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Sunday, July 15, 2012

"Can Liberal Christianity Be Saved?" Ross Douthat



Ross Douthat's "Can Liberal Christianity Be Saved?" is useful as stimulus and hone. However, "Reader Comments" were more informative than the text itself. Perhaps this interplay between "text" and "context" is the metalevel "point." It may even be the point of our whole Christian Crisis. In effect, Central Texts are never as important as the living conversations that takes place around it. Authoritarianism - whether scriptural or sacerdotal - is not as important as grassroots groundedness. The actual "culture" arising from a belief system -- even when many formal beliefs do not appear on popular "radar" is more important than the beliefs themselves. For example, I doubt a single Catholic hierarch believes, de profundis, the Vatican II view that "We are the church." Suffused by individual views that are as diverse as dogma-and-doctrine, we are reprising the existential angst described by E.R. Dodds in his classic 1965 study, "Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety" (available online at http://books.google.com/books?id=VBI6JppgQBAC&source=gbs_similarbooks) Drenched in partisan rancor, we live in the breach of a radical split between "the sacred" and "the secular." Even more fundamentally, the "poles" have grown antagonistic to one another, with "The Right" (always prone to puffy "Righteousness") hellbent on denying need for polar integration, polar unification, polar integrity. But unless "the right" and "the left" live in closer-than-coital intimacy, they will both wither and die -- or at least pupate -- as necessary prelude to the next integration, the next fusion, the next unified field. In the meantime, there will be hell to pay. In the Dark Ages, "hell" was not "paid off" for 700 years. 


We will "get out of hell" when we realize that "The Left" and "The Right" will both collapse unless we realize an overarching reconciliation in which the urge to "excommunicate" "other" "believers" is anathema to the undeniable diversity of Christianity. 


I marvel at the spectrum of faith and assume that the multiplicity of believers is the cornerstone of any church which aspires to transcend the narrow - and comforting - bounds of tribalism.  


On the one hand, we have Amish fundamentalism, an absolutely pacifist and a biblically literal sect.
At another extreme of fundamentalism, I know Christian devotees who see nothing wrong with abortion since it is not mentioned in the Bible.


Under the umbrella of unbounded reconciliation, it only remains to be seen which Christians will excommunicate themselves by insisting on their own exclusive righteousness.


American prophet, Wendell Berry, declares this act of faith: “I take literally the statement in the Gospel of John that God loves the world. I believe that the world was created and approved by love, that it subsists, coheres, and endures by love, and that, insofar as it is redeemable, it can be redeemed only by love. I believe that divine love, incarnate and indwelling in the world, summons the world always toward wholeness, which ultimately is reconciliation and atonement with God.”  Wendell BerryThe Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays


Wholeness broaches no division (except, perhaps, self-separation) even when (perhaps especially when) division is rooted in righteousness.


(Among Douthat's commentators, I draw your attention to Sequel, Adam S, "gay priest" Mark Wood, and MS.)



In 1998, John Shelby Spong, then the reliably controversial Episcopal bishop of Newark, published a book entitled “Why Christianity Must Change or Die.” Spong was a uniquely radical figure — during his career, he dismissed almost every element of traditional Christian faith as so much superstition — but most recent leaders of the Episcopal Church have shared his premise. Thus their church has spent the last several decades changing and then changing some more, from a sedate pillar of the WASP establishment into one of the most self-consciously progressive Christian bodies in the United States.

