We're Losing the Fight

This post was inspired by and is, on some level, a response to a recent entry on Derrick's blog.

The Visiting Team

Christianity is losing ground each day in America. My pastor describes it best when he says that the church is no longer the home team in American culture -- we've been relegated to the status of visiting team. There was a time in our nation's history when going to church was a given for most families. That time has come and gone.

According to a 2006 study by the American Church Research Project, less than 14% of Arizonans attend a Christian church on any given weekend. That's 86% of our friends and our neighbors who don't have the time, energy, or most importantly, the desire to darken the door of a local church. The rest of the nation doesn't fare much better.

Many speculations exist about why churches in America are drastically losing influence over our culture. Some might say that the church is irrelevant because it hasn't kept up with the changing times. Others might contend that it's because churches are full of hypocrites and the average American can't stomach the two-facedness. Still others might say that people have finally outgrown the fairytale notion of an all-powerful puppetmaster controlling the universe.

All of these are contributing factors in their own right, but to me the two biggest reasons we are losing the hearts and minds of the American public are:

1.) Secularism is constantly calling Christianity to the mat in the public square and Christians are largely unwilling or just plain afraid to step up to the fight. When one side levels a challenge and the other backs down, people assume that the one who shied away is the weakest. We are losing one of the world's most one-sided PR battles because we have conditioned ourselves not to push back for fear that we'll come across as judgmental or be labeled a fundamentalist.

2.) This deep-seeded fear of labels has changed our focus. Christians are increasingly more concerned with whether or not we're culturally relevant than whether or not we're Biblically relevant. You see, biblical relevance has a higher tendency to cause people to be labeled intolerant or hateful because the Bible is a counter-cultural text. Cultural relevance, however, concerns itself more with how we are viewed by society and prompts us to avoid being counter-cultural so that we can be in good standing with them.

"God Hates Fags"

Here's a great example of how we're losing the PR battle in America. When you read the disgusting subheading above, what group of people comes to mind? If you were a non-religious person, you would most likely think "Christians". You see, when Fred Phelps and his ridiculously small and ridiculously over-aired group are featured on the news picketing the funeral of a gay man, little to no time is given to explain to viewers that this group of people are plainly shunned by the vast, vast majority of churches. Instead, the secular powerhouses that we call the news media and the local university devote their time to dissecting why Christians hate gays.

I have been part of a number of conversations where the person I'm talking to is accusing Christians of being hateful to gays. When I ask for an example, Phelps and his sick family are commonly brought into the equation. It doesn't matter to people that their influence on Christianity is a zero. It doesn't matter that other Christians have publicly opposed them. What matters is that the secular world has painted their picture of Christians, and society consumes that image day after day.

What happens in response to this can only be explained as Christians shooting themselves in the foot. Instead of standing up and making it clear to the world that our stance is nothing like the stance of Phelps, many Christians treat his worldview as if it were a legitimate and embarrassing segment of our religion -- because that is what the media says. So instead of saying plainly that those views are in direct opposition to our beliefs, we validate society's accusation of our homophobic status by believing ourselves that Christians by and large are gay-haters.

As an example, here's an exact quote from Derrick's recent post: "You see... for Christians... homosexuality is like the plague. We stay so far from it, like we'll get Satan coodies [sic] if we actually meet a gay person. The thought of having gay friends makes us feel dirty... kinda like listening to a "secular" song and liking it. " (Read it in complete context)

While I do not for a second doubt Derrick's heart behind this, it makes me cringe a bit because it sounds exactly like what one might hear on a college campus or from the lips of Bill Maher. Derrick says it to challenge his fellow Christians to consider their attitude toward gays, and I love that. What kills me is that the ever-growing non-Christian world doesn't make that distinction, but instead uses this sort of statement as "proof" that they were right about us in the first place -- and the stigma of homophobic Christians sinks deeper into the mindset of society.

Unfortunately, the average American isn't likely to experience another perspective on Christianity unless they attend a church, which they're far less likely to do now because who would want to spend their weekend hanging around a bunch of judgmental gay-haters anyway?

Don't Judge Me

A Christian's understanding of right and wrong is supposed to be determined by the Bible, while Secularists are -- within themselves -- the ultimate source for right and wrong. This worldview of moral relativism has slowly crept into mainstream Christian thought as evidenced by the popular notion that Christ says plainly that we are never to judge others, just love them ("Do not judge, or you too will be judged." ~Matthew 7:1). Non-Christians love to cherry-pick this verse, and most Christians tend to shrink back when they hear it for fear that the words "intolerant", "unloving", or "judgmental" will be thrown around next.

Christians, does Jesus really command us to refrain from holding people to any standards? Taking this verse alone and out of a broader Biblical context might suggest just that. But what, then, do you do with John 7:24 where Jesus says, "Stop judging according to outward appearances; rather judge according to righteous judgment”? This verse taken alone seems to argue that he does call us to judge. So what's the deal?

What I believe the verses on judging teach is that if you say to someone, "I'm going to hold you to such-and-such standard," then you need to be ready and willing to be held to that same standard. Let me give you a personal illustration of this:

I'll be honest - I'm about 50 pounds overweight and I rarely eat healthy or exercise. If a friend of mine is also overweight and I constantly badger him about the fattening foods he eats or the exercises he should be doing, but don't put those standards into practice myself, what good am I? Before I hold my friend to a standard (judge him), I need to prepare myself to be judged by the same standard. Using my fitness illustration, this verse might sound more like, "Don't criticize your buddy's love handles, or he'll have the right to criticize your man-boobs."

I don't think Christians can avoid having to uphold standards, but I think its clear that we need to promote our Biblical values while remembering to live them out (and we need to be ready to be judged by them as well). We need to worry less about cultural relevance where each person is his own value system, and worry more about the values given to mankind through the Bible.

This Post is Long!

Yeah, sorry about that.

I could honestly keep going for another ten paragraphs because there are so many tangents and details that I could discuss. Sometimes it becomes very difficult to consolidate my thoughts and still communicate clearly. I have very deep convictions on the Christian worldview and the reasons why I think were losing the fight for the hearts, minds, and souls of the American people. For the sake of my fingers and your eyes, I'll have to leave this post as it stands now and hope that it has caused some people to think twice about their views.

If you have any comments, rebuttals, or criticisms, I welcome them -- though I'm not prepared to accept any workout or dieting advice at this time :).

Thanks for reading.