Aug 2008
the great evangelical crack-up pt. 2
20/08/08 15:44 Filed in: end of
christendom
so, yesterday we talked about a newspaper commentary
that pointed to the crack-up of the evangelical
consensus. also yesterday, the iconoclast, bill
maher, appeared on larry king's show to promote his
new mocumentary: Religulous
in this segment, maher, an ethicst (read: a moral atheist), has some tough things to say about religionists in general and evangelicals in particular. however, lest we write him off because he differs from us, may i encourage you to see beyond the caustic humor and hear what is actually being said. if you're like me, each sunday morning you drive by 1000's of people who get along very well without benefit of church or christianity. perhaps he is speaking for them?
in this segment, maher, an ethicst (read: a moral atheist), has some tough things to say about religionists in general and evangelicals in particular. however, lest we write him off because he differs from us, may i encourage you to see beyond the caustic humor and hear what is actually being said. if you're like me, each sunday morning you drive by 1000's of people who get along very well without benefit of church or christianity. perhaps he is speaking for them?
the great evangelical crack-up
19/08/08 15:34 Filed in: end of
christendom
i read an interesting post in tallskinnywiki yesterday. he quoted a newspaper article entitled,
Religion: American Evangelicals, once considered monolithic, are fragmenting
This read reminded me of what i have said here a # of times:
1. we are experiencing the death of christendom
2. evangelicalism is cracking apart before our eyes
3. young evangelicals do not believe like their parents on issues like race, and poverty, and abortion, and climate change, and homosexuality...
the article sites the pew forum's study on the religious landscape (i've posted on this before when i was blogging at vox). this massive study shows, among other things, that nearly 1/2 of all evangelicals believe that people of other religions go to heaven.
probably even more troubling to evangelicals, is when the article raises the fact that they:
"almost never convert a native-born American who wasn't raised in a church. That most evangelical growth comes from stealing sheep from other denominations. And they've stolen about all they can.."
the author, Christine Wicker (who wrote a book on the subject) goes on to write what may be the most poignant and powerful words in the article:
"Conversion tactics also focus on telling people the Good News as though no one else knows it. But most everyone has heard it. Again and again. The trouble is that they aren't convinced. They aren't scared of hell. They aren't hoping for heaven. And Christians haven't been good at giving anyone better reasons than that for following Jesus."
more to come...