Should Christians Fear “America’s Changing Religious Landscape”? It All Depends on How We Interpret and Respond to the Data.

Last updated on: May 16, 2015 at 2:23 pm by Paul Louis Metzger

Should Christians Fear “America’s Changing Religious Landscape”? It All Depends on How We Interpret and Respond to the Data. 2015-05-16T14:23:03-07:00 Paul Louis Metzger

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

©iStockphoto

The Pew Research Center recently released “America’s Changing Religious Landscape: Christians Decline Sharply as Share of Population; Unaffiliated and Other Faiths Continue to Grow.” I have witnessed various responses and reactions to it. A few of the responses I have appreciated are “’Cause We Are Living in a Pluralist World…” and “What Are We Talking About When We Talk About Christian Decline In America: A Brief Reflection on the Pew Report.”

Should Christians fear America’s changing religious landscape? Should we give in to a spirit of pessimism and despair? It all depends on how we interpret and respond to the data. If we believe America must remain culturally Christian for the gospel to flourish, or if we covet the cultural and political perks that come with being identified as a Christian in America, then we have every reason to fear. However, such a response does not resonate with the gospel.

Here I call to mind 1 Peter’s exhortation to believers in the face of persecution. Christians are to pursue peace (1 Peter 3:11); be persecuted for righteousness—not punished for unrighteousness (1 Peter 3:13-14); trust in God’s providential care (1 Peter 3:14-15); always be prepared to share the good news in word and deed (1 Peter 3:15); and point to Jesus—our uncommon God (1 Peter 3:18-22).

The allusion to 1 Peter is not intended to connote that Christians in America are being persecuted at every turn. I would not claim that such is the case, but that our privileges as Christians in America in many quarters are taking a downturn. With this point in mind, it is worth noting that the Christians in the 1st Century had far fewer privileges than we do today. 1 Peter is a strategic guide as to how they should respond. Like those early Christians, we should be confident in God’s providential care and look for strategic opportunities for effective and honorable gospel witness that affirms the common good. After all, we believe that God raised Jesus from the dead and that he has ascended to the right hand of God from which he rules until he draws history to a close. We worship an uncommon God.

Moving from the first century to the twentieth century for a moment, Karl Barth did not agonize over the death of the Corpus Christianum or Christendom in Europe. As I wrote in my first blog post at Patheos a few years back, “What Barth called ‘the emancipation of the world from the church’ will lead to the emancipation of the true gospel to be emancipated from slavery to American culture and be proclaimed to one’s fellow Americans free of charge (For Barth’s discussion of the freedom for gospel witness that occurred with the dissolution of the marriage of the church and state in Europe, see Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, IV/3.1, The Doctrine of Reconciliation {Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1961}, pp. 20-21).” (See also my post “I Can’t Wait for Christian America to Die”). From the vantage point of 1 Peter and the Church Dogmatics, the death of Christian America does not spell the death of Christianity in America. Instead, the death of nominal Christianity will lead to a phenomenal opportunity for an authentic encounter of holistic gospel witness that moves beyond bait and switch manipulation to selfless sacrifice in view of Christ’s sovereign love in American society.

Just as the authors of 1st Peter and the Church Dogmatics would not engage in self-pity or pessimism, they would not advocate Christian triumphalism either. The triumph of Jesus—our uncommon God—over the cross does not spell triumphalism, but rather a victory to move beyond Christian tribalism and factionalism. The gospel of Jesus frees Christians to be for the other—Christian and non-Christian alike. As the title of this blog column specifies, the uncommon God is for the common good.

There are many voices in our society that want to bracket religion from the public square. In some settings, it is due to Christians making bad use of their power and influence to benefit their own tribe. Here we can learn a thing or two of what led in part to the demise of Christendom in Europe prior to and leading up to the Enlightenment period. The religious warfare between Christians of various stripes—Catholic vs. Protestant and Protestant vs. Protestant—over doctrine and practice and other differences—led to disillusionment with institutional religion within the surrounding culture.

With this point in mind, we who are Evangelicals must be on guard that we do not celebrate that the Pew report findings suggest things fare better for us than other Christian groups. Rather than fostering tribalism, we need to partner with these other Christian groups wherever possible for bearing witness to our uncommon God for the uncommon good. We should also partner with people of various religions and no religion at all, where we can find common ground. Model initiatives in my area include the Luis Palau Association’s City Serve, Beaverton Foursquare’s strategic work with a Roman Catholic Church, Muslims and the local school district, Second Stories’ neighborhood partnerships, the Holla Foundation, New Heights Church’s free medical and dental clinic, 11:45, Straight Path, Inc., Shared Hope International, Wiconi International, Imago Dei Community’s Love Portland, Man Up, Compassion Connect, and numerous others. Evangelicals in my area should also seek opportunities to partner with such groups as Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon.

We who are Evangelical need to show that we are not indifferent to working with others for the common good or our faith will be treated with indifference. We need to demonstrate how our faith matters, which includes accounting for how multi-faith engagement, including collaboration with those not aligned with any official religion, matters. The Evangelical Chapter of the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy and the group Multi-Faith Matters sponsored by The Louisville Institute seek to promote such a posture that moves beyond pessimism and triumphalism. We look to highlight the good work Evangelicals are doing in this sphere, as is its partner The Institute for the Theology of Culture: New Wine, New Wineskins (Refer here to one of our longstanding initiatives in multi-faith engagement with our friends at Dharma Rain Zen Center in Portland).

The Pew data should not lead Christians in America of any stripe to pessimism or triumphalism, but a posture of collaboration in view of our uncommon God for the common good.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

May 13, 2015

Don't Be Blind to the White Ceiling

Next Post

May 17, 2015 The Ascension: Jesus Has Some Serious Hang Time.

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month June 2025 April 2025 March 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz