1. The Great Evangelical Decline

Comment #189643 by Christine Wicker on June 6, 2008 at 9:17 pm

I was joking about the cynical deal. Journalists think cynical is good. I should have chosen a better word.

Thank you for the welcome. I'm interested in your perspectives.

I was joking a little bit when I called myself an evangelical in one of my interviews. I was making the point that if you don't have to believe anything or act any way, why not?

I was saved at nine and I grew up very serious and fairly devout. I left church in college, as many people do. I was angry with religion for a long time, as many people are.

Now? Well some days I believe in God. Some days I don't. Some days I think I can feel the presence of "something" that feels like God. Most days I don't.

I used to worry about those things quite a bit. Now I don't.

I don't think what I believe is important, perhaps because it fluctuates so much. And what I believe doesn't change the truth. I don't flatter myself that I know the truth.

I don't think believing in God and being a good person are linked. Some of the best people I know are believers. Others aren't.

Jesus seems to go beyond belief for me. He's bred in the bone. No matter what I'm writing about, he keeps showing up, metaphorically speaking. I've come to terms with that as one of the realities of my life. I don't think it has to be a reality of anyone else's life. But it's my heritage and as time goes by I'm more and more all right with that.

As for the Southern Baptists dying out, I can see why some of you might like that idea. It would have advantages. But some people get something important out of that type of faith. I wouldn't want them to have to go without that. Life can be hard.

2. The Great Evangelical Decline

Comment #188803 by Christine Wicker on June 4, 2008 at 3:16 pm

These posts are some of the funniest and some of the most cynical I've read anywhere. Add a little profanity and you guys would sound like journalists.

I'm the author (and a journalist). The Dark Side?

Thanks for your interest. I'm getting in this too late to comment on all I'd like to.

A couple of points. The newspaper piece could only deal with a few of the findings in the book. Demographics, giving patterns, dangers facing the megachurches, even changes in child-rearing practices are hurting evangelical faith. But nothing is more damaging to it than the move from authority-based truths to the testable truths that science has caused us to embrace.

One of the more brilliant observations in the book
isn't from me it's from an emergent church guy named Spencer Burke, who says that the Internet is having a huge effect on authority because no one knows who is blogging. Just a screen name. No titles (except in this post, sorry) Just the quality of ideas.