Who (What) Will Save Christianity




A headline which said someone claims he will teach the next generation of Christian leaders caught my eye. It implied it was about someone who claimed to have a way to bring back the faith from its decline. Even Christian Post has its share of tricks to attract readers.

The article, which you can read if you like, was from an interview with an 80 year old retired math professor in England. Apparently, his lifelong hobby has been promoting Christianity and in the interview he said he would continue to mentor the "next generation of apologists." To me, this is code language saying, "I will continue to tell people about my interpretation of the Bible because it is the only correct one." This is the same message that comes from behind pulpits in hundreds of thousands of churches every Sunday. Yet no one, including this retired math professor, has found a way to move the needle of decline.

We cannot say with absolute certainty, of course, what the future will bring. We do know what has happened in history. It is that Christianity has followed, and is continuing to follow, the path of all other religious beliefs since the beginning of humans. What brings a chuckle to me are people who say, "Yes, earlier gods had different names, but it was always God, our God, they were referring to." Why have millions of people killed millions of other people over the "wrong god"? No, it was not the "same god." Gods are in peoples' heads. Each person can have a different one.

What can reverse the downward trend besides the current practice of shouting ever louder, "This is the truth"? George Barna, the Christian pollster and preacher who documents the decline, goes around the country giving his solution. Studies have found, he says, that when parents are active in a church their children are move likely to stay in the faith. The problem he skips over is that parents are less and less likely to be church people.

What, then, could save Christianity? Those of us who have experienced and studied this know Christianity is damaged by skepticism and critical thinking. Thus, to save the faith skepticism and critical thinking must be eliminated by laws or people must voluntarily stop experiencing them. 

So far skepticism and critical thinking are still here and are winning. Let's hope they continue.

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