The End of Christian America?

Last week's Newsweek cover story by Jon Meacham ['The End of Christian America'] highlights the decline of America's Christian population. 15% of Americans--double the rate since the early 90s--are 'unaffliated' in regards to religion/spirituality. Of course, 75% of the population still identify with some brand of Christian faith: Evangelical, Catholic, mainline Protestant, Orthodox, Fundamentalist, etc. Here's Meacham's thesis:

The decline and fall of the modern religious right's notion of a Christian America creates a calmer political environment and, for many believers, may help open the way for a more theologically serious religious life.

I agree with Meacham [an Episcopalian] that these trends point to an opportunity for disciples of Jesus in the American context, but I'm skeptical [yet hopeful] that it will create a 'calmer political' or 'theologically serious religious' environments. The religious right, especially in the southern Orange County context of our house church community, has a strong influence [monopoly?] on what Christianity essentially is: a belief system with the monopoly on the Absolute Truth about the world with an offer for relationship with God and a guarantee of eternal life in heaven--all through the saving work of Jesus. This Christian package emphasizes penal-substitutionary atonement [Jesus died for my sins], the self-evident and inerrant Bible ['God said it, I believe it and that settles it.'], pietistic revivalism [a emotionally-driven personal relationship with Jesus--ie, Evangelical worship music] and a curious ambivalence towards culture [sometimes fighting vigorously for judeo-Christian laws and sometimes shunning the whole enterprise for private spiritual faith].

My own 'unaffliated' friends are turned off by the perceived dogmatism, judgmentalism, arrogance, anti-intellectualism, bad listening skills, wealth and politically conservative nature of even the soft fundamentalists who pride themselves on catering to 'seekers.' Some of this perceptive criticism is fair, some of it isn't. But many 'unaffliated' Americans of a younger generation have little use for a Christianity with this kind of baggage and unfortunately most don't see that there are 'other' Christian options.

A key issue with this dominant form of Christian faith is that it most often speaks with language indicating that it is the only form of Christian faith on offer. A case in point is Jonathan Merritt's essay in USA Today this week, calling fellow Evangelicals to a more loving with homosexuals. He writes:

As Christians, we clearly won't be able to support any and everything. For example, our biblical convictions prohibit a redefinition of marriage. Yet, there are other areas where we may be able to offer support. We should support protecting our gay and lesbian neighbors from discrimination in the workplace and cleaning up the legal cobwebs that govern hospital visitation rights and inheritance for same-sex couples.

What is and is not a 'biblical conviction' is a contested concept. Many faithful Christians, in fact, would argue that gay marriage is not redefining biblical marriage [for example, see this one and that one]. Merritt's language continues the rhetoric of the recent election season where conservative Christians in the US pleaded for all God's children to vote for 'biblical' issues, naively equating their dominant view as the only claim to biblical truth for all God's children.

From its beginnings, Christian faith in the United States has been dominated by the Constantinian curse. Since the 4th century when Constantine became a 'Christian' and baptized the Empire, Christian faith has shifted from what is faithful to God's kingdom to what is effective and pragmatic for faith in the kingdom of this world. When Christians have historically sought to Christianize society through laws baptized in biblical principles, they have inevitably watered down Jesus' message of radical love, humility and service to the world. Contemporary American Christians have conjured up a reasonable, pragmatic, respectable belief in Jesus that is spiritual, personal and eternal. The dominant form of Christian faith is arguably an individualized faith that is more about common sense, traditional sexual ethics, free market economics and Church membership.

In the past week, Delwin Brown and Diana Butler Bass have contributed essays describing a historic progressive brand of Christianity that has functioned as a 'minority report' during the past 150 years. This faith confronts systems of injustice and inequality, but does not equate Christian faith with American patriotism. Evangelicals and 'unaffiliated' Americans are slowly discovering these as valuable alternatives to the larger and louder brands of conservative evangelicalism.

In addition, Anabaptist voices like John Howard Yoder, Ched Myers and Jim McClendon have inspired a few communities here and there over the past few decades to radical discipleship that interprets the cross as 'the price of social nonconformity' and cherishes the Bible's authority like an actress does a script, submitting to it through memorization and imagination in the context of diverse audiences. These communities are microsocieties of the kingdom of God, patiently and faithfully living the politics of Jesus, subverting the 'civil religion' of 'In God We Trust' and 'God Bless America.' These communities proclaim boldly that America never was a Christian nation because it has never collectively and intentionally followed Jesus' challenge to love the neighbor and enemy, as well as commit to equality and justice in our economic and civil policies towards those vulnerable and marginalized people groups inside and outside the States. Provocative Christian faith strains to be faithful to Jesus' way, not to be effective by majority rule or through leaders enacting 'Christian' policies. The cross of Jesus is the symbol of how God orders his world: we can risk 'ineffective' obedience to God's will even to the point of death because we worship the God who raises the dead.

516 Quail Meadow is hopeful that a calmer political environment and more theologically serious religious life results from the changes in American culture. We are committed to offering a brand of discipleship that confronts the illusions of 'Christian America' and commits [intentionally, yet imperfectly] to living Jesus' way of suffering service, forgiveness and enemy love, patiently waiting for God to bring the world to rights. We believe that God will transform the world through non-coercive, non-manipulative evangelism [inviting others to pledge allegiance to God's alternative reign] and the leavening process in society [slowly changing attitudes and habits by modeling God's reign], not by finding strength in population counts and laws that protect 'Christian' morality. The End of Christian America is good news for the United States [both 'Christian' and 'unaffliated'] longing for a different style of discipleship.