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How Christian Are Christians?
Last Wednesday, I caught a bit of Glenn Beck’s show while driving across town. The subject kept me from turning the dial, even though I don’t usually listen to him. The subject? How Christianity is losing the culture.
In an interview with Jonathan Bock, they went over some Pew Research and Gallup poll numbers that show alarming statistics for church attendance, Bible reading habits, and tithing.
Just know as I go on that I am quite bad at all three. We do not tithe 10 percent, though I do try to give what I promise. We have been irregular attendees and my Bible reading is sporadic (though improving). Basically, I’m the 70-80 percent of Christians who don’t go to church.
In my attempt last year to attend more regularly, we found a new church. It leaves much to be desired, but I am getting over those details just to be in community with other Christians.
The last four weeks have reminded me why I have a difficult time going to church. And it does not appear Bock tackled those issues. There is an assumption in Bock’s analysis that the Word of God is what is being preached from the Sunday pulpit. Three out of four of the last sermons (every sermon given by one priest) had allusions to the “right” response to the Broward County shooting. Hint: it isn’t more security or increasing the age from 18 to 21. “Guns are the problem!”
Ahem.
Policy and politics should not be preached from the pulpit unless there is a theologically sound reason to side on one side over the other. There is no such case for guns unless your theology is pacifism, but even many pacifists (for theological reasons) don’t view pacifism as something to force on others.
But to preach politics puts those who disagree with your politics outside the church. Why would you do that but not teach about sexual morality?
Bock never goes into one of the possibilities for lower attendance: the proliferation of politics in the church. Instead, he notes that out of those who remain, their tithing and Bible reading are abysmal.
But he never offers up numbers on Bible reading and prayer among those who no longer attend.
It may be that a good many devout Christians have abandoned a church that doesn’t teach the word of God, but instead preaches the words of politicians and activists.
I will still attend, but I don’t know how much longer I can stomach the politics.
Published in Politics, Religion & Philosophy
I’d like to ask a couple of questions. I apologize if these come across as snarky, they’re not intended to be so, and they are questions I’ve had to ask myself over the last year. Over the summer last year, my wife asked me “do you even want to go to church at all?” It was obvious to her at the time that I was unenthused, and that when I did go I was leaving angry. The pastor was always careful to not so much avoid politics per se, but to avoid taking sides in politics, so my problems with the church didn’t stem from that at least. Rather the issues came out rather differently, and may be useful somewhat both for you personally, in terms of answering why you are yourself an irregular attender, and in general why churches may be struggling.
So, here goes. I’m not looking for you to answer these to me, or for me, just putting these out there as questions I had to answer for myself. And the “you” in the questions is a communal “you”, meaning anyone and everyone (including me).
I’m going to hold off on some of my own answers here, save to say this:
When I answered these questions, I had to conclude that my over 20 years of struggling to attend church were because church, as I had lived and experienced it, had been incomplete and deeply lacking. I needed a lot more. When I found it, I found I was hungry. I’m not struggling to attend now, which annoys the kids because I’m the one getting them out of bed and out the door on Sundays, instead of the other way around.
The final paragraphs of your essay resonated with me. I pulled away from the Catholic Church way back in the late 1960’s, as our parish had a congregation where the young men were cannon fodder for the war in Vietnam. Priests seemed oblivious to the fact that the war was on going. My work as a file clerk at First National Bank of Chicago showed me that Raytheon, Honeywell and other war contractors were getting huge contracts lasting years, so it seemed like the war would proceed. (Even though the 1968 version of Richard Nixon was saying that he had “secret plan” to end this war.) Additionally, it was hard to overlook how our local pastor was a pedophile.
So decades later I am attending a “Unity church.” They were upset with me four years ago for trying to find a way to have the congregation help fund a family who due to cancer and its associated costs, were living in a service van. (Two adults and 4 kids.) “Helping people is not our mission.” Now that same church is preaching that helping out the population of impoverished illegal immigrants must be the focus of all members, otherwise you should realize you are a racist.
I plan on going to a local Lutheran Church for Easter. I know several congregants, and I guess I will tune out if they go political on me.
Tell us what you found.
Good questions, Skip. I don’t mind answering. I know you said private :) First, from about age 11 to High School, I had no problems attending church. I would frequently attend 2 services on Sunday and be at church for a variety of reasons through the week. Church attendance generally hasn’t been an issue except in upheaval when my life went through significant changes.
I, personally, go for music, liturgy, communion, and fellowship. I want a church family. This may be an echo from my childhood, where my parents have lifelong friends from church that feel like extended family.
