Three cheers for the demise of American Christianity!

‘The Decline and Fall of Christian America’ screamed a recent Newsweek cover story. With the headline positioned in the shape of the cross in blood-red font and released on Easter Week; the cover seemed poised to agitate rather than assuage.

The author, Newsweek Managing Editor Jon Meacham- is well versed in American Christianity. Meacham is the author of American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation, a first rate centrist tome which took to task both the irreligious Left –who want to banish all religious connections to the founding of America, and the revisionist Right -who want to view the founding of this country through modern day evangelical lenses.

Meacham’s thesis derives from various sources: the decline of the label ‘Christian’ in a recent Religious Identification Survey, Republican political loses in the 2008 Elections, and current Supreme Court rulings on Evolution and Gay Marriage.

I’m all for the demise of American Christianity and its four central beliefs.

-Radical individualism Alexis de Tocqueville’s 1835 book, Democracy in America, brought this specific character trait to light. Christianity in America is often seen as a Lone Ranger existence, ‘just me and Jesus,’ is a common refrain. If I only need Jesus and the Bible, then why should I connect with a local church?
-Lustful blending of power and religion
Jerry Falwell famously once said that the church has no business in politics. The advent of President Reagan along with the Moral Majority of the early 1980’s brought a radical shift to many in the Religious Right. For 20 years, the Religious Right identified its successes through the lens of political power: laws overturned, bans lifted, and politicians kowtowing to its demands.
-Manifest Destiny
This belief, which originated in the 19th century, continues to thrive as evidenced in the Presidential election of 2008. Adherents to Manifest Destiny see America as uniquely called and chosen by God to play a prophetic and biblical role in the world.
-Consumerist mentality
American Christianity has subscribed to the ‘bigger is better’ method of religion. Adapted from GM, Cosco, and a host of other acronymic companies, American Christianity feels that it needs to appeal to the wants of the masses in order to stay relevant, while offering services that are targeted to specific demographics. While some lament the increase in the, ‘church shopping’ mentality, American Christianity is to blame, for creating a culture of religious consumerism.

I think that we should cheer the demise of American Christianity because its four tenets corrupt the call to follow Christ. The entire bible speaks against the radical individualism that is a part of American cultural Christianity. From Genesis 12, where God calls Abram and his family to be His chosen people, to the ‘one another’s’ of the New Testament, everything that followers of Christ are to do and be, is to be done with God’s Community. Historically speaking, every time the political establishment opposed the Church, -the Church grew. And every time that the Church embraced the political establishment, the Church suffered. This fact is true, every time in every culture, in every historical setting. So why do American Christians feel that we are different? Woven into the fabric of our country is the view that America is God’s Light in the darkness. The Pilgrims quoted Matthew 5:14 as did Ronald Reagan. Yet to take words that Jesus spoke to his followers and apply them to the conquest of a new country is both exegetically and theologically disingenuous. At some point the American Church will realize that the way to grow is not to cater to specific demographics by providing services and customized learning experiences. Growth is an idol that demands to be fed. Truth is an avenue with Christ at its head.