The Inevitable Death of Evangelical Christianity

Whenever I read the surveys from Christianity Today, or Baptist News, or The Christian Post about how young people are leaving the American Church in droves, or how politics in the pulpit is driving the next generation away from the faith, or how Evangelicals are slowly growing older and more irrelevant to their communities, I must confess I give a little cheer.

Why?

Because all of these signs point to one inevitable conclusion: The Evangelical Christian Church is a dinosaur whose time has just about run out.

Honestly, I am looking forward to looking back on the days when Christians were once hateful, xenophobic, misogynistic, homophobic, and tribalistic.

Won’t it be great to gather the grandchildren into your lap and tell them stories about how, once upon a time in the olden days, there were actually people who acted as Un-Christlike as possible and yet still insisted on calling themselves “Christians”?

“That’s silly, Grandpa!”

I can’t wait to watch the last Evangelical Church close its doors for good.

I look forward to flipping through the channels without once encountering a Televangelist begging me to send him money so God can bless me.

I’m eager for the time when I never have to listen to another online sermon from a sweaty guy in a suit and tie pounding the pulpit to emphasize how much God hates those sinners.

Just imagine the joy of meeting people who love Jesus and yet have no interest in arguing about theology or proving they are right and you are wrong.

Imagine people treating one another like human beings without really worrying about who is “saved” or “lost.”

Picture Jesus-loving families who don’t kick their children out of the house or shame them for being Trans, or Gay, or Muslim, or Atheists.

I’m looking forward to that day when what matters most about being Christian is being Christlike and loving others as Jesus loved us.

I’m eager to encounter a Christianity where fear and shame are no longer used to manipulate or control people like religious hand puppets.

I can’t wait for the time when it’s harder to find an Evangelical Christian than it is to find someone who thinks the world is flat.

If there is a God – and I do believe there is – then all of this should be coming very soon – perhaps even in our lifetime –  and I honestly cannot wait for that day to arrive.

Can you?

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