Pentecostal<\/a> congregation which, one assumes, is booming.<\/p>\nThe journalist at the Washington Post chortles on in predictable fashion about the sadness of these good church people packing it in, but how nice it is that the folks at Twinbrook are donating so much to worthy causes like LGBT equality and other fashionable peace and justice campaigns.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think it\u2019s so sad. In fact, I think more liberal churches should realize the sun is setting on the social gospel. I am sure some folks who read this will get hot under the collar and steam will shoot out their ears and they will accuse me of not caring for the poor, being down on immigrants, being homophobic, calloused, hard hearted and nasty to small children, puppies and kittens.<\/p>\n
Not at all. I\u2019m all in favor of what we Catholics call the corporal works of mercy. Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, house the homeless, visit the prisoners, visit the sick, bury the dead, give alms to the poor. I\u2019m all for that.<\/p>\n
What is dumb, however, is when Christianity is reduced to\u00a0merely\u00a0<\/em>doing the corporal works of mercy.<\/p>\nWhen the Christian faith is reduced to no more than campaigning for equality, feeding the poor, helping the immigrants and so forth then it\u2019s not really a religion anymore. It\u2019s good works, and Christians of all traditions are not supposed to believe in salvation by works.<\/p>\n
At its core the Christian faith is the old, old story of a sinful humanity in need of a savior. It is the story of the old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame. It is the story of a repentant soul clinging to Christ for his soul\u2019s salvation.<\/p>\n
From that comes an infilling of the Holy Spirit, a transformed life and a passion to reach out to the needy to share Christ\u2019s mercy with them.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s simple. A religion that is\u00a0only\u00a0<\/em>good works is putting the cart before the horse, and when that happens the horse soon wanders off.<\/p>\nSo I think it\u2019s quite a good idea that the folks of Twinbrook Baptist are closing shop and handing over their property to some on fire Hispanic Pentecostals. It\u2019s an honest and courageous thing to do. They\u2019ve realized their form of social gospel Christianity is out of date and are facing the truth that such a reduction of Christianity doesn\u2019t have much oomph.<\/p>\n
Why is that exactly? Well, people aren\u2019t stupid. If Christianity is no more than an \u201cAll Are Welcome!\u201d sign, a campaign for social justice, saving the environment, helping the immigrants and being nice to gay people, then you can do all that marvelous stuff without getting up early on a Sunday morning and trooping off to church to sing lame hymns and listen to some sincere middle aged woman drone on about toxic masculinity or plastic straws choking turtles and so forth. You can sleep in, enjoy a decent brunch somewhere and maybe in the afternoon do some re-cycling or join, join a protest march or volunteer at the animal rescue league. If you want fellowship you\u2019ve got it with your fellow team workers who are doing the litter community clean up or the folks who are working at the re-hab center. If you want some spirituality thrown in, there\u2019s no need for church with all the infrastructure and overheads. Just begin your good works with a few moments of prayer time or meditation.<\/p>\n
Folks are biting their nails over the decline of formal religion and the closure of churches.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m all for it. Liberal Christianity is fake religion anyway. It\u2019s not Christianity and it\u2019s not even a religion.<\/p>\n
The sooner they turn out the lights and close the doors the better.<\/p>\n
That will free them up to get on with their excellent good works, and it will make room for the Christians who want to be religious\u2026<\/p>\n
\u2026like those Hispanic Hot Gospel Pentecostals.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Washington Post reports here that the Twinbrook Baptist Church in Rockville, Maryland is closing its doors, selling their property and giving $1m to worthy causes. The liberal congregation belongs to the Alliance of Baptists\u2013a confederation of progressive Baptist churches. The folks at Twinbrook Baptist noted their congregation was graying not growing. In fact it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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