The future of Christianity in the United States

In its recent cover story, “The Decline and Fall of Christian America,” Newsweek magazine presented a series of recent poll numbers suggesting that the number of Americans identifying as Christian has diminished. The evidence would seem to suggest that the Christian faith is in crisis, and I would agree. However, we must be clear about the nature of this crisis: Declining church attendance is the symptom more than the problem.

It is the churchgoers themselves who have failed to make Christ’s message seem relevant in today’s society. This disconnect has occurred, in part, due to the rise of the Christian Right, which is becoming increasingly out of touch with the spiritual interests of the nation.

Modern Christian fundamentalism began in the early 20th century, partially as a reaction to the academic study of scripture, which some believers saw as a threat to Biblical legitimacy. Since the 1970s, fundamentalism and other types of conservative Christianity has been on the rise, and this has changed the faith landscape in this country. The leaders of this movement have intentionally radicalized the religion, and the moderates are often left with nowhere to turn. People are steadily leaving Christian churches, and who can blame them?

Jesus’s teachings addressed a wide variety of topics, many of them relating very directly to progressivism and social justice. Over the past few decades, however, the faith has shifted its emphasis from a more balanced vision of the Christian message to a narrow agenda made up of “hotbutton” issues, such as abortion.

While I decline to offer an opinion on the issue of abortion, I would say that Christians can stay true to their convictions while still acknowledging that a person can be a good Christian and either pro-life or pro-choice.

Furthermore, if Christianity is to have any future, it must abandon the out-of-date patriarchal system that has prevailed for too long. It is essential that there be full acceptance of gays and lesbians and a renewed focus on social justice issues, including poverty, equality, environmentalism and the local community. We cannot have a faith that cares only about personal salvation and not the social gospel.

One can define a Christian as any person who has interest in the teachings of Jesus, and there should be no other qualifications. There are indeed some Christians who do not believe in the virgin birth or the idea of a literal resurrection, and this is all right.
Churches do their members a great disservice when they try to enforce a uniformity of belief. Religious ceremonies and celebrations can only maintain their relevance if people are permitted to find their own meanings in them.

Even people who clearly identify as part of a particular religion should be encouraged to believe or disbelieve whatever their minds lead them to. The faith experience is rewarded by doubt and questioning just as much as it is by certainty. What many conservative Christians fail to consider is that the critical academic study of religion is a tool that strengthens one’s faith more often than it diminishes it. Clinging to a literal interpretation of the Bible cheapens the true message.

When Christians go around trying to find new fossils to convince themselves that evolution didn’t actually happen, they take what should be a well-meaning, serious faith and turn it into a joke. It is certainly true that some of the more extreme varieties of Christianity have done a great deal to address worthy causes such as global poverty.

But more often than not the faces of Christianity have become the televangelists who preach intolerance, and this is something that is bad for everyone. Christians need to respect and learn from all other faiths, especially the nonreligious. Seeing non-Christians as nothing more than sheep to be converted is insulting and contrary to Jesus’s message of love, as is the misguided and erroneous notion that America was formed as a “Christian nation.”

While I certainly do not suggest returning to a time when “everyone went to church because it was the thing to do,” I would go as far as to say this: Consider Christianity if you like, but please, don’t leave your rational mind at the door.

Spink is a member of
the class of 2010.