Of course, this may just be a Chicken Little story, but still....
From www.csmonitor.com
The coming evangelical collapse
Oneida, Ky. - We are on the verge – within 10 years – of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This breakdown will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world and it will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural environment in the West.
1. Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and with political conservatism. This will prove to be a very costly mistake. Evangelicals will increasingly be seen as a threat to cultural progress. Public leaders will consider us bad for America, bad for education, bad for children, and bad for society.
The evangelical investment in moral, social, and political issues has depleted our resources and exposed our weaknesses. Being against gay marriage and being rhetorically pro-life will not make up for the fact that massive majorities of Evangelicals can't articulate the Gospel with any coherence. We fell for the trap of believing in a cause more than a faith.
The most telling line in the article is this one:
We fell for the trap of believing in a cause more than a faith.
Coming on the heels of the survey in the Christian Science Monitor which I wrote about yesterday, there seems to be a growing mood of depression among the various segments of the Christian community in America. The Catholic Church has experienced a steady decline in both attendance and men willing to enter the priesthood. Catholic parochial and high schools are either being shut down or merged. And the growing dominance of the so-called "cafeteria Catholics" (those who pick and choose what they want to believe and what they don't) has undermined the once rigid authority of bishops and priests. The Evangelicals and other Christian sects seem to be having their own problems too.
This malaise and depression that is occurring stems from the growing realization among Christian conservatives of any denomination that they have been had by the Republican party. Many actually believed it when the Republicans told them they could tear down the Constitutional barrier between Church and State and finally realize the dream of America the Christian nation. In reality the Republicans were just playing them for suckers in pursuit of their money, their organizational powers, and their votes. As long as the Republicans kept shouting "abortion" and "gay marriage" they were all theirs.
But as elections came and went and years passed, the Christian conservatives saw no advancement in overturning Roe v Wade or a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Oh, they were thrown the occasional bone just to keep them happy like the "Defense of Marriage Act" and were given some money to use for their schools and outreach programs. But by and large , they were afterthoughts to the Republican politicians until the next election cycle rolled around. This lack of progress only inspired them to become more pro-active in the pursuit of their cause and in so doing, as the author says, lost sight of their faith.
The upshot is that their failure to promote their faith in their pursuit of their political goals has cost them any credibility among those whom they sought to convert to their cause. The political fire power that they once held has all but disappeared. The culture war of the past three decades has been overshadowed by the economic war Americans now face.
The irony is that it is precisely at this moment of crisis that the message of faith, which should be the raison d'etre of these Christian sects, would resonate in the hearts and minds of many people. But it can't be heard above the din of their endless preaching about the evils of our society.
Too bad. Hope seems to be a big winner these days.