Roadmap for Secular Liberals to connect with Evangelicals

On Sunday May 6th, the New York Times, published an Op-Ed piece on the 2012 elections. T.M. Luhrmann, professor of anthropology at Stanford, delivers a written roadmap for Democrats and Secular Liberals to reach out and connect with Evangelicals, especially in light of the upcoming 2012 US presidential election.

Luhrmann makes many cogent arguments: Evangelicals are varied and more informed than usually portrayed. Evangelicals hold a wide range of divergent political opinions. Evangelicals care about the environment and are often the first to assist in times of natural disasters.

This article left me with many more questions than answers. Do Evangelicals want to be courted, by either the political left or the political right? What do Evangelicals give up by aligning to a particular political agenda? Do Evangelicals portray themselves as willing participants of the political process?

Read the article here and send in your comments...!

Poets, Prophets and Preachers Conference -Day 2

Overseen at the Poets, Prophets and Preachers Conference, a T-shirt that read on the front: 'Calvinism: This T-shirt chose me.' On the Back 'Arminianism: I chose this T-shirt.'

Poets, Prophets and Preachers Conference -Day 1

In Grand Rapids for a few days with my friend Sean, for a Preaching Conference organized by the much celebrated Rob Bell. A few initial thoughts: Clearly there is a hip dress code, and evidently someone hasn’t filled me in. Many tats and piercings, vintage T’s, faux-hawks, man-bags, and everyone wearing sandals.

You know you are not at your father’s Pastor’s Conference when the Official Preaching Conference Map of Grand Rapids lists the favorite local pubs. When Sean and I were getting our stuff out of the car, a group of fellow conference attendees walked past, with one guy carrying the group humidor! During the first session a guy yells out, in response to something Bell said, ‘Hell Yeah!’ We are not in Kansas anymore! Sadly these comments reveal more about me, then they do the group that I was a part of...

I had thought that this would be a smaller group, with more of a regional attendance, and yet people came as far away as Australia and Sweden as well as both coasts for this conference… testament to probably both the drawing power of Rob Bell and the sincere desire for people to step up their preaching skills.

Rob Bell spoke for the opening session, told the story of his first ever preaching experience and reviewed the various ways that people respond to our sermons. He challenged us to see Preaching in a new light, to realize that even Jesus’ first sermon in his hometown brought the people out to kill him, and that at many times, we may be faced with less-then-positive reactions to what we have to say. The main challenge was to never present the Word w/o proper preparation and a proper fire in the belly…

New York's Archbishop Dolan praises Evangelical Churches?

On Wednesday April 15th 2009, Archbishop Dolan gave his first press conference to the New York media. He was asked to defend the Catholic Tradition over other interpretations of Christianity. The New York Times printed his response...

‘What we’re doing is choosing what we’ve gratefully inherited from a supernatural point of view, in the same way we embrace and claim our families. … Just as sometimes a child when he or she grows up in the teenage years might grow rebellious, lose their moorings with their family, and then come back to it … I’m thinking, I’m hoping, that’s the way it is with a lot of our people who have decided to depart from the church. It’s very interested what you raised, in that what we see in the sociology of people that leave the church, many of them, most of them, … go to the evangelical mega-churches, where they find the preaching of the Bible, the Gospel, the teachings of Jesus, preached with particular vigor and clarity. I wonder if we have to examine our conscience as a church to say have we done that… or have we gotten a little too subjective… diluting, watering down the essentials of the faith.’

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.

What Evangelicalism Does Right

Professor Scot McKnight released this post today detailing the strengths of Evangelicalism. While there are many calling for the demise of Evangelicalism, McKnight displays the strengths of this American religious movement, while still leaving room for future correction and growth. What do you think?