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As a result, today the Episcopal Church looks roughly how Roman Catholicism would look if Pope Benedict XVI suddenly adopted every reform ever urged on the Vatican by liberal pundits and theologians. It still has priests and bishops, altars and stained-glass windows. But it is flexible to the point of indifference on dogma, friendly to sexual liberation in almost every form, willing to blend Christianity with other faiths, and eager to downplay theology entirely in favor of secular political causes.
Yet instead of attracting a younger, more open-minded demographic with these changes, the Episcopal Church’s dying has proceeded apace. Last week, while the church’s House of Bishops was approving a rite to bless same-sex unions, Episcopalian church attendance figures for 2000-10 circulated in the religion blogosphere. They showed something between a decline and a collapse: In the last decade, average Sunday attendance dropped 23 percent, and not a single Episcopal diocese in the country saw churchgoing increase.
This decline is the latest chapter in a story dating to the 1960s. The trends unleashed in that era — not only the sexual revolution, but also consumerism and materialism, multiculturalism and relativism — threw all of American Christianity into crisis, and ushered in decades of debate over how to keep the nation’s churches relevant and vital.
Traditional believers, both Protestant and Catholic, have not necessarily thrived in this environment. The most successful Christian bodies have often been politically conservative but theologically shallow, preaching a gospel of health and wealth rather than the full New Testament message.
But if conservative Christianity has often been compromised, liberal Christianity has simply collapsed. Practically every denomination — Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian — that has tried to adapt itself to contemporary liberal values has seen an Episcopal-style plunge in church attendance. Within the Catholic Church, too, the most progressive-minded religious orders have often failed to generate the vocations necessary to sustain themselves.
Both religious and secular liberals have been loath to recognize this crisis. Leaders of liberal churches have alternated between a Monty Python-esque “it’s just a flesh wound!” bravado and a weird self-righteousness about their looming extinction. (In a 2005 interview, the Episcopal Church’s presiding bishop explained that her communion’s members valued “the stewardship of the earth” too highly to reproduce themselves.)
Liberal commentators, meanwhile, consistently hail these forms of Christianity as a model for the future without reckoning with their decline. Few of the outraged critiques of the Vatican’s investigation of progressive nuns mentioned the fact that Rome had intervened because otherwise the orders in question were likely to disappear in a generation. Fewer still noted the consequences of this eclipse: Because progressive Catholicism has failed to inspire a new generation of sisters, Catholic hospitals across the country are passing into the hands of more bottom-line-focused administrators, with inevitable consequences for how they serve the poor.
But if liberals need to come to terms with these failures, religious conservatives should not be smug about them. The defining idea of liberal Christianity — that faith should spur social reform as well as personal conversion — has been an immensely positive force in our national life. No one should wish for its extinction, or for a world where Christianity becomes the exclusive property of the political right.
What should be wished for, instead, is that liberal Christianity recovers a religious reason for its own existence. As the liberal Protestant scholar Gary Dorrien has pointed out, the Christianity that animated causes such as the Social Gospel and the civil rights movement was much more dogmatic than present-day liberal faith. Its leaders had a “deep grounding in Bible study, family devotions, personal prayer and worship.” They argued for progressive reform in the context of “a personal transcendent God ... the divinity of Christ, the need of personal redemption and the importance of Christian missions.”
Today, by contrast, the leaders of the Episcopal Church and similar bodies often don’t seem to be offering anything you can’t already get from a purely secular liberalism. Which suggests that per haps they should pause, amid their frantic renovations, and consider not just what they would change about historic Christianity, but what they would defend and offer uncompromisingly to the world.
Absent such a reconsideration, their fate is nearly certain: they will change, and change, and die.

189 Comments

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    • Sequel
    • Boston
    I'm noticing an awful lot of empty Catholic Churches and schools these days too.

    At the same time, out West I've seen an explosion of massive megachurches, often with gun racks, conveniently located near a fast food outlet.

    Perhaps you're not noticing any decline at all, merely a shift in tastes.
      • False Profit
      • Wall Street USA
      I am a nonreligious person from a nonreligious family. I went to liberal schools in Berkeley, California for my education.

      In my view, the concept of afterlife is a naturally occurring human conceit of self importance. Perhaps I should be revelling in the downfall of western christian dogma and practice. I am not.

      Liberals and others seem to look out of their windows at the world from their armchairs and tacitly approve of the demise of christianity as a worldwide faith, somehow deluding themselves that the institutions such as the US government could exist just fine if christianity is on the rocks.

      Africa is islamizing rapidly. Europe is islamizing. America is slowly islamizing. If you dispute this, you are not paying attention, at all.

