Christianity is declining at a rapid pace according to the latest Pew Research Center polling data. In the last seven years the percentage of adults defining themselves as Christian declined from 78.4 percent to 70.6 percent. Over the same period, those describing themselves as religiously unaffiliated rose from 16.1 percent to 22.8 percent.
Here in Seattle, this decline is approaching alarming levels. The buildings are old and crumbling, and the people who attend church are also oldand will soon no longer be with us. And yet, over and over, they cling to old rituals and patterns of behavior that open few doors to those outside of the tribe, so to speak.
But the aging of Christians is merely one explanation for its decline. There are many good reasons not to go to church, not to bother with its messaging and not to give it authority or influence in one’s life.
Some of these reasons are immediately knowable. Christianity has become incoherent. On the one hand there is the portrait of Jesus as kind, loving, welcoming of the least, friend of the poor, healer of all that hurts. But, on the other hand, there is the tribal Christ who justifies war, economic segregation, and the blessings of being filthy rich. It is, to say the least, very confusing for an outsider to figure out what the Church actually teaches.
And then, if you actually do go to church, you meet folks who appear to be friendly until you ask why the flag is on the altar, or do we really have to sit on those uncomfortable wood benches, or why are the rituals so lame, or how come we can’t move our bodies and actually act as a community rather than an audience?
My own biggest gripe is the shallowness. It’s like we are stuck in some bizarre world where the deep questions are a continuous repetition of therapeutic pablum. Far too many sermons deal with adapting oneself, instead of resisting and changing a culture of individualistic military-corporate capitalism.
I wish churches would deal with issues of greater importance. For example, how can we talk about God in an age that seeks its salvation (i.e. trusts its welfare and purpose) through the amazing technological apparatus that creates the miracles of medical technology, that connects us through the awesomeness of ever-escalating communication technologies, that ushers us into the micro-worlds of nanotechnology, the virtual worlds of artificial intelligence, and the emerging synthesis between biological and robotic life forms? What is the image of God in such a world? What are the ethical issues? Indeed, what is the future as our brain evolves beyond its need for the body? Is it still enough to say Jesus loves you and died for your sins?
What does that mean in a world such as this?
Perhaps it is a blessing for the Church to die. Maybe only through that trauma will new life emerge.