82% of U.S. Evangelical leaders say that their influence on the country is declining, according to a new Religion and Public Life study from the Per Forum.
This quote from Rev. S. Douglas Birdsall in the article struck me:
“There was a time when there was a Ten Commandments in every classroom, there were prayers in public places,” he said. “So having gone from that position of considerable influence, even though we might actually have more influence than churches in … other parts of the world, the sense is that it’s slipping from our hands.”
My first thought… when will we stop decrying the lack of the ten commandments and public prayer as the center points of Christians losing influence?
The ten commandments on a wall was how we showed our influence?
We based our influence on a prayer at a high school graduation?
Really?
I’ve heard a lot of times from a lot of people how this national has gone to hell in a handbasket since we took prayer out of the schools. Â I admit that this pre-dates my schooling years. Â But my guess is that much of this country was going to hell in a handbasket when people WERE praying in school, and when the ten commandments were on the classroom wall.
Is society bad today? Â Absolutely. Â Was is pristine in the 50s? Â Nope.
But there was a whole different set of problems then there there are today. Â Some of today’s problems could be worse… but most probably, they’re just different.
When I read some of the things that happened in the Old Testament, it makes today’s society look pretty darn Christian.
Again from the study: Â About half (53 percent ) of U.S. leaders said the state of evangelicalism is worse than it was five years ago, and nearly as many (48 percent) said they expect it to grow worse in the next five years.
I’m not quite sure how to read into this. Â I guess if our hope to make things better are political solutions to make Christianity more acceptable (like getting prayer back in schools), then we should be depressed about our future.
But the scary thing to me is that nearly half of our leaders think it’s going to get worse.
The article here does talk about some of the reasons behind the trend; and does do a good job at presenting both sides, including whether or not Christians should try to change culture through politics.
It’s a good read.
But how about you? Â Do you think Christianity’s influence is declining? Â If so, why? Â And are you optimistic about the future of reaching people for Jesus in the U.S.?
Todd
If Christianity is declining is the U.S. it is not the world’s fault, it is the fault of the Christians. You can not blame the world that your influence is not working. After all, we have the power of the Holy Spirit, God Himself inside us as believers. If you are not reaching the lost, you are probably not following the exapmle that Jesus left for us in orer to reach the lost!
The church today has become the home of lukewarm, prideful introverts. And the world did not make the church that way… the church made themselves that way. The church has isolated itself from the world thinking that they need to protect themselves from it and that they are better than it.
Well that’s not the example Jesus left. Jesus lived in the world, just not of the world. He hung out with sinners, with the poor, with prostitutes… when is the last time you hung out with a prositute or talked to a poor person on the strret instead of judging them?
Until Christians start to act “Christ Like”- as our name suggests… the church will continue to decline. Stop preaching prosperity gospel while people out there are suffering. Like they are suffering becuase they live wrong, and if you just live like a Christian then everything will be perfect. It won’t be perfect. God never said it would be. But He is our helper in hard times and that is the message people need to hear. That God loves them dispite their previous AND future sins.
God loved you while you were still a sinner. So that makes you no better or different than the sinner that does not yet know the Lord. And if you say… “well they don;t know Jesus as their savior…” Well if you know them, and you are a Christian, then why don’t they know who Jesus is? Have we lost the great commission to be disciples?
In short- the church is suppose to be God’s way to reach the world. If the world is not being converted, who’s fault does that make it?
Good discussion. Todd, I think you make a very cogent point about the 10 Commandments and prayer-in-school as over-hyped primary barometers. However, I do think evangelical influence is absolutely and precipitously decreasing by the day. Melissa, excellent post! No question it is ‘our’ own fault. We keep dimming the light and then complaining about how much darker it’s getting.
Genuine, Spirit-led revival is the answer, not politics. We need a return to a holy witness, not just an entertaining one; a deep discipleship, not a bastion of comfort; etc. . .