      Examples in africa: Nigeria (frequent christian targettings), Mali(takeover), Kenya (recent christian targettings), Ivory Coast (takeover by election), Egypt (withering christian minority). Sudan.

      Islam does not allow minority faiths to thrive at all. This is not true in europe or america regarding islam. It is a one way street towards islam. A muslim is not free to convert to becoming christian, but vice versa is totally fine. Not too much non-islamic growth of communities in Saudi Arabia, for instance. Not too many conversions. Jews, and others, not welcome. No.

      Institutions based on christianity, including the US government, will crumble, as will: freedom of thought, belief, right to question, of women. Dark age coming.
        • Quixote
        • California
        Why do thinking, questioning adults continue to waste time trying to prop up such nonsense as Christianity (or Islam or any other reason-challenged "ism")? The sooner we shed ourselves of such fantasies, the better---we need to focus on improving life for human beings on Earth in the here and now, and remove these harmful illusions of afterlife, of divine intervention, and other fact-deprived imaginings. The old "a mind is a terrible thing to waste" slogan comes to mind when I see someone as thoughtful as Russ Douthat wasting his time bothering to write about whether or not "Liberal" Christianity can be saved...it is no more worth saving than "fundamentalist" Christianity.
          • Evelyn
          • Los Angeles
          I spent many years of my life as an earnest, Bible-believing Christian. And then I added it all up, and this is where I found myself:

          God is a humanist. God became Man. The Son of Man is the Son of God. God, to the extent God exists at all, exists in and through human beings (and the rest of the natural world.) Even in the Bible, there was seldom a miracle that did not have a human being as the medium through which the miracle happened.

          When a child lies dying of cancer, where is God? If God is anywhere, God is in the nurses and doctors who do their best to heal that child, the scientists who spend decades toiling to find cures, the mother and father who grieve for their child and would gladly give their life for hers.

          This is all I know on earth, and all I need to know.
            • BD
            • Colorado
            Maybe the Episcopal Church leaders are motivated to do what is theologically right rather than coming up with something to offer the world "uncompromisingly" so as to bolster attendance numbers.
              • Adam S.
              • Brooklyn
              A caterpillar who builds a pupa around itself must certainly look to be dying to his brethren that refuse to build one. Maybe not all caterpillars who build one ever emerge, and the aging caterpillars will hang around and call them a dying breed. Who's dying, Mr. Douthat? Those who cling to old hierarchies out of fear of change, or those that risk it all to build the future? This form of conservatism is, at its core, an alliance of cowards afraid to face the future and the old power brokers trying to milk that fear for a few more decades of power. Good luck with that, Mr. Douthat.
                • Marc
                • Portland, OR
                I can understand that from the right wing Episcopalians look liberal. But from my liberal perspective, Unitarians are truly liberal: without dogma, informed, peaceful, and responsible, with a positive view on human kind.
                  • Mr. Cairo
                  • Ottawa, ON
                  The conservatism of the Roman Catholic Church may seem attractive by constrast. No women clergy, strict dogma, gay people stigmatized, authoritarian leadership, and people told to put up or shut up. This is the alternative suggested by Mr. Douthat. In light of the scandals, and the defection of many RCs, how's that working for them?
                    • rf
                    • New York
                    The phenomenon driving dropping attendance may simply be that the more enlightened denominations encouraged their parishioners to think. Logical thought makes one realize what a complete fantasy religion is. Hence, an exodus from all but the most thoughtless (i.e., politically and socially rigid) religion. It's a bit like glasnost, the Arab Spring and other examples where other authoritarian power structures have lost their tight grip. Arguably, the world will be much better off when the fantasies end and those power structures that have helped to bring us wars, child molestation, repression of women, crusades, missionary coercion ... etc ... etc ... etc ... completely collapse under their own absurd illogic.
                      • M Davis
                      • St. Louis
                      It's not liberal ideology, but the worn out, dried up traditions of the mainstream churches that are driving people away. Church services are simply boring.
                        • Mark Weinstein
                        • Seattle, Washington
                        Like health-insurance companies, organized religions are unnecessary evils.
                        Self-serving institutions that dole-out codified relief to those seeking physical well-being and spiritual fulfillment - should not exist.
                          • Peter J Stuyvesant
                          • Washington, DC
                          Mr. Douhart,

