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<\/a>Ross Douthat has a case to make \u2014 against what happened to the churches in America in the 60s and 70s. He thinks they went progressive \u2014 his term is \u201caccommodationist\u201d \u2014 and he doesn\u2019t like it, and after I sketch his complaint and evidence in his book Bad Religion<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, I will push back a bit against his argument.<\/p>\nDoes progressive politics lead to church attendance decline? Have mainline and Catholic churches become the voice of progressivism? Or is progressivism the result of mainline and Catholic impact on culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n First, his beef is with the mainline churches. The big point is that the churches thought they were becoming increasingly detached, irrelevant, and out of step with modernity \u2014 so they adapted and accommodated themselves to culture. The mainline churches developed a \u201csecularized\u201d faith. He thinks the surge was essentially a break from NeoOrthodoxy of Barth and Reinhold Niebuhr and a revival of the social gospel.<\/p>\n Church work became politics \u2014 at the national and social levels. A major voice was William Hamilton; then there was Teilhard (though a Catholic), but the distinguished voice of the accommodationist, progressive trend was Harvey Cox in his famous The Secular City<\/em><\/a>. Themes of shift: sexual revolution, moral and theological relativism. The Bible, he says, is for \u201cimaginative urbanity and mature secularity\u201d (88). I remember the days of Harvey Cox\u2019s book, and Douthat\u2019s perception is what I remember.<\/p>\n Another voice: James Pike \u2014 three wives, one progressive shift after another, denial of classic Christian doctrines (virgin birth, divinity of Christ, Trinity, morals etc). Then to Spong and he finds the major theme to have become inclusiveness<\/em>: women (ordination), racial minorities and immigrants, cohabitation, divorce, homosexuals \u2026 the seeker, the doubter, the lukewarm believer and the agnostic. Even non-Christians. It was thought that Jesus was an inclusive person; so the mainliners wanted to follow in Jesus\u2019 wake.<\/p>\n Second, his beef is with the Roman Catholic church in America, and Douthat is Catholic. Rahner and Vatican II \u2026 Teilhard de Chardin \u2026 Gaudium et Spes<\/em> \u2026 and the Catholics, like the mainliners, became increasingly political and, at the same time, developed a more democratic theory of church authority. He finds problems in:<\/p>\n Religious orders: straightforward secularization. The thing that is clear: the Catholic church has become increasingly more progressive.<\/p>\n His contention: the more progressive (or accommodationist) the more decline in attendance\/numbers. The Catholics blamed the hidebound hierarchies, but Douthat \u2014 and he has a point here \u2014 contends the progressives were in control and their strategies of accommodationism didn\u2019t work. Instead of watching how the mainline was decreasing the Catholics kept pushing for accommodations.<\/p>\n There is a market for accommodationist Christianity \u2014 both mainline and Catholic. It just isn\u2019t a large market.<\/p>\n Douthat makes a logical fallacy: he maps accommodationism\/progressivism in theology, liturgy, politics and morals. He contends the accommodationism explains the decrease in numbers. The evidence, however, if he would be examine the studies, suggests that theology or cultural postures aren\u2019t the problem: the problem is birth control and birth rates among mainliners and Catholics. See Michael Hout, Andrew Greeley, The Truth about Conservative Christians<\/a><\/strong>. <\/em>(See here<\/a><\/strong>, a series I did back in March and April of 2007.)<\/p>\n In fact, to the degree the mainline and Catholic churches accommodated themselves to Western liberalism and progressivism and to the political process, in fact, to the degree they convinced the public to become more and more progressive, those church traditions have actually \u201cwon\u201d the game. They are not less relevant; they are so relevant there is precious little difference between those church traditions and culture!<\/p>\n So, as I see it: Yes, there is clearly a significant progressive shift in both mainline and Catholic Christianity, though the shifts are different. Yes, this shift increasingly moved church work into political action and social justice and the social gospel. Yes, there are clear signs of departure from classic Christian theology. But, No, I\u2019m not convinced this is a major factor in the decline in numbers and, in fact, I\u2019m more convinced that the mainline church especially is indistinguishable from the ideals of American, Western liberal culture.<\/p>\n In other words, Douthat\u2019s chp on Accommodation is best understand as a complaint against theological drift.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ross Douthat has a case to make \u2014 against what happened to the churches in America in the 60s and 70s. He thinks they went progressive \u2014 his term is \u201caccommodationist\u201d \u2014 and he doesn\u2019t like it, and after I sketch his complaint and evidence in his book Bad Religion, I will push back a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,484],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-church"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nUniversities: academic freedom (the \u201cLand O\u2019Lakes\u201d statement) \u2026 and as a non-Catholic I have never been able to understand how the Dean at Notre Dame could have been an evangelical (Nathan Hatch).
\nSeminaries: sexual laxity and he sees a development of \u201cgay subcultures\u201d (97).
\nLiturgy: not just Latin but more free form, more rejection of traditional forms and themes and theology. Liturgy had to be hip and political.
\nCatechism: adapted and accommodated. He sees an emphasis on self-actualization.<\/p>\n