track all sort of errors come in.

This evangelical states in what he sees as a new era post collapse :

The ascendency of Charismatic-Pentecostal-influenced worship around the world can be a major positive for the evangelical movement if reformation can reach those churches and if it is joined with the calling, training, and mentoring of leaders. If American churches come under more of the influence of the movement of the Holy Spirit in Africa and Asia, this will be a good thing.

This is true. But I do wonder if part of the problem is that too much of Charismatic-Pentecostal theology in its many varied forms have managed to come into without a critical apprasial and thus create problems. At least that is what I am observing to some degree. Perhaps not everything is really the "Holy Spirit". What is true and needed in this movements and what frankly is just cheap TBN theology? Again maybe the key is looking at around the world. It does appear as to both Catholic and Protestants Africa will play a key role in perhaps saving us.

I guess in my daily life I am hearing Church going "born again" folks saying things that were unimaginable 20 years ago. So while his predictions might be a tad over the top I think they should be listened too.