Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Is Christianity Dying?

This is worth reading; don't let the title scare you away.

Christianity isn’t normal anymore, and that’s good news. The Book of Acts, like the Gospels before it, shows us that the Christianity thrives when it is, as Kierkegaard put it, a sign of contradiction. Only a strange gospel can differentiate itself from the worlds we construct. But the strange, freakish, foolish old gospel is what God uses to save people and to resurrect churches (1 Cor. 1:20-22).

When the Episcopal Church began to sue in secular courts some of its member parishes for not having the exact same world view regarding social issues as did the church leadership, or not manifesting "group-think" to their satisfaction; and when psycho-therapy was used as a weapon of constraint against clergy in disagreement with a bishop, it was obvious to some of us that the church as we had known it had come to its end.

That doesn't mean Christianity is coming to an end, though.  In fact, we may be on the cusp of a refreshing marginalization that will dramatically return us to that original mission presented in the Gospels and Acts.

A related observation from six or so months ago may be found here:  Some Commentary About General Seminary

Remarkable how often I think of old Code 99 these days.