Tuesday, May 19, 2015

"How to Kill Christianity"

I've mentioned before that when I was in college a male student disappeared. There was an article in the newspaper about it. His parents didn't know where he was.

Later it turned out he had joined the Marines.

I understand where he was coming from. Life in many ways is too easy and there isn't much challenge to it. Some men want a challenge, and they're not getting it.

The same applies to the modern churches. There is no challenge to any of them, and when there is no challenge everything turns to mush - liberalism.

If you want to get men to return to the churches, make them harder, make them a rite of passage, one that give meaning and purpose and community. Then you'll get men returning.

Atheists are fools ("sky daddy/spook in the sky" shows their hatred of Christianity, although they are such cowards they'll never say a word about Islam). They don't understand human nature at all. That's why they fall for secularism/leftism/materialism/evolution/"science." For all practical purposes the churches have now turned to atheism, because they've given up for what churches have for thousands of years taught and are now teaching secular nonsense. It's not going to work and will always create destruction.

You will never get rid of religion although leftists always think it's possible. Which in their minds will lead to Heaven instead of Hell.

This article is from the American Thinker and was written by Trevor Thomas.


Much has been made of the recent Pew poll that highlights America’s religious landscape. What has drawn the most attention is the apparent decline of Christianity in the U.S. “The Christian share of the U.S. population is declining,” began the piece. Many liberals took gleeful notice. The Institute on Religion and Democracy’s Mark Tooley noted, “Secularists and their fellow travelers are ecstatic. The secular utopia about which John Lennon crooned is impending. Christianity is finally dying!”

Of course, this is far from the case, as Tooley later reveals. Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, points out that it’s not Christianity that’s dying, but rather “near Christianity” that is teetering. “Good riddance,” Moore concludes.

The denominations that have lost the most “near Christians” are Catholic and Mainline Protestant. According to the Washington Times, “for every person who joined the Roman Catholic Church, six others were departing.” Additionally, in the last 50 years, the proportion of Americans belonging to one of the “Seven Sisters of Mainline Protestantism” has plummeted from one in six to one in sixteen.

From the Anglicans at Jamestown, to the Pilgrims at Plymouth, and the Puritans at Massachusetts Bay, virtually all of the Mainline Protestant churches in the U.S. can trace their roots to those who literally founded America. The principles of American democracy were born in Mainline churches. The revivals during the Great Awakening were preached by men from Mainline churches. Many of the first colleges and universities in the U.S. were founded by Mainline churches. What’s more, eight of the first fourteen U.S. Presidents were Episcopalian. The spiritual and political roots of America are deeply embedded in Mainline Protestantism. What a tragic fall!

So this begs the question, why have the Catholic Church and Mainline Protestantism seen such a collapse? Moore reveals the answer when he notes that, what the Pew poll really reveals is that we have “fewer incognito atheists” in America. “Those who don’t believe can say so -- and still find spouses, get jobs, volunteer with the PTA, and even run for office. This is good news because the kind of ‘Christianity’ that is a means to an end -- even if that end is ‘traditional family values’ -- is what J. Gresham Machen rightly called ‘liberalism,’ and it is an entirely different religion from the apostolic faith handed down by Jesus Christ.”

Of course, it would be the denominations most infected with liberalism (Is there anything liberalism can’t corrupt?) that have seen the most decline. As Tooley put it, “Mainline Protestantism lost its way when it forgot how to balance being American and being Christian, choosing American individualism and self-made spirituality over classical Christianity. Nearly all mainline seminaries had embraced modernism by the 1920s, rejecting the supernatural in favor of metaphorized faith integrated with sociology and political revolution.”

Such watered-down theology has produced ear-ticklers like John Shelby Spong, Marcus Borg, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Gene Robinson and the like, along with heretical nonsense such as the Jesus Seminar. For decades men (and women) like Spong and Borg made quite a name for themselves by rejecting the virgin birth, the divinity of Jesus, His atoning death and resurrection, every miracle recorded in the New Testament, and so on. In other words, in a tragic attempt to make themselves “relevant,” such men and women rejected virtually every tenet of the Christian faith, all the while still calling themselves “Christians.”

Unsurprisingly, it’s heretics such as these who’ve overseen such a precipitous decline in their denominations. After all, who wants to attend a church that rejects the supernatural and offers little more than worn-out platitudes and self-help advice? Who wants to attend a church that doesn’t talk about the forgiveness of sin (much less the existence of sin) and the hope of eternal life? Instead of pointing people to eternal truths, these liberal congregations have concerned themselves with “social activism.”

