The twenty-first century American church is at war – not so much with unrighteousness or the forces of evil, but with itself. Long a bastion of morality and faith in the world, some parts of the Protestant church – mainline as well as evangelical – now seem more focused on carving out and defending their own cultural and economic turf than contending with a degenerate culture and helping people to live the life of Faith.
The 230 year-old Episcopal Church – the North American branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion – has endured a widening schism over human sexuality and the primacy of Scripture for more than two decades. The sexuality-dispute concerns not just whether the Church should tolerate or accept what was once called “sexual deviance,” but whether its leaders can be open practitioners of it. In 2003 the Episcopal Church consecrated The Rev. V. Gene Robinson as ninth bishop of the New Hampshire Diocese. The move was controversial because Bishop Robinson was a practicing homosexual living openly with a male lover. In public statements, the bishop has called the Bible “an outdated book” and demanded the Church’s blessing of homosexual unions.
These divisive developments have prompted parishes across the country – particularly in the conservative South – to consider resolutions to pull out of the Episcopal Church. An exact count of how many congregations have already done so is difficult to find, but estimates run to some 1,000, nationwide. Eleven in Northern Virginia alone are: Christ the Redeemer (Centreville); Church of the Apostles (Fairfax); Church of the Epiphany (Herndon); Church of Our Saviour (Oatlands); Church of the Word (Gainesville); Potomac Falls Episcopal (Sterling); St. Margaret’s (Woodbridge); St. Paul’s (Haymarket); St. Stephen’s (Heathsville); Truro (Fairfax City); and historic Falls Church (Falls Church). Truro’s former Rector, The Rev. Martyn Minns, has been appointed bishop of the new Anglican District of Virginia – an association of congregations which desire realignment with traditional Anglicanism. The ADVA is now part of the Anglican Church in North America.
Episcopal Church leaders admit that the denomination’s membership has declined from 3.4 million in 1992 to about half that number today. The economic impact on Episcopal national headquarters has been severe, since it has reduced the financial assessments parishes send to national headquarters. Seceding parishes, of course, remit no assessments at all. Most of the latter also hope to keep their properties as they leave the denomination. But under church bylaws those properties belong to the denomination, not to local congregations that wish to withdraw.
The Northern Virginia congregations listed above have all been sued by national Episcopal headquarters for their properties. The Right Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding Episcopal bishop, has ruled that the denomination will not let local congregations take their properties with them to another denominational connection – even if that new connection also belongs to the worldwide Anglican Communion. One recent report revealed that national headquarters had spent $18 million to sue departing congregations for properties that will mostly sit idle at the end of the day. In Binghamton, NY, and Avon, Connecticut – and possibly other locales – properties of withdrawing Episcopal congregations have been sold to Muslim organizations. One observer called this “in-your-face” ecclesiastical dealing.
The property-issue is not trivial. The Truro property, for instance, is valued at $26 million. The congregation lost ownership of the property, but the denomination allows them to rent it back, since otherwise it would sit un-maintained. The schism in historic Falls Church Episcopal generated a series of lawsuits which ultimately cost the seceding majority (now named the Falls Church Anglican) all access to their historic property – worth upwards of $50 million – as well as its Bibles, hymnbooks, choir robes, communion service, musical instruments, supplies, and nearly $2 million in cash.
A major denomination haggling in court with local congregations over church property is not a pretty sight. The Bible tells Christians not to resort to civil courts to settle their differences. But this is a dispute over money and property, which – as most sober-minded church officials would admit – are visceral concerns of the organized church. Jesus Christ, who was poor as the proverbial church mouse, said, “The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” But 2,000 years later, the Episcopal Church is squabbling over who owns multi-million-dollar properties. (Gives you an idea of why Jesus is often depicted weeping.)
Episcopal leaders, including the aforementioned Bishop Robinson, accuse the seceding congregations of creating “division” within the church, but their protests are too disingenuous by half. The separation wave was certainly hastened by Bishop Robinson’s provocative consecration and his radical demands from the bishop’s chair for blessings on homosexual unions. In a 2007 article, respected religious commentator Robert Duncan noted that Bishop Robinson had, by his statements about homosexual unions, “set himself up as the ultimate authority in moral matters.”
