Over the past three weeks, I have described why I believe religious institutions are in serious decline. While what I am saying in this series of columns applies to all of the major American religions, for which I have enormous respect, my comments have been limited to the Christian tradition only because I know more about it than I do the others.
One respondent has already asked
where all the young people are, and why can’t we lure them back to our safe
middle-class churches. I have tried to spell out the answer to that question.
Organized religion is in freefall, and to paint the picture with happier colors
is to ignore what is going on.
The 30% of Americans who now call themselves
“nons” and who claim an undefined spirituality in place of religion, have made
one valid point after another. But their story is not the whole story, and in
this column I want to point out pockets of robust religion. Next week we will
begin to look at emerging possibilities for the recovery of religious
significance. While much traditional ecclesial machinery, and the doctrines
which accompany it, may have passed their use-by date, there is a new stirring
that cannot be ignored. I have little hope in rekindling the ashes of the
ecclesial fires that have already gone out, but I have a sturdy confidence in what I see on the horizon.
If the nons, and those who claim to
be spiritual but not religious, only see a doctrinally hide-bound decaying
institution and an overwhelming religious dominance by Christian
fundamentalism, that is not the world l live in. None of the congregations and
para-church structures I know best come even close to meeting the negative
description I have outlined in previous columns. The two congregations in which
I am currently involved are vital, open to the GLBTQ community, non-creedal, do
not see faith as the belief in doctrine, are concerned about serious issues confronting
the world, are passionate about environmental matters, are serious about moving
well beyond organizational issues, and are involved in peace, justice and the
other vital matters confronting the human family. And they encourage all those
who come anywhere near them to be spiritual as well as religious!
But I realize that these
congregations are in the minority, and always have been. Most mainline churches
are still controlled by a traditional mind-set, and a clergy frightened that
they will say something which may offend their conservative members. What these
pastors learned in their liberal seminaries too seldom gets discussed in the
pulpit. I don’t know how many ministers I have listened to who tell me why they
could NEVER say anything about justice for gays, or gun control. But then there
are the great ecumenical divinity schools and seminaries at Yale, Harvard, the
University of Chicago, and Union of New York. In addition there are a plethora
of denominational graduate schools and seminaries.
One must also include those universities which have
significant departments of religious studies. Ecumenical bodies such as the National
Council of Churches, and publications including The Christian Century and The National
Catholic Reporter deny the stereotype. There are the scholarly bodies
including The Westar Institute (better known as the Jesus Seminar), and The
American Academy of Religion. These progressive churches and para-church
organizations are strong and vital, but when the popular media talk about
religion, they are rarely mentioned. Evangelicals and fundamentalists get all
the attention. No wonder in the popular mind all religion is in bed with the
Tea Party.
Yet even our progressive church
structures may not be what the nons are looking for. However, there is on the
horizon a new image of what an emerging church might look like. While deeply
appreciative of what all the progressive institutions I have cited are doing,
this emerging church may have a far more forward-looking agenda which will
begin—and has already begun—by holding a massive garage sale, in which moribund
ecclesial structures are being hauled away. What may already be coming to birth
is a religious awakening akin to the Protestant reformation of 500 years ago.
Some sage once commented that there was nothing more exciting than seeing a new
idea coming to birth.
But more
about that next week.
Charles Bayer
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