To a significant extent, the same thing has happened to the Catholic Church in the U.S. Though the American Catholic Church, unlike most of her liberal Protestant counterparts, has (for the most part) opposed abortion, same-sex “marriage,” and the rest of the radical sexual agenda of the left, sadly many Catholics have been all too willing to use big government activism as a substitute for charity.

As Paul Rahe put it, many years ago the American Catholic Church “fell prey to a conceit that had long before ensnared a great many mainstream Protestants in the United States – the notion that public provision is somehow akin to charity – and so they fostered state paternalism and undermined what they professed to teach: that charity is an individual responsibility and that it is appropriate that the laity join together under the leadership of the Church to alleviate the suffering of the poor.”

Additionally, rabid anti-death penalty advocate Sister Helen Prejean, the inspiration of the Susan Sarandon movie Dead Man Walking, is doing little for the cause of “individual responsibility.” In an attempt to help Dzhokhar Tsarnaev escape the ultimate responsibility for his murderous crimes, Sister Prejean testified last week in the penalty phase of the infamous Boston Bomber.

In spite of the lack of any public expression of remorse, Prejean testified that she felt that Tsarnaev was “genuinely sorry” for his crimes. Like her Catholic compatriots who advocate for the likes of ObamaCare, Prejean mistakes “state paternalism” for true charity. (Nothing says “state paternalism” like clothing, housing, and feeding a mass murderer for decades.) Again, borrowing from Mark Tooley, “Was she concerned more about his eternal soul, or his physical life, and her political cause? Let’s pray the former, but the latter seems likelier. If indeed the latter, Sister Prejean is an archetype for the modern church’s indifference to eternity, and judgment, in favor of therapeutic protection and affirmation.”

Sister Prejean is a great illustration of why the Catholic Church in the U.S. is in steep decline. Just as with its promotion of government healthcare, or a litany of other programs that push state paternalism over personal responsibility, for decades now the American Catholic Church has shown “indifference” toward eternity and judgement. Thus, anyone fervently seeking the truth on such matters is drawn elsewhere.

By and large, the churches that are growing in the U.S. are those that unapologetically present the truth. Of course, a large or a growing church isn’t always a measure of a healthy and holy church, but when one is sincerely seeking the spiritual truths that we all at one time or another crave, most of us “seekers” know the truth when we hear it and see it. This doesn’t mean that the majority of us will embrace such truths. Jesus Himself warned us that this would not be the case.

Don’t be surprised to see the decline of Christianity continue. As it becomes more difficult and dangerous to be a follower of Christ, more and more people are going to find the “wide road” described by Jesus quite appealing. This is especially the case when so-called “Christians” are pointing the way.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've had to learn to stop vocalizing in public or with most friends that I have walked away from church. I realized I needed to stop doing this a couple of weeks back when I said it and someone at the table said, "Ah, so you're a Done, then?"

"Done?" I asked.
"Yeah," he said, "Kinda like those dudes who don't date anymore. There's a name for it, I think."

This need culture has now to categorize and tag every personal choice with an acronym or label of some kind only exacerbates the issue. I don't want to exit one social group only to become part of another via not clever label; as if I could have any real, interpersonal relationship with, uh, "Dones."

We go back to tribal. When civilization fails, we go back to labels and tribal notions of social groups. Jesus came that we might have life and that we might have it more abundantly. Life is messy, cold occasionally and sometimes downright cruel. Life involves discomfort.

This modern church, or what passes for church, is infected with the ever-faster creeping death of comfort; pretty, socially acceptable and ruinous. There's a way that seems right to a man, but the end of it is Death.

Glen Filthie said...

I was just shocked. I heard many churches are pushing feminism and catering to the single mothers and it blew me away. You can bet they will be getting in bed with the homosexuals right away too.

It's been my experience that when people throw away their faith...they usually throw out their morals and ethics too.

The hell of it is that the pedos, homos, and deviant scum that undermined the church are now doing the same to liberalism.

Some interesting times await.

Mindstorm said...

Hahah. As if anything about Islamic invisible Skydaddy known as Allah would be better than about any other monotheistic deity.... It's more difficult to make jokes about a religion that comes across as a joke itself. Take this for example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Workers_in_the_Vineyard#In_Islamic_texts

I would call Islam the Scientology of its times. :)

Mindstorm said...

