Now Christians are Calling the Church "Impotent" and "Irrelevant"
It was stunning to read a headline on a site devoted to pumping up and selling Christianity. The headline tells us "The Church is Impotent and Irrelevant." The article's authors just published a book based on this theme.
The article goes through the "false positives" the faithful often point to. These are the growth of mega churches and the successful churches in prosperous and growing urban areas. While these kinds of churches continue to be viable the national trend is down. It is the decline of Christianity.
The authors then go on to describe a world consumed by sin. There is too much sex, too many drugs, abortions, gay marriage and, well, you know the drill.
Their solution to the "impotent and irrelevant" church is to hammer home the evils of sin. Churches and their preachers/priests have become weak kneed in condemning sin. This causes more sin and churches are emptying out because people prefer sin to being flag-waving Christians.
They have a right to their opinions but we have a right to question them. My recollection of conservative Christian life when I was young is that it was consumed by concern over different sins than those conservative Christians are consumed with today. Today, they are consumed with abortion and gay marriage.
In my youth, they were consumed by "working" on Sunday the Sabbath. There were to be no tractors in the fields or department stores. And, it was only three or four decades from prohibition so alcohol was still a taboo. The role of women in church life was limited. These were the sins that "counted".
But, the faith eventually forgot about these sins and moved onto to others. That it put these sins on the shelf to be forgotten no doubt saved the faith from being put in its grave sooner.
Today, the faith cannot seem to move on as it has in the recent past. A big weight holds it back from being a relevant institution today. The weight is anti abortion and gay rights. The sooner is forgets about these "sins' and moves on to others the better its chances to survive.
Interesting link. "Churches should no longer be judged on how many attend but rather on how many move into truly Biblical thinking and action in all spheres of today's culture."
ReplyDeleteBasically the goal is not just to be popular but to radicalize as many zealots as possible.
It will be difficult to invent new sins when they are desperately trying to go backwards. This article on that same site demonstrates the manipulation of people with that classic tool, Lust. https://www.christianpost.com/voice/3-ways-to-look-and-not-lust.html
This is cult brainwashing 101, amusing to realize such people still exist but sad at the same time.
Thanks for that reflection, Anonymous.
ReplyDelete"This is cult brainwashing 101, amusing to realize such people still exist but sad at the same time."
We need some kind of national study and conversation as to what is a cult and what is just a belief package that helps people get through their day. Let's compare, fore the sake of discussion, two groups. One says their belief system is right and is the only right one and all others are wrong. The other says their belief system is good for them but there are other belief systems that are fine too, the main thing is neither crowds into the lives of the other.
The second groups is not a cult. The first, however, falls somewhere between the second and the crazies that follow its leader into to mass suicides. Perhaps we could invent a term, "cult light" for those who believe theirs is the only way and all others are wrong.