Easter: Will Repeating the Same Tale Convince Anyone


I read today another of the same articles that appear almost daily. I suppose the same message is repeated at many services, Protestant, Catholic and Jewish. Probably one could add Islam and Hindu and who knows what others. The message is the faith must stick with "orthodoxy" or people will leave. That the public is attracted to orthodoxy and nothing else.  

The link's reasoning goes like this. Surveys show that those who remain in the faith hold to orthodox beliefs. For Christians this means people who go to church a lot and pray a lot also believe there was a Jesus who came back to life after being dead, there is a God, sin, heaven and hell. Those who are unsure about these things do not attend church as often nor pray as much. The conclusion, of course, is that if every church and denomination hammered home those tenets of the faith as true the decline of the faith would reverse and it would again grow. 

A man who commented a lot on this blog years ago made the same point. He wrote that when people drift toward the liberal wing of the faith the drift continues until they leave entirely. Thus, a church and its denomination must keep members from starting the drift toward questions. 

I don't know if my metaphor is the best one but I'll give it a try. Suppose the faith included a belief that the earth is flat. Toddlers in Sunday School were taught flat earth and this belief was reinforced in sermons and lessons during one's entire life in the faith. Would this offset information the faithful were given elsewhere that the earth is not flat, including that the naked eye can detect the curvature? 

In my experience, there will be a few who stay with the flat earth until they die. The majority will abandon nonsense. This is what is happening to Christianity and religions around the world. Access to laptops and cell phones has undercut the hold religions have had on publics everywhere. Repeating orthodoxy that a human was stone dead and came back to life will not stamp out the influence of more believable information. Orthodoxy is dead, leave it in its grave.

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 9, 2025 at 5:41 PM

    Well, there is all that 4 corners of the earth stuff. And all the catholic mistreatment of just about everyone. I drifted away from Christianity when I was about 11 because I had already read about people born before Jesus or in distant parts of the world, and been told that since they weren’t Christians (how the heck would they have managed that) they’d be going to hell. It just didn’t make sense.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jon LindgrenApril 10, 2025 at 7:21 AM

      Thanks for your comment, Anonymous. I wonder if there is a sermon anywhere that starts, "Friends, we are gathered here on Easter Sunday to celebrate a story. Our Christian story is the same as many others in other religions over time. Probably none of it actually happened. But, hey, it's spring. It's a time when things are new. We can start over. Let's celebrate that. Choir, rip into that Hallelujah "

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