LIBERALISM’S DESTINATION

The Transforming of a Tradition is the title of a book edited and published last year by Leonard Allen and Lynn Anderson. It purports to examine the “Churches of Christ in the New Millennium,” identify their myriad problems and offer solutions that will saved them from extinction.  The several authors who contributed chapters to this book all share a common belief that the restoration plea is unworkable in our post-Christian age; that we must accept the fact that we are actually a denomination, in the same sense as are the Methodists and Lutherans; that we must cease to be a separate, exclusive body of people and embrace an ecumenical approach to Christianity. 

They are certain that we have approached the Bible in a faulty way in days past and must learn to view it as a love letter from God or a story book about Jesus.
They are sure that all of our large metropolitan congregations are going their way and that even small town churches will eventually follow their lead.  As part of their plan they want us to embrace the liberal social agenda of the political left. We must get involved in the AIDS Crusade, the Civil Rights Movement, Care of the Homeless, Women’s Liberation and other similar causes.

As I was reading Allen and Anderson’s book, the Associated Press carried an article by religious observer, Richard Ostling, that evaluated the situation of contemporary Protestant churches in America. The author points out that evangelical (i.e., conservative) Protestant churches are flourishing while the liberal churches are declining in a serious way. Citing a study by Randall Balmer and Lauren Winner entitled Contemporary American Religion (Columbia University Press), he notes that “the mainliners (large Protestant denominations) built their strategy around ecumenism,”  while “the most successful religious movements in American history have been exclusive, not inclusive.” While the liberal  churches were minimizing differences, “Americans were looking for theological definition.” He further observes that “Evangelicals’ momentum stems from the centrality of the Bible...  In the late 19th century, liberal notions about the Scriptures infiltrated U. S.

Protestantism from Europe...the liberals held a somewhat less exalted view of the Bible...and tended to see its tenets as time bound. The Evangelicals, by contrast, insisted that the simplest, most obvious reading of the Bible was the correct one.  They take the Bible seriously...”  Ballmer and Winner are convinced that “evangelicalism is helping spark a Christian intellectual renaissance.”

Had I not known better I might have thought Ostling was referring to the “change agents” at work among our churches when he described the liberal’s attitude towards the Bible and their desire to embrace the ecumenical movement.  All who have kept abreast of religious trends in America know that the liberal Protestant churches are declining, and short of a major turn around will eventually cease to exist. All the success stories are from the camp of the conservative evangelicals.  Yet the liberals that have arisen among our people are wanting us to follow the doomed trail and failed projects of those dying Protestant churches. My recommendation is that they leave us, join the liberal Protestant churches and follow them to their fate. The rest of us can then devote our time and energy to serving God, following his Word and sharing Christ with the lost about us.