Tuesday, June 03, 2008
A Falling Nation and a Rising Revival
I've spent enough time working in the newsroom of a local newspaper to know it isn't my cup of tea. Apparently, those are words journalists are never supposed to utter, but hey, I'm just being honest. It didn't take long to figure out what the newsroom environment does to most people. While searching under every rock for the truth, writers morph into cynics as the world and its harsh sadness eats away at every sense and sensibility. Whatever survives is calloused, be it relationships, dreams, perspectives, etc.
I'm hoping that's not the case for veteran journalist Christine Wicker, who recently released her latest book, The Fall of the Evangelical Nation: The Surprising Crisis Inside the Church. A title like that normally wouldn't catch my eye since we've been blitzed by so much evangelicalspeak in recent years. Do we really need another person's take on the rise or fall of evangelicalism, what it means or doesn't mean to this year's presidential election, whether there's a changing of the guard or not—yada yada yada?
Yet Wicker and her latest project piqued my interest mainly because a severely condensed version of her take on evangelicalism's decline showed up in the op-ed section of Sunday's Dallas Morning News. More precisely, she has me interested because of how much her words ruffled me. I'm not easily offended, yet almost every paragraph of her article sparked a response in me—from anger to agreement. Now that's good writing.
Some quotes from Wicker's piece:
Wicker comes from Southern Baptist roots, which I mention simply because it indicates to me that she knows exactly what she's doing. She's been immersed in the language and knows she's riling up a major segment of her readers. And yes, I believe her view is extremely skewed toward the Baptist world (again, she's smart enough to consider her Dallas-area audience). But through all her caustic language, I find it strange that her landing point is a question of revival.
We are in odd times, aren't we? And what I love is that God can speak through anyone, anytime, to remind us that He does not nor will not abandon His church. Thankfully, that church isn't the evangelical movement, nor is it the declining denominations. Talk about the declining church is cheap nowadays. According to every expert and analyst, we're becoming ineffective, powerless, scattered, divided, hypocritical and small.
Hogwash. The church is approaching what could be her finest hour. Whenever darkness grows thicker, light doesn't become irrelevant—it becomes brighter. A single pure flame lights up an entire room; think of what thousands or even millions can do. Even if there is only a remnant of "pure" lights left in this falling nation, that's still enough to rest on the assurance that God's people—His church—we are alive and well. Do we need revival? Of course. Does our nation need a radical spirit revolution that reforms our culture? You bet. Yet thankfully, every revival and reformation starts with a single spark. Call me an optimist, but I believe more than a single spark exists today. I believe we have more than just a hope; we have a future, just as God has said.
I'm hoping that's not the case for veteran journalist Christine Wicker, who recently released her latest book, The Fall of the Evangelical Nation: The Surprising Crisis Inside the Church. A title like that normally wouldn't catch my eye since we've been blitzed by so much evangelicalspeak in recent years. Do we really need another person's take on the rise or fall of evangelicalism, what it means or doesn't mean to this year's presidential election, whether there's a changing of the guard or not—yada yada yada?
Yet Wicker and her latest project piqued my interest mainly because a severely condensed version of her take on evangelicalism's decline showed up in the op-ed section of Sunday's Dallas Morning News. More precisely, she has me interested because of how much her words ruffled me. I'm not easily offended, yet almost every paragraph of her article sparked a response in me—from anger to agreement. Now that's good writing.
Some quotes from Wicker's piece:
The idea that only one little part of one kind of religion has the only way to God has begun to seem more and more unlikely. It has begun to seem rude. Un-Christian, even. And evangelicals, who don't like being boorish any more than anyone else, have become less and less willing to relegate their neighbors to hell. So we have a completely formless god of great power and instant accessibility romping around, rescuing millions whom everyone else had given up on. Then we have more Christians getting squeamish about proclaiming hegemony over heaven.
Evangelical leaders defend their stance by claiming that God doesn't change and that neither does sin. But sin does change. Slavery wasn't sin once. Now it is. Taking a wife and a concubine wasn't sin once. Now it is. And God—or our understanding of what God is, which is all we actually have—changes, too. When societies change, their interpretations of God change. Their readings of the Scripture shift. Human understandings are remolded so that faith can remain vital and effective during new times.
Whether evangelical intransigence is pleasing to God isn't anything that humans can ever be absolutely sure of. If it is pleasing to him, God may send a great revival that will sweep the country and restore them to their place of predominance. Such revivals have happened before. They could happen again.
Wicker comes from Southern Baptist roots, which I mention simply because it indicates to me that she knows exactly what she's doing. She's been immersed in the language and knows she's riling up a major segment of her readers. And yes, I believe her view is extremely skewed toward the Baptist world (again, she's smart enough to consider her Dallas-area audience). But through all her caustic language, I find it strange that her landing point is a question of revival.
We are in odd times, aren't we? And what I love is that God can speak through anyone, anytime, to remind us that He does not nor will not abandon His church. Thankfully, that church isn't the evangelical movement, nor is it the declining denominations. Talk about the declining church is cheap nowadays. According to every expert and analyst, we're becoming ineffective, powerless, scattered, divided, hypocritical and small.