Indeed, the bishop’s activism directly contravened a directive the Anglican Communion issued to the Episcopal House of Bishops in 2007. The AC requested the bishops’ assurance that they would neither authorize same-sex blessings, nor permit the consecration of pastors and bishops living in same-sex relationships. The bishops affirmed their compliance via a resolution which they enacted over the dissent of twenty-one of their number in September 2007.[1] But their assurance did not halt the exodus of Episcopal congregations – particularly because Bishop Robinson remained in office.
The Episcopal Church is not the only part of Protestant Christendom warring with itself, however. Evangelical denominations are embroiled in what some have called the “independent church movement” – a non-sequitur as ever was. The formation of independent congregations – accountable to no church hierarchy and unconnected to any organized body of historical theology – is not a movement in any coherent sense. It is more correctly described as a “devolution.” Church after evangelical-leaning church across the country has decided to cut denominational ties and go it alone. This makes each congregation its own “denomination,” and each senior pastor the theologian-in-chief. Tall “trees” of historic theological thought are being reduced to “scrub bushes” of market-based theology designed to draw many and offend none.
When friends asked leaders of their independent church for clarification of a fuzzy rendition of Reformed Theology, they were told that such issues were the sole province of the church’s leadership. (“Shut up!” they explained.) Theological revisions in some independent churches have produced a tepid, non-confrontational theology with the consistency of used dishwater. One wag tagged it “Neo Arminio-Calvinism” – a gemischtes-pickles result with inconsistencies galore.
Beyond merely staking out their own independent theologies, churches are vigorously competing with other churches in their communities, using hand-rolled theologies, private liturgies and “creative” worship-styles as weapons. Battles for members have taken on the intensity of Dollar Day down at the mall. Every possible combination of theology-lite, liturgy and worship-style is being floated in the hope that some combo will be the rocket that produces the next megachurch. In one Virginia church that we attended, the pastor and elders started showing up at Sunday services sans coat and tie to signal to millennials that they were really just regular dudes who wanted to hang out with them.
Back in the day, a Christian could enter any evangelical church, sing the hymns and follow familiar liturgy. But that day is long-past. The popular claim that hip, contemporary churches are “seeker friendly” is risible. Each church has its own body of contemporary songs presented in words-only format. (No musical copy is available.) The visitor – “seeker” or not – is reduced to mumbling unfamiliar songs as the praise team rocks on.
Many churches have tossed traditional hymnbooks into the discard-bin. Others have scrapped the Bible, too. Scriptures that inspired Wycliffe, Huss, Latimer, Luther, Wesley and M. L. King, Jr., are no longer found in the pew-racks. Instead, worshipers are treated to readings from Rick Warren’s The Purpose-Driven Life, Maya Angelou’s poetry, or Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth. If John the Apostle were writing his letters to the Seven Churches today, one letter would call the American Evangelical Church “apostate” – i.e., one who abandons the true faith. Today, it’s all about branding, marketing, sales, turf and economic success.
But evangelical wars are raging internally, too. Many individual congregations are well into an internal civil war over those same issues of liturgy, music and worship-style. Some churches bring in outside “specialists” to clean house and create a modern worship “flavor.” Disaffected members are encouraged to move on (and don’t slam the door behind you).
Once the “painful changes” (as one worship leader called them) have been made, some churches survey the remaining members and find – mirabile dictu – that people seem “happy” with the new music and worship styles. (This is the equivalent of drinking your own bathwater.) Music and worship modifications are fiercely defended against any attempts to undo the new order. Even the most modest requests to bring back some traditional worship elements are militantly rejected. (Felix Dzerzhinsky never defended Lenin’s revolution more fiercely).
In some locales, a “traditional” evangelical church can’t be found. Many evangelical Christians say their church has left them. Close friends of ours can find no church where the worship-style ministers to them. A neighbor told me she wants church to feel like “church,” not a nightclub.