I believe it’s important to go to church for fellowship and, to some degree, faith formation with people who know greek, Hebrew, and the teachings of the church fathers. My father was huge on communion as the most important part of a church service. That is so ingrained in me that to go anywhere that doesn’t have weekly communion leaves me feeling somewhat bereft.
All the above… But also an avenue into the community. Regardless of rightness or wrongness, organizations of people can much more easily plug into community needs and care than one lone person. It’s an aspect of the Body of Christ – that we all have our gifts and when we work together in community, we can do much more than the sum of the individual effort.
I think working together to meet community needs is a great thing. My diocese, when I was a kid, did a lot of inter-church events especially for kids and teens. I am still a member of the same diocese, though in a completely different city. It is amazing to me that my deacon and I led worship together at a youth retreat 20 years ago!
But not just this, but combining churches for large projects accomplishes so much more!
Not necessary to salvation, but I do believe a healthy congregation provides an avenue to the charitable works that are important for evangelism and the simple working of our faith – to provide a safety net for members of the church, teach those who don’t know, provide resources for faith development.
Faith and salvation are personal in that I’m responsible for my relationship with Christ. I should feed that in private prayer and bible study.
Looks like a good question to start with. CS Lewis answered it this way: “…the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs.” (Mere Christianity)
Every one of those options you mentioned fits within this statement.
If you would like to read a book championing a very serious approach to religious belief, I recommend Rod Dreher’s The Benedict Option. It gave me a lot of food for thought in my own worship life.
I don’t want to risk proselytizing, which I think it would sound like. And it would be hijacking this post because it might sound too much like I’m picking a denominational fight. I’ll just say that I am on the path to Orthodoxy (hence the change in my avatar here).
I’ve had many years to ponder that statement, and I think Lewis’s answer falls a bit short. It’s not a wrong statement, just, I think, an inadequate one.
I’ve been thinking a lot about that, too. Don’t tell Cornelius.
I did though! He’s actually cheering me on in that, and, given his current irritation with Francis, may yet follow (I think he’s mostly joking though). He told me he looked hard at Orthodoxy years ago, when he was himself leaving Protestantism, but was ultimately convinced that Rome’s claim to supremacy was the better one.
I’ve been toying with it, but as my first answer to your question suggests, I may have a difficult time with a full transition… I think Midge mentioned once that a transition from West to East would involve forsaking a huge wealth of music tradition that may be too much…
I have been looking into more personal aspects of orthodoxy. We will be attempting orthodox fasting throughout the year, for instance. I’m considering picking up some books on personal devotion from the orthodox perspective.
I don’t know if I would ever get all the way there.
Yes and no, kinda depends on where you live. There are what are called Latin Rite Orthodox churches (just as there are Byzantine-rite Catholic churches). And there has been a slow movement (everything in Orthodoxy is slow) to introduce more modern and multipart harmonies in music. See here for a list of Latin-rite churches, plus a bit of history.
http://www.westernorthodox.com
For myself, the music in the churches I did attend was never a draw (and frequently a source of contention). That made the change easier for me.
There is Western-Rite Orthodoxy which may use a liturgy adapted from the Book of Common Prayer (among other things). I am not sure how music plays into that adaptation, though, since there are no Western-Rite churches in my area.
Some Orthodox churches stick to their eastern rites, but include Western music occasionally as a social activity before or after the liturgy proper. It is possible for traditional Orthodox music to be quite beautiful in its own manner. Divna Ljubojević and her Melodi ensemble are worth listening to, to get an idea. Rachmaninoff, Chesnokoff (spelling?), etc, wrote some show-stopping settings for the Russian Orthodox Church, but I’m not aware of them being in common liturgical use in America – we’re more likely to hear them in concert than in their context as liturgy. Some Georgian liturgical music is quite striking, but again, it may be used outside of Georgia mostly in concert.
@jamesofengland may know more about what Western-Rite Orthodox music consists of, though one of the attractions of Orthodoxy for him was getting away from fancy Western church music :-)
I don’t know much about St Kassiani, but I do know hers is some of the earliest extant written music. Jessica Suchy-Pilalis is an ordained musician of the Orthodox Church, as well as being a Western academic musician. So, while I couldn’t tell you whether Western polyphony or harmony fits into (potential or actual) Orthodox liturgy, it certainly seems the case that musical leadership within the Orthodox Church is quite open to women!
Lewis never thought of himself a theologian; rather, he was a popularizer of Christian thought, sharing his own perspective. He does allude to the notion of the Christian as alter Christus – other Christs.
