An Evangelical Collapse?

This piece by Michael Spencer just overflows with gloom. It’s titled “The Coming Evangelical Collapse"—and that’s the optimistic part! Spencer foresees an end to evangelical Protestantism as we know it. It’s coming fast, and it’s coming soon.

Evangelicals, Spencer writes, have made a deal with the devil—pun mostly intended. In this case, read “the devil” as conservatism. Evangelicals have traded in religion for politics. By focusing on issues like abortion, gay marriage and stem cell research, they’ve lost sight of the real, transcendent nature of religion. The evangelical church isn’t a church anymore; it’s a political institution.

The megachurch movement is a symptom of the disease. Like giant vampires with jumbotron eyeballs, they’ve sucked evangelical Protestantism dry of any religious content. Sorry, that metaphor sucked. I apologize. Megachurch pastors like Rick Warren and Joel Osteen are more “life teachers” than shepherds of the faithful. They’d rather talk about global warming than the gospels.

So ends the modern evangelical movement. Evangelicals have failed to pass on their religious beliefs to the next generation because they don’t have beliefs anymore. Evangelical Christianity survived for decades thanks to the personal bonds it created between churchgoers and Christ. Now that connection has been replaced by petty politics. And who wants to spend Sunday morning getting a lecture about congressional policy?

Or at least, that’s what Spencer thinks. I disagree. And because I’m the one writing this blog post, I’m going to give myself the last word on the subject. Evangelical Protestantism isn’t going to collapse into nothingness overnight, or even in the next five years. It’s too big to fail. Evangelicals aren’t suddenly going to jump ship and become Catholics or Greek Orthodox or Wiccans or whatever. Their culture is too strong for that.

But I also think Spencer identifies one important future trend. He says:

Expect evangelicalism to look more like the pragmatic, therapeutic, church-growth oriented megachurches that have defined success. Emphasis will shift from doctrine to relevance, motivation, and personal success – resulting in churches further compromised and weakened in their ability to pass on the faith.

Will the next five years see the secularization of religion? Oxymoronic, I know, but bear with me. I think religion, especially evangelical Protestantism, is going to take on a more worldly flavor. We already see it in ideas like the “Gospel of Wealth,” which proclaims that God wants you to prosper and grow rich.

Churches might—might—become more like social clubs than houses of worship. Pastors would cut back on the orthodoxy and instead offer self-help talks, political lectures, and financial advice. The actual religious content would be made more and more ecumenical so as to not offend anyone. Jesus would take a back pew in these new churches.

Of course, all this is only possible. I mean, if I can’t predict who’s going to win Best Actor, I’m certainly not qualified to predict the future of American religion. Who knows what the future holds?