More from Michael Spencer’s piece in the Christian Science Monitor, The Coming Evangelical Collapse. (He discusses these issues further in his blog Internet Monk):
Why is this [coming cultural hostility to evangelicalism] going to happen?
1. Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and with political conservatism. This will prove to be a very costly mistake. Evangelicals will increasingly be seen as a threat to cultural progress. Public leaders will consider us bad for America, bad for education, bad for children, and bad for society.
The evangelical investment in moral, social, and political issues has depleted our resources and exposed our weaknesses. Being against gay marriage and being rhetorically pro-life will not make up for the fact that massive majorities of Evangelicals can’t articulate the Gospel with any coherence. We fell for the trap of believing in a cause more than a faith.
2. We Evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young people an orthodox form of faith that can take root and survive the secular onslaught. Ironically, the billions of dollars we’ve spent on youth ministers, Christian music, publishing, and media has produced a culture of young Christians who know next to nothing about their own faith except how they feel about it. Our young people have deep beliefs about the culture war, but do not know why they should obey scripture, the essentials of theology, or the experience of spiritual discipline and community. Coming generations of Christians are going to be monumentally ignorant and unprepared for culture-wide pressures.
Theological illiteracy I certainly see. The perception that Christians are just about politics and the culture war–as opposed to Christ, forgiveness, the Gospel–is cerrtainly pervasive. But does that mean Christians should withdraw from taking a stand on moral controversies? Any ideas how churches could do a better job of teaching theology and passing it down to the next generation?
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