To worship God. I certainly prefer a sound orthodox celebration of mass with Latin and Gregorian chant, but ultimately it’s not what I get out of mass but what I give to God.
To worship God.
To give glory and right worship to God and to save souls.
As a Catholic I believe the Catholic Church is the one true Church and I believe in extra ecclesiam nulla salus. We should strive for the unity of the faith and the spread of the Gospel to all nations.
We are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The holy sacrifice of the mass and participation in the Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith and the perfect place to show our love to the Lord. It is of the utmost importance. This is why it is a mortal sin for a Catholic to deliberately miss mass. Save the liturgy, save the world.
We need baptism to be saved and we must continue to work out our salvation in fear and trembling through the grace of God. Frequent access to the sacraments of Reconciliation and Holy Communion will help to keep us on the right path. If I am to be saved, it is through Christ and His Church.
Well they sure think theirs are greater than conservatives. I grasp that western liberals leap for the introduction of secular government to address the social justice issues they are impatient to see improve. They may or may not also work for solutions within a local church or a secular non-government charity organization. But they are defined by their reach for, tolerance of, and faith in a more intrusive and costly government. My problem with that beyond the enactment by force, is that it isn’t anchored clearly in Christian teaching.
On the one hand, naturally we have plenty of complicated developments since pre-Roman and Roman times. How to distribute MRI scans or whether “basic” care is enough for low-income people, etc. So maybe the arrival of democratic government places a different ethical burden on voters than on surfs with no say in anything and no votes to evaluate. But there is no Biblical directives I know of to impel churches to induce guilt about how you vote, and that’s not just a “convenient excuse” as I have heard liberals accuse conservatives. What is their excuse when their programs become inefficient, entrenched, and corrupt? In the good Samaritan story, the man took the injured stranger to a place for help, paid for some rest, and left him. He didn’t set up a never-ending trust with the innkeeper.
I know, dumb example. But still, why in all the literature didn’t Paul and others outline trying to change the government and then employ it to change the world? Was that just supposed to occur to us as we further “evolved,” or was it never foreseen?
Well, it can certainly be expanded: There are books on the subject. But it suffices for my response to your first and second questions:
I go to church because I believe the Lord commanded it (Heb. 10:25). I go to church to “stir up one another to love and good works” – and to be stirred by others. I go to church because in the assembly of the saints something special happens (Matt. 18:20) whether I feel it or not. I go to church because I delight to worship the Lord through corporate prayer, the preaching of the word, and singing unto the Lord. I go to church that I might be built up (1 Cor. 14:25) in the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3). I go to church because only through the church are certain means of grace available (communion, for example). I go to church because I know that my presence encourages others to be there. And, by the way, when I recognize some that are not there who should be, it discourages me. Why should I go to church? Those same things. I also go to church because, frankly, I love those people: And that is as it should be (1 Pe 1:22/1 Jn 4:12).
I’m currently engaged in a “retreat” with my weekly Bible study community called Consoling the Heart of Jesus. It has helped me reconsider and clarify so much about the “why’s” of the faith (RC). I have long understood that when we celebrate the holy sacrifice of the Mass, we are participating in the heavenly Wedding Supper of the Lamb. This helps explain the obligation aspect of attending church (you’ve been invited, by God, to the feast — it behooves you to attend. Ahem. That’s what we call ‘understatement.’).
What I’ve learned in addition, though, is that Jesus is pleased to fulfill his role as our Savior. It is his consolation when we contemplate his Passion and participate in the Eucharistic feast. This makes it clear that my attendance isn’t optional if I love the Lord and wish to please him.
The Church is a Great Gift — the vehicle through which God offers grace and salvation. It’s our decision (our freedom) to accept it and participate — or not.
Oh, I’m not denying anyone’s Christianity. I agree everyone is in a different place on the journey. But, their political positions are indefensible from a Christian viewpoint, imo. I feel obligated to point that out.
As Ben Shapiro says, socialism is immoral. Empowering fallen men to the extent our government is empowered to interfere in our lives (our families, our kids’
educationindoctrination, our purchasing choices (Obamacare), unequal application of the law based on people’s victim status…) is foolish (fear of God being the beginning of wisdom) at the least, and unjust at worst.I can suggest a couple by Frederica Matthews-Greene:
The Open Door
Facing East
She has others, but these 2 are good personal introductions to Orthodox daily living, the liturgical year, and the life of the church. They take you through what it means to live as a family and as living church.
Fr. Michael Gaitley, MIC…Enjoy the learning/holy reminders!
Easy question; easy answer.
A: No!