Some churches finally self-destruct under ruthless leadership styles. A church outside Atlanta that we knew well had a thriving ministry to young families. But a turf war broke out between the pastor and his church leaders. To quench dissent the pastor “packed” the church’s governing board with his own people, demanded the resignation of a popular associate pastor (who had established and led many of the church’s hands-on ministries), and told the congregation to “get over it.” With the church in turmoil, many members left for friendlier climes.
This is a rough time to be an evangelical Christian. People in main-line denominations and agnostics who care nothing about faith or “organized religion” might think this appropriate comeuppance for upstart evangelicals who have roiled American politics since 1980. But that view is myopic. It cannot be good for the country when a strong, beneficial societal influence for morality and personal righteousness is destabilized. In many ways it resembles the departure of a solid, dependable family from a neighborhood where it has lived for decades. Neighbors don’t realize what a positive, stabilizing influence that family was until it’s gone.
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[1] Episcopal House of Bishops resolution: http://www.anglicannews.org/news/2007/09/tec-house-of-bishops-a-statement.aspx
20 comments
Thank you for this excellent piece. I can only hope that the leaders of the Episcopal Church and Presbyterian Church USA (and other declining mainline protestant denominations) realize that there is a genuine thirst for the redemptive power of Christ that will not be fully appreciated by watering down sin.
I am gratified to see this article as well as the ensuing discussion.
I have long believed that the churches in America are in the high 90th percentile ranging from nominally Christian to Christian-in-name-only. And I have to wonder if the ‘Church’ on the eve of the Protestant Reformation was any less corrupt than the ‘Christian Church’ in America is today, and indeed, in the Western World at large. The positive sign I see in the ‘Christian Church Debacle’ lies among some of the very, very articulate young people in the upcoming generations who understand just how bad things are in the Church. Quite a number of these younger people have been home schooled and are familiar with Christian doctrine as it was understood by the Reformation Era peoples. And many of these folks are fed up with the insane folly that has permeated through all of the layers of the societies of the Western World. At some point, stupidity becomes just too much to bear, and at that point, a reaction sets in which begins to move people and events in another direction.
Again, so nice to see this discussion at the Bull Elephant.
You are correct. So much of discussion around the internet focuses on really meaningless celebrity based trivia. Nice to see the truth about something important to the USA exposed.
Warmac9999, nice to see your comment(s) which are duly noted.
The abject failure of the American Christian Church is on display at the Olympics where the Establishment ‘owned’ media outlet hosting is promoting sodomite degeneracy in spades, and at every available opportunity. One has to wonder what kind of example is set for American males to see a former male figure skater coiffed like a women, decked out like a woman, and with effeminacy in male image elevated to the status of state religion? This is the equivalent of the Harlot being paraded as Reason through Notre Dame in another proto-Marxist chapter in history, that of the French Revolution. The equivalence, though it need not be said, lies in the abysmal depth to which both sink into the slime.
Again, thanks for your observations/
The media also hides the great damage that homosexuality does to the individual homosexual. Disease is rampant because of hyper promiscuous sexual activity. Violence leads to early sicknesses and deaths. There is considerable more and you might want to check “factsaboutyouth” which is really horrifying as you read through what is supposed to be advice to teachers.
We not only have to stand for bold Christianity, we must demand it. The minister in the pulpit is not without blame if he is misleading his flock.
I totally agree. I also cannot believe how gullible I was to believe the culture would spin out of control as far as it has. Although, I too am a wounded sinner and cannot cast the first stone against society. Thankfully, we have a wonderful God that is rich in love, slow to anger, and very merciful to those who acknowledge their sins and repent.
Here’s another observation.
Check out the number of comments on other TBE articles and then check out the number of comments on this article by just a mere handful of people. The irony is that folks are always looking at the cart, and never the horse which draws the cart.
Since the Law of any civilization is religious in nature, the religious order should be the paramount beginning point of examination. Were it so, people might begin to understand how the American constitutions were over time decoupled from the original American Law order.
Hmm. Haven’t seen many JW’s around for awhile.
