The increasingly frequent announcements that the church in America is declining come with hand wringing and pearl clutching for some and thinly veiled glee for others. It's rare to hear a dispassionate religion-is-dying report because nearly everyone has a stake in it. Insiders are distressed to see loved and valued institutions and practices degrade and lose influence. Outsiders are happy to be done with the one unacceptable people's opiate we have left.
Religion is dying. It's a silly claim.
It's silly, but it's not a new prediction. A ton of intellectual heavyweights have been sure that religion, especially Christianity, has run its course (several times) and is on its way out. The list includes Nietzsche, Marx, Weber, Oliver Wendell Holmes and novelists too many to mention. The death of religion theme even worked its way into a Matthew Arnold poem that pictures faith as an ocean with its "melancholy, long, withdrawing roar." No surprises with Arnold because you can't have a decent 19th century English poet without a club membership, interesting facial hair and a dose of delicious melancholy.
Mark Twain observed, "Man is the religious animal." Religion can't die as long as humans survive, but it can change - radically and perhaps suddenly. Could it be that for some, Christianity, God, text-based religions and institutional faiths are being replaced by other religions - rivals?
Religion isn't being abandoned really. It's more accurate to say that in America, historic, traditional faiths are being replaced by rival religions. Nationalism? Ethnic loyalties? Political identification? By one definition, religion is whatever gets your final, highest allegiance. One trend that is prominent, popular and perhaps seminal and may qualify as a rival religion is the path to self-improvement. Many claim to be searching for the better or best version of Me. Jesus, Torah, Yahweh, the Gospels and especially the viability of local faith communities are no longer satisfying or worthy of serious consideration when compared to the pursuit of self-fulfillment.
In the current telling, three thousand years of Judeo-Christian bedrock is crumbling beneath our feet and losing out to the promise of Future Self.
I see replacement coming from the outside by those who, disaffected or disappointed with religion as institution, have abandoned it. A different disaffected set, those who still consider themselves on religion's inside, also want change things and appear to be signing up for a massive deconstruction project. A different and more violent kind of replacement. The whole religion thing or large parts of it has got to come down. Riddled with favoritism, systemic racism, longstanding sexism, aligned too closely with the wrong kind of politics, it simply must go. Detonation first, then rebuilding. Only when there are ashes can you have a rising Phoenix. If the Phoenix is a hen, then it's a broken eggs and a better omelet thing.
It may sound hysterical to ask if the lazy French monarchy was really so much worse than the bloody Reign of Terror. Still, deconstructionists should always swing the hammer slowly. The replacement church and Christianity may be worse, much worse than the things torn down. Once level the city to make room for improvements and there's no turning back. "Oops" doesn't earn a pardon or restore what's lost nor reclaim the damage done to the lives and well-being of good people shoved aside for the next new thing in church life.
If the highly imitative, market and production driven, eye candy approaches that are currently favored by too many church planters and innovators is indicative of where the tearing down is leading, we may be in for a very big and unsatisfying "Oops!" from today's bright lights when their project to make all things new unravels.
Last Things
One last thing: All I'm saying to those who've abandoned religion in general and Christianity in particular is that your disaffection may be coming from a position of unearned cynicism, and it could lead to merely chasing a Future Self chimera. That's a poor substitute for discovering a Savior God who desperately wants to make Himself known and who is inviting you into the Great Dance of a Trinitarian relationship. Don't forget also, the original Chimera was part snake.
One more last thing I say to insiders: Be careful what you tear down. Be careful too to mind the speed with which you deconstruct the things you don't currently like or appreciate. A guard dog with no teeth and a muffled bark will be unable to protect you or your family. The last thing you want in a religion is easy demands, no rigor, no teeth. When personal preferences and tastes - especially in my faith - become the loudest voices I hear, the bad guys will get in and take all my stuff.
Religion isn't dying. We will always be religious and always display allegiance to something or someone. Dylan was correct in saying we have to serve somebody. If the bright kids are right and current trends are away from Jesus, church, the text of Scripture and traditional approaches, any pale alternatives will be discovered to be tasteless and unworkable substitutes soon enough and by enough people.
Maybe there's a new Great Awakening around the corner.
