The Future of Christianity

The great American thinker Yogi Berra once said, “Predicting is hard, especially about the future.” I am reminded of that quote every time I read someone prognosticating about the future of the Faith. In a recent cnn.com editorial, Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons writes an article entitled “Christianity’s Future Looks a Lot More Like Lady Gaga Than Mike Pence.”

In the article Graves-Fitzsimmons divides Christianity into two camps, progressive and fundamentalist. Graves-Fitzsimmons is a representative of the progressive side and believes in the “full inclusion” of LGBTQA+ persons in the life of the church, the green new deal, and even concludes that Jesus would be a “democratic socialist.” He states that fundamentalist Christians in the ’80s and ’90s said that they were the only Christians and that the “. . . only issues of ‘Christian’ morality were attacking LGBTQ people and controlling women’s reproductive choices.”

Here we come to an important position by Graves-Fitzsimmons. He has identified Jesus’ self-description of His ministry as democratic socialism. One should be *very* careful not to identify Jesus with *any* political ideology. Jesus is above all of them and judges all of them. Identifying Jesus’ politics with one’s own policy preferences is walking the fine line of idolatry. Further, when people identify Jesus’ politics as their own, they enable themselves to do great harm to others and to the gospel.

I would like to know who Graves-Fitzsimmons is referencing when he talks about fundamentalists in the ’80s and ’90s and their two issue focus. If there is no quote he is referencing, the technical term for the argument he has created is “straw man.” Christians have tended to believe that abortion is tantamount to taking a human life and have believed in the traditional definition of marriage. These positions have been the norm in Christianity for two thousand years. While they have been normal they have not been the only issues Christians have spoken about, not by a long shot even in “fundamentalist” communities. Even a cursory glance at the history of Christian ethics would have made him more circumspect on this point.

Graves-Fitzsimmons does point to a reality that is important. In our time social and political issues have become more divisive than theological ones. Witness what has just happened in the United Methodist Church (UMC). In terms of basic doctrine and practice, the church was largely united. On issues related to sexuality, the church was fractured badly. One wonders if the UMC will not schism over the decisions related to sexuality in their last General Conference.

The title of the article is predictive, “Christianity’s Future Looks a Lot More Like Lady Gaga Than Mike Pence.” The prediction is, however, problematic. The future of the Christian faith will most likely not be formed by people like Lady Gaga or Graves-Fitzsimmons. The progressive denominations that champion his progressive theology are in free fall. The Mainline Christian denominations have seen their percentage of the population drop from over thirty percent in 1972 to 11.8 percent today. That is simply staggering. The Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Church (USA) have suffered more than most. The Episcopal Church has lost 500,000 in average membership since 2005. The PC USA has lost nearly 1 million active members in the same time frame. It is hard to argue that the future of Christianity will come from the progressive section of the Faith when the denominations most identified with progressive theology are simply dying. Put it this way, there are 20 times more Baptists than Episcopalians in the United States.

Further, the Faith is becoming more global than American. The Church in Africa, Asia, and Latin America is growing much faster than in the modern West. The future of the Faith will be more like people from the global South than the modern West. As a whole, the faith expressed in the global South is *more* connected to traditional theology, not less. That is why the UMC stepped away from a full endorsement of LGBTQA+ clergy. The churches from Africa put a stop to it. If we are going to predict, I predict that the future of the Church will look much more like a pastor from Africa or Asia than either Mike Pence or Lady Gaga.