The coming evangelical collapse

[rhino47]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20090310/cm_csm/yspencer;_ylt=Ak5tQzpF47ObxTRoBE3Xqvz9wxIF



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.

<snip>
Why is this going to happen?
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.

[WCGreen]

1. They are heavily into hypocracy....

[rhino47]

2. Thats a rash understatement.

I guess things go in cycles.People eventually get fed up with hatemongers.

[Solomon]

3. Oh, it's definitely going to happen. Christianity has had it's run.

There will be a new shift in consciousness.

[rox63]

9. I don't think Christianity is on it's way out

But the evangelicals definitely need to pay more attention to what their savior actually taught. I don't recall Jesus saying a darn thing about gays or abortion. In fact, he was much more likely to hang out with people that mainstream society had cast out.

[rhino47]

11. It isnt saying Christianity is on its way out.

Just the fundamental evangelical version of it is.

[get the red out]

4. Hate

It turns out to be a worse investment than the stock market.

[Kokonoe]

5. The evangelicals may have a financial collapse.

Its not the end of the world.

:shrug: Maybe they should believe in Jesus.

[KG]

6. one can only hope so. but the collapse of evangelism is farther off than 10 years.

until the collective world mind evolves past myth making, the purveyors of fear will be doing good business.

[elocs]

7. To believe that there will be an evangelical collapse is just plain silly.

All religions and sects of religions have ebbs and flows and Evangelical Christianity is no different. If anyone is pinning their hopes on its collapse, prepare to be disappointed because if it ever happens it will not be remotely in the lifetimes of anyone living now. At its heart, for better or worse, religion is about faith and that does not casually or simply disappear and there are millions of Evangelicals alive now who will hold fast to their faith and that has absolutely nothing to do with being able to articulate the gospel.

[Fleshdancer]

8. I'm sick and tired of the evangelical persecution complex

Evangelical Christianity isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Articles like this are designed to feed the persecution fire that the born-again's thrive on. I have a family member who honestly believes Christians are being arrested in Canada for speaking out against homosexuality and this person is convinced that Christians will be arrested in the US for speaking about their beliefs now that Obama is POTUS. She didn't come to this conclusion on her own. This is what she's told on a regular basis.

Messages contained in just two paragraphs of this article:

"seen as a threat"
"Public leaders will consider us bad for America"
"Intolerance of Christianity will rise"
"Thousands of ministries will end"
"Christian media will be reduced"



It's ALWAYS something like this...it's a morbid fetish for being persecuted. Why? I think it makes them feel better for discriminating against others if they truly believe those whom they discriminate against are out to get them.

[rhino47]

10. I agree with persecution aspect.

They justify their victimhood by the "evilness" of others that disagree with them.
They have a tribal mentality that declares them pure everyone else including fellow
christians as tainted and out to get them.The us or them tribal thinking destroys
everyone that buys into it.

[BurtWorm]

12. It's definitely true that the cause of right-wing politics overshadowed the ideal of faith.

They definitely increased the numbers of people identifying themselves as Christian, and they turned up those people's political temperature, getting them to vote for supposed "Christian" candidates and spend money on so-called Christian enterprises, watching Christian TV and listening to Christian radio. Perhaps this guy is right that those numbers don't translate into stronger churches and Christian communities and will ultimately spell the end of evangelism as we know it. That would be good news.


But what's going to happen to these angry, ignorant zealots on the right? They may not be in churches or communities, but their anti-social energies aren't going to just disappear, I don't think. They'll be around to harrass Democrats, liberals and progressives for a long time. I'd rather see them become insignificant, but I don't think they will.

PS: AND they'll still be calling themselves Christians, most likely. Which in my book means they are Christians.