Guess they found no future in proselytizing to money grabbers.
Just a technical question about the Episcopal Church. Is the Episcopal Church, Protestant or Catholic? Is that a question that can really be definitively answered? Or, are they whichever a member wishes to believe they are? Not that it really makes any difference.
On another note, I could, and have in the past, posted Bible verses on what is going on in religion, the world, or whatever. But, without the Holy Spirit, you will never believe what is written in Scripture. One cannot know sin without the Holy Spirit. And what you have written in this link proves just that. The people you have written about do not know sin.
If you mean Roman Catholic then it is a Protestant church. Otherwise, it is per the Nicene Creed, part of Christ’s one holy catholic (universal) and apostolic church.
Yes, and are they also part of James 2:19 and 2:26? And Matthew 5:10? There many churches, but where can any person actually preach the entire Bible, and not be run out off town? Even if you are silent in Christ, but practice Christianity you will be persecuted. My point, if today you believe in Christ, and have received The Holy Spirit, you will be persecuted and tormented by those who are agents of Satan but are also believers in Christ.
To believe that one can be be happy, fun loving, filthy rich with the love of this world and its material goods, but also be in Christ is lie. Preach the only message of truth, and believe in Him, then you will be persecuted for his sake. The only truth being the Word of God. Matthew 6:24.
But, I to am a sinner.
If I understand you correctly, I think you are talking about the Church Militant (an old term for current State of the Church) that we are to expect persecution until the Church Triumphant, when the risen Christ returns again. I think you are right and the Bible absolutely supports that position.
Thanks for the reply.
The Episcopal Church has seen a major decline in their Average Sunday Attendance since the elevation of Bishop Robinson. The number at the time was about 850,000+. Today, it is less than 600,000 and still falling at about the rate of 2-3% per year. Worst of all is that families with children have abandoned many mainline churches because of what they perceive as perversion of church doctrine. The very people that ran and taught in the Sunday schools have left for more biblically based churches. And that is really the issue – sermonizing from the Bible not from some new age social justice baloney that makes people feel good but does nothing for their souls. (Clever and articulate “religious” leaders can always come up with something that appeals to their congregation. The real test of their faith is whether than can take that something from the Bible and make it relevant.)
So far, the Episcopal Church, and many other mainline denomination churches, have failed to preach bold Christianity. Yet if you think this is bad in the USA, take a good look at Western Europe. Cathedrals are being converted to mosques. Christian ministries are accepting Islamic dictates and undermining their own congregations for political and economic purposes. In Sweden, the lead bishop plans to take crosses out of the churches to make them more welcoming to muslims. The Pope has condemned Christians who express concern about what they see as coming religious warfare.
This article is an excellent one. Well presented and quite accurate. If Christianity is to survive, it must not only come to grips with its internal failures but with the growing external pressures. And the churches better do it fast.
“Most of the latter also hope to keep their properties as they leave
the denomination. But under church bylaws those properties belong to the
denomination, not to local congregations that wish to withdraw.
The Northern Virginia congregations listed above have all been sued
by national Episcopal headquarters for their properties. The Right Rev.
Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding Episcopal bishop, has ruled that
the denomination will not let local congregations take their properties
with them to another denominational connection – even if that new
connection also belongs to the worldwide Anglican Communion. One recent
report revealed that national headquarters had spent $18 million to sue
departing congregations for properties that will mostly sit idle at the
end of the day.”
—–
I would imagine, in the end, the courts will not care about church bylaws so much as who paid for the assets. For instance if local tithes paid for local assets or whether national headquarters paid for those assets.
I wish that were the case. Unfortunately, even though some of the churches mentioned were formed by a congregation originally independent of the main church hierarchy, the fact that these churches joined the main church hierarchy has been ignored in judicial decisions. The hierarchy wins and loses at the same time because they cannot provide a sustaining congregation. Thus you get the rent back extortion.
Quite right. The Falls Church was founded in 1732 – before the Episcopal Church was even formed.
Falls Church Anglican is buying it’s own property and plans to build a very large Christian church.