Is Evangelicalism Collapsing?

Submitted by Healingtree on May 23, 2009 - 11:14am.

Evangelism is far from dying an is in fact growing. In Asia and Africa christianity is growing in tremendous numbers..even in parts of the middle east. In Europe Evangelism is very small to the point of almost non existence. Due to depression and self harm problems young people are actually finding the spirituality of Christianity as opposed to a right wing agenda. Jesus taught as a socialist. His doctrine was inline with socialism more than conservatism. Where in the world that turned into a republican agenda is one of the biggest highjacks in history. Meanwhile teen depression and self harm cutting is at record highs http://spirithappy.wordpress.com and it happened on the Republicans watch.
Evangelism will always spread, Jesus said his word would never pass away and it has proven true

Short answer "yes" with an "and,"

Submitted by Emiller on March 25, 2009 - 11:32am.

long answer "no" with a "but." Evangelicalism can and will change, but the "collapse" talk is overstated. Evangelicalism is a worldview, an identity, and a lifestyle, after all, and those aren't things one lets go of. Maybe getting disconnected from Republican politics will allow Evangelicals to do some reflecting, maybe even move the center a bit to the left. Or, as in the case of early 20th century Evangelicals, maybe they will fight back against pluralism and progressivism to reassert "the fundamentals" of the faith. In either case, this is an interesting moment.

Here are some thoughts from people who are invested:

http://www.getreligion.org/?p=8858

a dime's worth of difference?

Submitted by Jim Aune on March 25, 2009 - 12:10pm.

I have lived in two extremely religious (in the outward, Barthian sense of "religion" as a culture) for most of my life: the Lutheran/Catholic upper midwest, and the Bible Belt. And I confess I still do not really know what Evangelicalism is, other than as perhaps a lifestyle. If there is a core, it seems to be 1) an unreflective commitment to "inerrancy," a concept that is itself a reaction and adaptation to secular modernism (and lacks awareness of the Reformation principle of the distinction between Law and Gospel, leading to an often hypocritical legalism in everyday life), 2) an Arminian (and unscriptural) view of salvation as making one's choice for Jesus, 3) a rejection of the worship practices of the Church from the earliest times, specifically the Eucharist as center of Christian worship, and 4) a simultaneous rejection of modern democratic political culture while aping the least attractive elements of that culture's media industry (Contemporary Christian Music is but one expression). It is no wonder that the more thoughtful evangelicals find themselves yearning for Rome or Constantinople (or Geneva). American evangelicalism is but Americanism writ large: the ignorance of history, the assumption that the experience of white small-town, now suburban, America is universal human experience, and a rock-ribbed anti-intellectualism. Add in an unwholesome fixation on sex (evangelical teens have a lot more sex than Catholics, mainline Protestants, or Jews, and the Bible Belt is also the Divorce Belt), and a smoldering anti-semitism under the surface of the Culture War, and you get something like the mess I see every day. The possibility that it all would devolve into Christo-Fascism has declined, but it's still a toxic brew.

on the lighter side

Submitted by Jim Aune on March 26, 2009 - 3:56pm.

A Brown University student's new book about spending a semester at Liberty University discusses the student support group "Every Man's Burden," designed to help chronic masturbators (otherwise known as an evangelical circle jerk). . . .Why *are* they so sexually obsessed?

why indeed!

Submitted by Michael Faris on March 30, 2009 - 8:24am.

I know of no other group that talks about sex this much!

There was an interesting Harper's article a few years ago that discussed modern American Christianity as pretty much being Americanism. I can't recall who wrote it, but I think he took a route of comparing modern American Christian dogma (an uncomfortable collapse of various perspectives, perhaps) to the teachings of Jesus in one of the gospels that got kicked out of the Bible.

thank you

Submitted by rhosa (not verified) on March 22, 2009 - 7:53pm.

for reminding me to answer christian's email!!

in other news, there seems to be (not a sentence i'd want in any "final" draft) a great deal of topographic turf between these (bi)naries:

Democrat/Republican
secularism/evangelicalism

if we let go of these, even for a few immaterial instances, who else could see and be seen?

(and, yes, "naries" might be a topos in training: gentler cousin to stases.)

Some Data Would Be Nice

Submitted by Jim Aune on March 23, 2009 - 10:47am.

It's an odd article; thanks for posting it, Michael. I see a similar line of argument among my more thoughtful evangelical students--especially the emphasis on a return to the Reformers (usually Calvin--and someone really needs to do a rhetorical study of the resurgence of Calvinism in the US). Here's a book chapter by Inglehardt and Norris that I find persuasive: religiosity is inextricably linked with economic inequality, leading to uneven patterns of religiosity in the US, yet with an overall trend towards secularization. (I also read something the other day that suburban mega-churches may be in trouble because of the real estate and banking collapse--they overbuilt during the "boom.")