Or this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houri

Good advertising, isn't it? :)

Mindstorm said...

As an aside, do you think that necessarily 'atheist' equals 'leftist', Bob?

Unknown said...

I've never met an atheist who wasn't a leftist, although sometimes they called themselves libertarians...although they're leftist-libertarians...which means "leftist."

Cheech And Chong Found God said...

"Hahah. As if anything about Islamic invisible Skydaddy known as Allah would be better than about any other monotheistic deity...."

The joke is on you, Mindstorm. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism...no one has a monopoly on faith. You are equally as dangerous as the "towelheads" who want to blow up the "infidels".

Mindstorm said...

And our resident troll chimes in, unavoidably. According to her, making jokes about abstract concepts is as dangerous as blowing up actual people.

Mindstorm said...

Leftist-libertarians? In other words, anarchists? Hierarchy of some sort is unavoidable in the long run.

Rusty Shackleford said...

Organized religion is dying off for the same reason that elk lodges and bowling leagues are. There are fewer families, tougher finances, and an increasingly atomized, feminized, multicultural and low trust society. All the trends in American culture, law, business and government and gender relations move in the direction of destroying any cultural pride or cohesion in the majority. If you take 1950s culture where it's easy to get a high paying job, favorable to get married and where western and Christian tradition and culture are given their fair due, you'd probably see something pretty close to 1950's church attendance. I think all of the above is actually a lot more troubling for religion than what this article is putting forward or the advent pop atheism, etc. because the likelihood of a return to the favorable aspects of 1950s America is close to nihil. We move further in the opposite direction all the time.

Rusty Shackleford said...

Just speaking personally, as a Catholic bachelor, I don't go to mass because it is not really for me. Religion is only part of a Catholic Parish and in some cases maybe not even the main part. The parishes are about youth league soccer, parochial school, church businesses, charities, fall carnivals, casino night, etc. and a million other things. And really, there's nothing wrong with that. The parishes are a community made up of families. Showing up at mass as a bachelor is liking being the outsider at a country club. You get the sense that people are thinking, "I don't remember seeing this guy at the charity golf game. Is he some sort of Jesus freak or something?"

And another thing I've noticed is that the demographics in the parishes are typically very upscale, upper-middle class. If I ever mentioned that I worked a skilled trade, that was functionally the end of the conversation at these places. I'll still go to mass sometimes at the big cathedrals during the summer months when everyone is on vacation. I actually like that, just for the religious aspect of it. But as an atomized man, in a broken society, I've never felt any belonging in my Catholic identity. I'd imagine it's the same for the increasing percentage of bachelors in the other denominations.

Anonymous said...

"And our resident troll chimes in, unavoidably. According to her, ..."

MGTOW'd Out indicated that it is a man.

Mindstorm said...

^
Pattern mismatch.

Cheech And Chong Found God said...

"According to her, making jokes about abstract concepts is as dangerous as blowing up actual people."

Mindstorm, it is abundantly clear you would actively support the wiping out of an entire religion (Islam). What, you really think you are any different than those who commit murder? No, you are one in the same. Except you're too "civilized" to pull the trigger yourself.

Mindstorm said...

Trolls gonna troll....

Abundantly clear? A link or quote.

Robert What? said...

The reason that so many hate Christians is the same as it was 2000 years ago: Christians believe there is a higher authority than the State. That is an extremely threatening worldview to many. Especially those who get their power and wealth via the State.

Troper A said...

I'd say Rocking Mr. E is pretty anti-leftist:

https://www.youtube.com/user/RockingMrE

But he's about the ONLY anti-leftist atheist I've seen. I've seen plenty of anti -SJW atheists (like Sargon of Akkad) declare themselves a moderate shade of leftist, (and indeed Gamergate skews heavily in the direction of the libertarian left.) This confuses me because I thought the whole idea behind Leftism was that it required huge intervention via the State. I'm not sure one can be a "little bit Leftist" any more than one can be a "little bit pregnant." Leftism and Libertarianism should be like oil and water--they just don't mix.

Anonymous said...

The only Church is the Catholic Apostolic. Eventually Orthodox catholics. The rest, smoke and mirrors.

that being said, two things:
1. yes, if people depart from the Catholic Apostolic Church there is a fall
2. catholicism will not die

This is a great article:

http://www.reasonablefaith.org/the-absurdity-of-life-without-god

Sincerely,

A catholic who walked away from Church and realized what he lost when he did it... and now he is coming back.