                          Thank you for a well written and thoughtful piece. I am amazed when the Christians, liberal or otherwise, work to find the approval of the state and the culture. From its inception, Christianity has been a counter cultural movement, not one that sought to move with the trends of the times or the whims of the state. There is a danger to the church when it begins to look to the culture for acceptance and endorsement. While I am not one to suggest that everyone should be a fundamentalist, there have always been debates in the church, the Christian faith is defined by certain beliefs. Liberals and conservatives in the effort to change with the time have imperiled the faith and left some to wonder, what if anything do Christians believe.

                          While it is true that Christianity has always adapted to the soil in which it found itself, it has always looked Christian. When you begin to change the core values, beliefs, and doctrine that comprise Christianity you no longer have Christianity, liberal or otherwise. So to answer the question that your title poses, maybe. If liberal Christianity makes an effort to be Christian, it may be saved. If it continues to be a religious themed version of secular and intellectual liberalism perhaps it won't be saved but should just change its name.
                            • M.M.
                            • Austin, TX
                            Personally, I don't have a problem if all Christianity--especially the conservative branch--dissappears from the face of the Earth along with all other religions. I think we've put up with supersittion and fairy tales for way too long now. It's time for humanity to finally grow up.
                              • Apowell232
                              • Great Lakes
                              Liberal Christians don't proselytize; they think it's impolite. That is their main problem. Most people join religions in search of community at the local level. The theology is secondary to feeling that one is part of a "family."

                              Conservative religions are always inviting people to their churches and encouraging them to join. Liberal churches should try that.
                                • sgs - SLC
                                • Utah
                                This is an insightful column. Whenever I go to church, I very much believe that my episcopalian faith could not be more Christian, but I don't go very often. Christmas and Easter, maybe once more per year. The Church is not letting me down, I'm letting them down. My hope Ross is that you make me do the right thing. Why judgmental conservative Christians are so much more energized than seemingly secular, but not really, liberal Christians? It is a catastrophe for the ideals we hold dear.
                                  • CHEEKOS
                                  • SOUTH FLORIDA
                                  Perhaps the point here is that Religion, in general, might be going out of style. Maybe the advantage might be going to the Churches with more older members, who might just be so used to spending their Sundays where they can be baffled. Eventually, however, the oldewr loyalists will die-off. Then, the bars will be able to open earlier.
                                    • Mark Wood
                                    • Chelsea
                                    Ridiculous and inaccurate. I am a gay priest working in the Diocese of New York. I visit up to 20 parishes a year. In every one of them, I find the overwhelming majority thrilling to the words of the Nicene Creed and grateful for Scripture centered sermons and liturgy. I've been ordained 27 years; I have never seen the Episcopal Church so lively and grounded in the Great Commandment. Matthew 28: 19-20.
                                      • David Savir
                                      • Bedford MA
                                      You are confused between beliefs and the institutions that are meant to contain, support and be financed by these beliefs. Like churches, and so forth. If there is no longer a good fit between believer and institution, guess who needs to accommodate?
                                        • W.S. Dalgarno
                                        • SLC, Utah
                                        As the pastor of a growing center/left leaning Presbyterian congregation in Salt Lake City, let me suggest that rumors of our demise might be premature. Yes, we don't take the Bible literally, but we do take it seriously, and we study it regularly, and try to live by it.

                                        In April 2011, in answer to the burning of a copy of the Muslim Qu'ran by a church in Florida that led to the deaths of innocent people, the leaders of our church purchased 90 copies of the Qu'ran and offered them for free to any who might want to read them (through a local independent bookstore here in Salt Lake). We wanted to remind our countrymen and women that people who burn books often end up burning people. We were not pushing the Qu'ran, we were just saying to people, "Here is a copy. read it yourself and decide what it says." We received some push-back from Christians who mistakenly thought we were replacing the Bible with Islamic scriptures. We were not. And we received a lot of kudos from Christians around the globe, from U.S. military personnel here and stationed abroad,and also U.S. Aid workers in Afghanistan who appreciated our action and saw it as a needed corrective.

