It’s not news to anybody that Christianity has an image problem these days. I’d say it goes back to Christianity having an identity problem.
I spend a lot of time thinking about church. I grew up in church. I spent years in seminary and graduate school. Got a doctorate in church-related stuff. Was on church staff for years and years. And seeing this crisis in Christianity breaks my heart. But, I gotta admit, it’s also kinda exciting. Because every once in a while we get to tear the whole thing down and start again. With church attendance declining since … well, since the 1960s at least … maybe it’s a good time to rethink who we are, as the church, and how we should be living.
I think that’s the key. American Christianity, particularly the white protestant evangelical brand, has lost its identity. It has defined itself by what it believes instead of how it lives. Ask an evangelical about what it means to be “saved,” and they’ll likely tell you it’s about believing in Jesus. It’s about believing Jesus bridges that gap between your sinful self and a perfect, sin-hating God. Basically, it’s a system of believing certain, very specific doctrines.
That’s a huge problem. Because believing in certain truths doesn’t produce any life-altering effects. It doesn’t make you a better person. It doesn’t help you love your neighbor. It doesn’t even help you love God better. It doesn’t really change how you live your life. That’s why Christianity is so often seen as hypocritical by everybody else. What Christians say they believe hardly lines up with how they act.
And people are hungry for spiritual reality. What is true is seen in how we live, not what we profess. Since the 1960s and ‘70s, when I was a little kid, I saw this with the religious revolution of the hippies and Jesus People. They were sick of Americanized Christianity, with its patriotism and commercialism. With its embracing the “American Dream” instead of the principles of Jesus’s life and teachings. So – and I love this! – they started over. They started a movement, a Jesus revolution, focused on peace and love. They were anti-war and anti-greed. They founded coffeehouses and communes where people could experience a real sense of community, where they’d take care of each other. Where their faith was lived out in real life.
Sadly, that movement didn’t last long. It got absorbed (and neutralized) by the established church world. But the driving force, the hunger beneath all that energy, is still lingering, still present. I’d even say it’s a basic part of human nature that the church has never consistently met.
There’s a story told by Father Thomas Keating, one of the founders of the Centering Prayer movement – a form of Christian meditation. He talks about how in the 1960s when a Buddhist group turned an old retreat house into a meditation center, there was a sudden increase in people stopping by his abbey asking for directions to the center. When Fr. Keating asked what they were seeking there, he would invariably hear, “A path, man. We’re seeking a path.” And when he would ask why they didn’t seek a spiritual path within their own Christian traditions, they would inevitably respond that they didn’t know Christianity offered one. “You mean Christianity has a path?”
Brian McLaren talks about how he was at a pastors conference several years ago, and the speaker asked the group why the most popular books sold about spirituality related to Buddhism and not Christianity. The audience basically stared back with blank faces or shrugged their shoulders. The speaker suggested it’s because Buddhism presents itself as a way of life, while Christianity is presented more often as a system of beliefs. He also suggested that if Christianity wanted to recover its original vibrant identity, people needed to rediscover their own faith as a way of life. Because that’s what people are searching for. That’s what people need most.
This is borne out in the most ancient stories of the early church. Acts, chapter 2 – our lectionary reading this past Sunday – recounts how that first generation of Christians, still living in Jerusalem, “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayers. … Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.” It also says they took care of each other. “All who believed were together and had all things in common. They would sell their possessions and goods, and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.”
In other words, they didn’t just “believe” that they were “saved” (whatever that means) by Jesus. They lived it out. And history tells us that in those first centuries, this young religion exploded across the Roman empire. It enjoyed the “favor of all the people” because it took care of the poor. It embraced a lifestyle of love – love for God and love for its neighbor. People ate together, spent time together, worshipped and prayed together, formed communities. It was a way of life.
I’m not saying American Christianity needs to stop doing church like we have been. We don’t need to give up assembling in large groups Sunday mornings, singing our songs, listening to sermons, and passing the offering plates. I’m not saying we need to stop “believing” in our core doctrines about the life and teachings of Jesus. But what I am saying is that our faith needs to be so much MORE than that.
I saw this even among the Millennials and Gen Zs in the faith deconstruction discussion group I helped lead at my former church. Doctrine wasn’t enough. And that’s why Gen Z is so much more comfortable folding in neo-pagan practices into their lifestyle. They can carry crystals, get their Tarot cards read, or check their horoscopes. They can light candles, burn sage, practice meditation. They can embrace a little Wicca here and there, a little magic, or feel that sense of connection in the universe and all living things. All in conjunction with reading their bibles, going to Sunday worship, and praying to God. Because our faith has to be more about how we live our lives moment to moment, not just in what we believe. It’s about sensing we are a part of something bigger, a world alive with energy and connection – hey, how about living like we are “walking in the Spirit” more than just occasionally praying in the spirit? Or maybe even just doing a little more actual praying.
People continue saying it – but the church isn’t listening. “We’re looking for a path, man. A path. A way of life, not just a system of beliefs.”
Christianity has an image problem because it has an identity problem. Evangelicals can support Trump and his hateful, destructive policies, hoping he’ll usher in a new Christian Nation, because it has lost its soul. In defining Christianity more by hanging the Ten Commandments in school classrooms than in actually feeding the kids in those classrooms, or defending our right to bear arms instead of keeping school kids safe from semi-automatic weapons, by arguing to defend our borders and keep our military strong instead of caring for the needs of the world, by focusing on the rules instead of the needs … American Christianity has rendered itself invalid – and completely unacceptable to spiritually hungry people. People looking for a spiritual reality, not just religious doctrine.
They said it plainly in the 1960s and ‘70s. They repeated it in the ‘80s and ‘90s, the 2000s and 2010s. And people continue saying it – but the church isn’t listening. “We’re looking for a path, man. A path. A way of life, not just a system of beliefs.”
It’s way past time for the Church to re-embrace The Way of Jesus. Of spiritual disciplines. Of living in the Kingdom now. Let’s see lives focused on love and peace, more than wealth and strength. Let’s see self-control and compassion, more than trying to control the lives of others. Let’s see a path of love leading to God and a better world for everyone. A life keyed in to the Spirit that permeates all of creation, lived out in a practical way. In short, a holistic spiritual lifestyle, more than just words.
Then maybe the world wouldn’t see Christianity quite as ugly and hypocritical as it currently does. Then maybe we might actually have something to offer those looking for a better way.
“Candles” image by Ri Butov from Pixabay
“Jesus Christ – I’m the Way…” painting by Tommy Tallstig, Creative Commons 4.0