Robert M. Price has the final word in John Loftus’ The End of Christianity, and he uses it to discuss the changes that have occurred in American Evangelicalism over his lifetime. In general, the younger generation of Evangelicals are less hidebound and less doctrinaire than their parents were. Price suggests, as many others have, the Evangelicals will dissolve in the “acid bath of American Pluralism,” losing their distinctiveness and their political clout in the process.
I’ve heard that idea from many others, like Christine Wicker in her book The Fall of the Evangelical Nation. But there’s something that watchers of American Evangelicalism frequently miss: non-American Evangelicalism.
Evangelicals are, in fact, evangelical; we can’t get them on false advertising. They’ve spread Christianity to the four corners, where it has taken root and sometimes grown wildly. Phillip Jenkins has suggested that by 2025, half of all Christians will live in Africa or Latin America, with another 17% in Asia.
All religion has a tendency to evolve as it moves into new societies, and so the resulting Christianity is not like the religion at home. According to Jenkins, global Christianity “…is actually moving toward supernaturalism and neoorthodoxy, and in many ways toward the ancient world view expressed in the New Testament.”
In his essay, “Christianity Evolving: On the Origin of Christian Species,” – also in The End of Christianity – Dr. David Eller suggests that Global Christianity may turn things around and begin influencing Evangelical America. What would that do to the predictions?
As an Episcopalian, I watched certain African congregations form alliances with conservative American congregations. The effect was polarizing, particularly after the nomination of Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Bishop in America. The conservative alliances have strengthened the hand of those conservative congregations that want to pull away from the rest of the church.
I wonder if something similar could happen in the Evangelical community. Is there a chance that large congregations in Africa or Asia will influence American Christianity, particularly once American and Europe no longer contain the majority of Christians? If so, then Price’s prediction is worthless. The conservative segment of Evangelical Christianity may benefit from ties to churches throughout the world and remain stable, while more liberal Evangelicals continue to fragment.
A frightening prospect, actually. Given how…terrifying…some African churches have become (witchcraft burning, anti-gay pogroms, etc). Are we over-emphasizing this, though? especially since many of the most egregious examples are actually sourced in the United States?
It’s kind of creepy that if evangelicals are not allowed to burn witches and homosexuals at home, they’ll cheerfully contribute money to do it by proxy in another country.
It’s a sad fact that belief in various forms of witchcraft and persecuting people, including children, for being suspected witches, predated the introduction of Christianity to African cultures. Read some of the accounts of the earliest European explorers. The real problem with Christianity is that the missionaries can never just come out and say “magic is bogus ” for obvious reasons. I don’t believe the gods or cosmology of one religion is any better than another. However, the customs 19th and 20th century Christianity certainly are better than, say, suttee/sati or the muti killing to get body parts in rituals.
As for Africans influencing American Christians, probably the best known example is when Sarah Palin allowed Kenyan pastor and witch-finder Thomas Muthee to pray over her.
Next time we have a line-up of GOP candidates, I hope they will be asked to raise their hands if they believe in witches or demons.
Ah, but, have you ever tried to argue the point that gawd’s power is magic to a christian? I’ve tried for literally hours to get a few of them that i know to just admit that it’s magic. They stubbornly refuse.
That’s one of the oldest rules of western civilization: if I do it, it’s a miracle from God, if you do it, it’s magic and trickery. Some historians define magic as “someone else’s religious rituals.”
NEVER under-estimate the power and range of human stupidity!
Just look at the way islame is digging in various places. Xtains used similar tactics in the past and are very capable of doing so again. The more pressure there is to make them go away the harder they will fight to stay and keep their power base. But then I’m a pessimist.
Religion has historically been a cup best served to the poor. As the world becomes more developed and more information is available, religion will find less and less nooks and crannies to set up camp.
Only thing… takes time, and honest politicians.
As Christopher Hitchens put it (paraphrasing) “When you encounter a person on the subway talking to god, don’t you inch yourself further away, than closer?”
It just takes society having a subway in the first place :)
You’re ignoring a lot of religious history with that statement. While it is generally true of Christianity, it is worth noting that Christianity is by no means the only religion on the planet.
I think that if more extreme and supernatural religious beliefs move to underdeveloped regions (like Africa) then it will help destroy religion rather than promote it. One of peoples innate thought processes is to mistake correlation for causation. As religion becomes focused in underdeveloped regions people will begin to associate religion with such regions. People will begin to associate anyone who is religious with places in the world where there is no running water. People who wear cowboy hats and boots will, in many places, be thought of as a stupid racist. That is because the areas where that fashion is more popular also happens to have (or at least be perceived to have) more stupid racists.
As religion moves, people wishing to seem civilized will abandon religion to avoid being associated with the regions of the world that practice it strongly and openly.
Kind of like how a lot of Europeans try to distance themselves from the United States?