                                        What I am saying is simply that churches that live up to the mandates of the gospel as set down by Jesus, churches that seek to be as inclusive as Jesus was in his ministry, churches that value education and are not afraid of it, churches that stand for justice and that stand against bigotry of ever kind, will thrive.
                                          • giniajim
                                          • Virginia
                                          This is far too grim. The Episcopal Church recognizes the broad response required by Jesus. Jesus was about ministering to the poor, sick, destitute and those despised by the rest of society. I would hope that the Episcopal Church will not die but continue the Great Commission.
                                            • steve
                                            • Ky.
                                            Humanity is one excellently stubborn bunch of creatures. Here we have a church where liberals apparently had a contest to try to out-liberal each other.

                                            Despite mounting evidence every time they looked that the people they called themselves helping were not interested in loosening things up, the leaders just stood by and wished more and more people good luck in their next place. How ridiculous!

                                            Churchgoers need to fnd God's answers to the excruciating concerns of this life. When the leadership can't put its foot down and say, ''This is were we stand!'' without adding a hasty, ''At least today!'' People are NOT going to put up with that.

                                            I don't know if Bishop Spong was a result or a major cause, but you don't actively distrust and dismiss most of Scripture and then challenge the supposed owners and customers to stick around anyway.

                                            I realize this parallels the story of the Democratic Party that all these hopeless mis-leaders most assuredly belong to. It also decided to take off to the left mindless of what its voters actually wanted, and has continually re-defined its center until the people making up the party fifty years ago would no longer recognize it.

                                            The ultimate irony is how much these Church leaders have wasted suing to retain ownership of the churches that have bailed on them and joined conservative branches of Episcopal life. As a result, those structures will now sit as idle as the Beijing Olympic venues. If the NYC bldg sells, they might hang on a while.
                                              • MS
                                              • NY
                                              You are probably correct that many orders will cease to exist not too far in the future but it is not, as you suggest Mr. Douthat, because the sisters have become too liberal but because the Church hierarchy has become so reactionary, so anti-woman and to many of us, so unchristian in both word and deed. Those "Nuns on the Bus" exemplified the teachings of Jesus in stark contrast to Cardinal Dolan's war on women and the ACA. With humility and inclusiveness, the sisters minister to all while the cardinal seems to prefer only those who pledge their fealty to his every command.

                                              We will lose our sisters not because of the women in the Church but because of the men who run it.
                                                • Goh Lip
                                                • Kuala Lumpur
                                                It always befuddles me whenever I read about 'liberal religionists' struggling with reconciling their faiths with 'reality'. Whether it's the tsunami, earthquake, concorde crashes or just plain injustices triggering such outbreaks of self-doubt, I often wonder why these people do not take the obvious logical next step. "Hardcore fundamentalists" often have easier times, blaming a particular lesbian in New Orleans or the devil's contract with Haitians. Then I realized there is just too much at stake for them to break clean and my compassion for their struggles evaporate.

                                                Anyway, people like John Shelby Spong would be regarded as heretics by a vast majority of his co-religionists, as are many practitioners of 'sub-sets' of their religions. Again, any sympathy would be misplaced. Sorry.
                                                  • lslerner
                                                  • Woodside, CA
                                                  So, Ross, the Roman Catholic Church with its buggery and episcopal sweeping-under-the-ruggery is superior to the Episcopal Church, which deals with its members as humans rather than sheep (and lambs.) That both are suffering severe loss of membership is clear; it is most likely due to the rising level of education in the American populace.
                                                    • Kinsale
                                                    • Baltimore, MD
                                                    You seem to forget Christ's message that at the end of time there would only be "the faithful remnant". As for the future, denominational numbers may make little difference if our political system cannot address global warming. Some will believe, some will not. I will continue to opt for a thinking version of Christianity that attempts to wrestle with the the problem of continuity and change rather than rote reliance upon biblical literalism or hierarchical authority.

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