Not a 'Christian nation:' A 'mission field'

The U.S. is not a Christian nation agrees the leadership of National Association of Evangelicals

President Obama has taken plenty of heat in conservative Christian circles for a remark he made in 2006 in which he said that that United States was no longer “just” a Christian nation, but was religiously diverse. Now, it turns out, he has allies for that view: evangelical Christian leaders.

In a statement issued Tuesday, the National Assn. of Evangelicals said that when it surveyed selected evangelical leaders about whether the United States was a Christian nation, 68% said no.

"Christian nation" may not be a Biblically appropriate reference, the association suggested:

"Much of the world refers to America as a Christian nation, but most of our Christian leaders don't think so," said Leith Anderson, NAE President. "The Bible only uses the word 'Christian' to describe people and not countries. Even those who say America is a Christian nation admit that there are lots of non-Christians and even anti-Christian beliefs and behaviors."

America is, however, a mission field:

Evangelical leaders said that regardless of whether they would call the United States a Christian nation or not, America is fertile ground for evangelization. "America is one of the world's great mission fields that the Church has been called to reach in this generation," said George Wood, General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God denomination.

Evangelicalism's: 'Collapse' or long, rusting decline?

The Four Evangelists by Jakob Jordaens

Because evangelical Christianity is visibly breaking down, Internet Monk's widely discussed prediction of the movement's "collapse" a decade hence, resonates in the minds of all who are concerned.

The animating core of his prediction -- that identification of evangelicals with the culture wars and political conservatism at the expense of faith was a historic mistake -- is a long-simmering cause of general unhappiness (the New York Times wrote about it well last June.).

The political sellout by the Religious Right is especially important among evangelicals under 40, a Barna survey found, while other research says some "don't even want the label any more."

More broadly, in August 2008 a Pew Forum survey found that 52 percent of Americans agreed that houses of worship should keep out of politics.

Or when he predicts the money will dry up, whether you're a religious broadcaster or pastor of an average Southern Baptist Church, you're having that experience or probably fear it. Although catastrophic collapse of a going evangelical enterprise, is rare.

Each element he cites has some gut-level or analytical validity for those who are involved in or close to the movement.

Collapse is a powerful word. The concept of collapse may also sell well among people whose faith speaks of "the end times." Although we agree with, Tony Cartledge, associate professor of Old Testament at Campbell University Divinity School and contributing editor to Baptists Today, who isn't buying:

Spencer has clearly seen the spiritual hollowness that pervades much of evangelicalism, and I believe he is correct that elements of the movement will fade in influence as years go by. The idea that evangelicalism will collapse within ten years, however, appears clearly overstated. Methinks the monk has underestimated the power of inertia.

Like newspapers which are printed on paper, evangelicalism will persist and appear to be wonderfully influential during a long decline, while its eminent death is persistently forecast. And while saving reforms are persistently resisted.

Martin E. Marty on 'Creation Care'

American Lutheran religious scholar Martin E. Marty writes about Evangelicals and the Environment:

This week I stumbled upon a little book which prompts a Sighting of one way some evangelicals are dealing with the environmental crisis and the future. It's Lindy Scott, ed., Christians, the Care of Creation, and Global Climate Change (Pickwick), based on a conference at Illinois' Wheaton College, often called the flagship evangelical liberal arts college-one of several flagships. The only "known" contributors are Wheaton President A. Duane Litfin and super-scientist and up-front evangelical, ex-Oxonian Sir John Houghton, who spoke and wrote on "Big Science, Big God." The rest of the essays, reports, and proposals are from students and graduates of Wheaton and its kin and kind.

One of the essayists therein is student Ben Lowe, who copes with the issue of evangelicals shying away from environmental concerns. Marty relates some evangelical environmental hangups and hints at the answers:

1. The environment isn't really in crisis." Lowe lists seven patent "degradations" of the climate, and agrees with Calvin De Witt that "the common agent...is human action."
2. "Everything's going to burn up anyway." This is the word of the "Eschatology determines ethics" apocalypticists, whom he counters effectively.
3. "Fear of paganism, nature worship and panentheism." This case is a bit blurry, and demands more careful examination than he gives it, but his report is accurate.
4. "Higher priorities: save souls, not whales." This is the oldest standard evangelical put-down; Lowe and others in the book really take that one on, and down.

Creation Care has a growing following amone Southern Baptists too.

Why does the Religious Right run from its own name?

The Revealer gets right to the moral core of the Religious Right's long-faced bid to rename itself:

The more important fault line that's cracking the credibility of such complaints is historical. In 1942, a group of fundamentalist and Pentecostal Christians, concerned that that label was restricting their political influence by associating them with uncouth militants, organized as the National Association of Evangelicals. "Evangelical" was to be the new catch-all for theologically and politically conservative Christians. Of course, it's come to mean more than that, but the principle -- when ashamed, re-frame -- remains the same.

Read it all here.

'Oogedy-boogedy' is killing the GOP

Giving up on God is required to resurrect the Republican Party, argues columnist Kathleen Parker in the Washington Post. She says:

To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn't soon cometh.

Absent such reform, she says, "the nation may need a new party."

Read it here.