Hogwash. The church is approaching what could be her finest hour. Whenever darkness grows thicker, light doesn't become irrelevant—it becomes brighter. A single pure flame lights up an entire room; think of what thousands or even millions can do. Even if there is only a remnant of "pure" lights left in this falling nation, that's still enough to rest on the assurance that God's people—His church—we are alive and well. Do we need revival? Of course. Does our nation need a radical spirit revolution that reforms our culture? You bet. Yet thankfully, every revival and reformation starts with a single spark. Call me an optimist, but I believe more than a single spark exists today. I believe we have more than just a hope; we have a future, just as God has said.
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I agree with you my brother. In Isaiah 6, while Isaiah sought the Lord in wake of the passing of the King, he heard the angels sing, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord, THE EARTH is full of His Glory." Some only emphasize that Isaiah's experience led him to repent. I agree. Nevertheless, I believe his experience also assured him of one very important thing, that God was not far off, but rather near. Elijah hide in a cave and cried out, "I'm the only one left, Lord." And, God rebuked him, saying that He had a remnant that had not bowed their knees to the idol. I believe that there are many flames burning across this nation.
# posted by 
: 7:04 AM
: 7:04 AM
Thank you for your quotes from my Dallas News article and your comments. The number of evangelicals who have written to me favorably about that article has been a huge surprise.
I love what you and the blogger above me had to say.
I, too, am optimistic about evangelical faith, which seems odd given that my book title is "The Fall of the Evangelical Nation" and that I haven't counted myself among evangelicals since I left college.
James Dunn, a legend within Baptist circles, got it right when he blurbed the book and focused on the word "nation." He said the idea of an evangelical nation, which the Religious Right has put forth, ought to fall. For the good of Christian faith.
The book is actually looking at the Religious Right. I used the word evangelical as it is used in popular parlance outside the evangelical community. To the press and to politicians evangelical has meant Religious Right for the last 20 years. (That's changed some since recently.)
The critical question for the country is whether one out of four Americans is a member of the Religious Right, which is what many have been led to believe.
The answer is no. I measured it with all sorts of measures - beliefs, behavior, church attendance, self identification, ability to even name the big Religious Right leaders - and the answer is no. You already know that perhaps. American at-large does not.
It's a critical question because
(1.) truth matters and (2.) because the church growth movement has centered about so-called Bible-based churches. They've claimed to be the big winners in American Christianity; if they're not we need to know it. Because all of America's "other" Christians, who outnumber evangelicals by 5 or 6 to 1, have a
a great inferiority complex over it. And because that image defines America to itself and to the outside world.
But am I cynical about fundamentalist/conservative evangelical faith? No. I wouldn't want it to die out. It has sustained members of my extended family for six generations now.
What I don't want is for it to be the only religious voice in the public square. And that is what it has been. For too long. I believe that hegemony has damaged Christianity in America.
It happened largely because I and my journalistic colleagues haven't done our jobs well. I deal with in that failing at length in the book.
The book has three parts: (1.) stories of great evangelical/fundamentalist faith and how positively it effects believers' lives (that's aimed at people who can't understand why anyone would be such an evangelical), (2.)statistics showing that Religious Right evangelicals aren't as numerous as they are supposed to be and aren't flourishing, and (3)the many serious attacks being waged on that kind of faith from inside and outside the church.
I don't know where you are coming from in your theology. We would probably disagree on many things. But not on everything.
Also, I love that Elijah story.
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I love what you and the blogger above me had to say.
I, too, am optimistic about evangelical faith, which seems odd given that my book title is "The Fall of the Evangelical Nation" and that I haven't counted myself among evangelicals since I left college.
James Dunn, a legend within Baptist circles, got it right when he blurbed the book and focused on the word "nation." He said the idea of an evangelical nation, which the Religious Right has put forth, ought to fall. For the good of Christian faith.
The book is actually looking at the Religious Right. I used the word evangelical as it is used in popular parlance outside the evangelical community. To the press and to politicians evangelical has meant Religious Right for the last 20 years. (That's changed some since recently.)
The critical question for the country is whether one out of four Americans is a member of the Religious Right, which is what many have been led to believe.
The answer is no. I measured it with all sorts of measures - beliefs, behavior, church attendance, self identification, ability to even name the big Religious Right leaders - and the answer is no. You already know that perhaps. American at-large does not.
It's a critical question because
(1.) truth matters and (2.) because the church growth movement has centered about so-called Bible-based churches. They've claimed to be the big winners in American Christianity; if they're not we need to know it. Because all of America's "other" Christians, who outnumber evangelicals by 5 or 6 to 1, have a
a great inferiority complex over it. And because that image defines America to itself and to the outside world.
But am I cynical about fundamentalist/conservative evangelical faith? No. I wouldn't want it to die out. It has sustained members of my extended family for six generations now.
What I don't want is for it to be the only religious voice in the public square. And that is what it has been. For too long. I believe that hegemony has damaged Christianity in America.
It happened largely because I and my journalistic colleagues haven't done our jobs well. I deal with in that failing at length in the book.
The book has three parts: (1.) stories of great evangelical/fundamentalist faith and how positively it effects believers' lives (that's aimed at people who can't understand why anyone would be such an evangelical), (2.)statistics showing that Religious Right evangelicals aren't as numerous as they are supposed to be and aren't flourishing, and (3)the many serious attacks being waged on that kind of faith from inside and outside the church.
I don't know where you are coming from in your theology. We would probably disagree on many things. But not on everything.
Also, I love that Elijah story.
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