Saturday, July 18, 2009
Christian congregations see a shifting landscape
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The abrupt resignation last month of Salem native Brad Braxton as senior minister at New York City's storied Riverside Church caused University of California religion professor Jonathan Walton to lament: "This is a tragedy of epic proportion" that "exposes the theological, ecclesial and even racial fault lines of the Christian progressive movement."
Riverside is a nondenominational church that straddles the Upper West Side, and Harlem and has long been considered a bastion of liberal theology and social justice activism.
A self-described "progressive evangelical," Braxton, 39, was the youngest senior minister ever called to lead the church and only its second black pastor. He resigned eight months later after a flap over his salary. But money was the least of the troubles, the embattled preacher said in an interview.
Besides his salary -- reported to have been between $400,000 and $600,000 -- one significant flash point seemed to be his evangelical, biblically based preaching style. Braxton said his desire to reignite the wellspring of social activism through scriptural study caused some in the congregation to brand him a closet fundamentalist -- an insult among many in that congregation and a charge he vehemently denied.
"Taking seriously the Bible does not make me a fundamentalist," Braxton said.
It might be difficult to find a more liberal-leaning Baptist minister. Braxton recently called from Riverside's pulpit for "Christians to repent of their Christian imperialism" and in an interview characterized the belief in Jesus Christ as the only path to salvation as "mistaken."
Like American mainline churches, Braxton said Riverside has found it difficult to attract Hispanics and believers under age 30. But he met with resistance when he called Riverside to think deeply about why that is and to act boldly to address needs in the community.
While not technically a mainline church, Riverside today finds itself in much the same position as the Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists and Lutherans. These old-style liberal churches that once wielded religious, political and cultural influence are suffering a rapid decline in cohesiveness and membership.
According to the most recent National Council of Churches' (ncccusa.org) membership survey, all four mainlines posted membership losses, as they have in years past. In fact, most of the 25 largest Christian groups in the United States and Canada have seen membership decreases recently, including the Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention.
Denominational loyalty among Christians is also waning rapidly. Today, Christians under 30 are more likely to identify themselves as "evangelical" or "born again" than as a particular denomination, according to Mark Silk, editor of Religion in the News and one of the architects of the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey.
But the meanings of the terms "evangelical" and "born again" are also shifting. Many who identify themselves that way hold what have been traditionally seen as liberal views but are attracted to biblical language and a certain style of worship found in megachurches and contemporary congregations.
Increasingly, Silk said, religion in America is becoming a chosen identity, rather than a matter of theology, loyalty or family affiliation.
If that's true, the future of the progressive Christian movement may lie with leaders such as Braxton, who can help them attract younger Christians who share many of the old-style liberal views -- environmental advocacy and civil rights for gays and lesbians as two examples -- but prefer a more evangelical style of preaching and worship.
The question may be, can the liberal churches adapt to that new reality?
