Editor
By Daniel J. Lehmann
Talk of demise exaggerated
Love of God, neighbor still core S
ecular journalist Ross G. Douthat recently stirred the pot in a New York Times column by asking, “Can liberal Christianity be saved?”
His piece came following the approval of a rite to bless same-sex unions by the Episcopal Church’s
House of Bishops. He cited the significant declines of mainline denomina- tions starting in the 1960s.
While successful Christian bodies of late have often been politically con- servative, Douthat said they’ve also been theologically shallow. “But if con- servative Christianity has often been compromised, liberal Christianity has simply collapsed. Practically every denomination—Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian—that has tried to adapt itself to contemporary liberal values has seen” a plunge in its fortunes, he said. Still, he said, “the defining idea of liberal Christianity—that faith should spur social reform as well as personal conversion—has been an immensely positive force in our national life. No one should wish for its extinction ….” Diana Butler Bass, a historian of Christianity, author and blogger, wrote
on The Huffington Post that Douthat’s question is a good one, while suggest- ing the real issue is “Can Christianity be saved?” She cited recent declines in nearly all denominations, most notably the Southern Baptist Convention. “Introspective liberal churchgoers returned to the core of the Christian vision: Jesus’ command to ‘Love God and love your neighbor as yourself,’ ” she wrote. “As a result, a sort of neoliberal Christianity has quietly taken root across the old Protestant denominations. ... This new expression of Christi- anity maintains the historic liberal passion for serving others but embraces Jesus’ injunction that a vibrant love for God is the basis for a meaningful life.” For Stephen Bouman, executive director of ELCA Congregational and
Synodical Mission, the response to Douthat came at the Youth Gathering (page 14). In an exchange with pastors on the Internet, Bouman touted the straight talk of host Bishop Michael Rinehart on the mixed history of New Orleans, Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson holding up “the paschal mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus as our bedrock reason for living and lov- ing,” and pastor/speaker Nadia Bolz-Weber’s “reminder that we bring some- thing to the party as Lutherans who are saints and sinners.” “[The gathering was] a time to grasp the beauty of what God has allowed us to receive and share as grace drenched Lutherans who sometimes forget how much this world hun- gers for a story of hope and spiritual depth,” Bou- man wrote. “[It was] a foretaste of what our ELCA could become if we really believed that every con- gregation could be a mission community re-rooting in their communities where God is already creating new signs of the presence of the risen Christ.”
‘A sort of neo-liberal Christianity has quietly taken root across the old Protestant denominations.’
4 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
MICHAEL D. WATSON
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