With Declining Attendance and Membership, Churches are Being Taught to "Prioritize Politics"

Churches Taught to "Prioritize Politics"  

When the founding fathers, primarily James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, gave thought to the principle of religious liberty that was written into the Constitution, they came to the same philosophical point from different perspectives. Madison, who had a theological education, had seen the way that churches which were not part of the official "state church" in Virginia, including the fairly numerous Baptists, among others, had been persecuted for organizing and operating "unauthorized" churches.  He saw that establishing a state church in America would lead to more of the same kind of persecution, something many people had come to America to escape in Europe.  

Jefferson saw religion as a matter of personal conscience for which individuals were answerable only to God.  

"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others," he said.  "But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god.  It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."  

To the Baptists of Danbury, Connecticut, he wrote: 

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof', thus building a wall of separation between church and state."  

So churches were set free from control by the civil government, and the civil government was set free from any obligation to financially support the church or take any action to help it carry out its ministry.  That was, from both perspectives at the time, an ideal situation.  With the exception of some isolated cases, for the first time since the early 300's, the Christian church was able to function in an atmosphere of freedom, and become that group that Christ himself established, beyond the old covenant theocracy, which the writer of the book of Hebrews called "obsolete," and outside the control of civil authority that used the church for their own benefit.  

Like every other American, Christians are free in this country to meet for worship, fellowship, instruction, and to practice their faith by ministering to the needs of others and by evangelistic outreach, to gather an audience that is willing to listen to the claims of the faith and experience conversion if they so desire.  As Jefferson said the constitution established, government oversight extends to actions only, not to opinions.  Theoretically, government protects religious practice as much as it protects people from coercion when it comes to religious practice.  

Using the Power of Politics to Do Evangelistic Work is an Admission of Failure 

There's no question that Protestant Christianity has had a powerful influence on American government over the course of history, much of it privileged over that of other faiths, especially the Catholic church, because of their numbers and influence.  They've never been a majority of the population, but following the Second Great Awakening, between 1790 and 1850, they were the largest religious plurality.  Even now, the percentage of Christians in government belonging to one of the denominations or branches of Protestant Christianity, including the Evangelicals and Pentecostal/Charismatics is significantly greater than their total membership in society.  

As their numbers have waned considerably since declines in mainline denominations set in during the 1960's, and have now expanded to include all branches of Protestants, in recent years, most notably Evangelicals, the use of political power has replaced dependence on "spiritual power" to keep the influence of conservative Christianity high, even as church attendance and membership reach historic lows.  And with the decline in attendance, which is paralleled by a decline in the dollars put in offering plates, and the starving out of parachurch ministries, which I call "parasite" ministries, the push to use political power to enforce doctrine and practice by law has become more intense.  

Along with this shift to dependence on government power to protect church influence in the culture has come a shift in orthodoxy.  Christian nationalism has always been there, the product of an "Anglo-Israelism" that developed in Victorian England at the height of empire, the belief that English-speaking peoples of the world were destined to inherit the kingdom of God on earth from the Israelite throne of David.  But it is now intersecting with white supremacy, and a more Americanized version of the destiny of English speaking people, to produce a false theology that many Evangelicals fail to realize is heresy, and is killing, literally, their churches.  

Conservative Evangelicals claim to believe the Bible is inerrant and infallible, and that it is the written "word of God," authoritative in all matters defining human sinfulness, God's redemption and by default, science.  They believe that the root of all human problems is sin, defined as separation from God, and that the only resolution for this is spiritual redemption provided by the gospel of Jesus Christ, which means acknowledging that Jesus was the divine son of God, that his death was the atonement for all human sin, and that his resurrection makes resolving human sin possible because of its miraculous, spiritual nature. 

That belief is solely a matter of conscience.  It cannot be legislated.  We have 1500 years of church history where the church and state were linked and where church leadership enriched themselves by supporting monarchs who benefitted from the church's blessing to prove that this not only does not work, but it is inhumane, working against the betterment of humanity and society, and takes the essence of the nature of humanity away, turning people into slaves, which is exactly the opposite of what the Christian gospel promotes.  

Under the Constitution, Christians are free to preach this, as Jefferson said, "unrestricted opinion," though the government's ability with regard to action does place some restrictions on "actions".  But when, in American history, either in the past, or in the present, has the Christian church ever been restricted by government from doing anything it wants?  The only such incidents that are ever pointed to are places where Christians were so imposing and where they interfered with the rights of others.  Christianity, regardless of its branch in this country, is still highly favored and privileged over all other religions and especially over the non-religious. So go peddle your "persecuted" argument in China or North Korea.  

For certain intruders have stolen in among you, people who long ago were designated for this condemnation as ungodly, who pervert the grace of our Lord into licentiousness and deny our only master and Lord, Jesus Christ.  Jude v. 4

The Solution to the Decline is Not Teaching Churches to "Prioritize Politics" 

Churches engaging in political activity for the purpose of increasing their influence is not just a misplaced priority.  It is a departure from its Biblical mission and purpose.  It is a sinful waste of time and resources and an admission of their failure to figure out what's really going on that is causing people to leave in numbers not seen in the history of Christianity in a free society.  

There have been several approaches to the loss of membership, staggering in its scope and in how little time it has taken to lose so many of its former members.  One is to simply deny that it is happening.  Throw those denominational membership records out the window, plug your ears and go la la la la la until it goes away.  That would be lying, but that doesn't seem to be one of the sinful problems of humanity the church is seeking to change anymore.  Conservative Evangelicals have become comfortable supporting pathological lying.  Denial is easy after all that.  

A second approach is to minimize it.  The birth rate has been declining and people aren't having as many kids.  This is true, and it has had an effect on church attendance and membership.  But the members who are leaving churches are adults.  The highest number of departures occur sometime between a young person's 18th birthday and their 23rd birthday, especially if they are in college.  Membership data from churches themselves show that only 10% of Americans between 18 and 35 years of age identify with a church beyond family ties. 

Prioritizing politics is not going to replace evangelism.  Churches are declining because they have replaced evangelism with something else, like entertainment value, a corporate, commercial mentality or politics.  If you ask those people between 18 and 35 why they left, most of the surveys and studies that are done will tell you that more than half of them will answer, "Because of the push of secular politics."  So if people are leaving churches because they prioritize politics, that would be the wrong approach to take to increase its influence.  

As Jude says in his little epistle, the church has been invaded by intruders.  So it seems to me, the way to resolve its current problems, at least in this country, is to get rid of the intruders.