Something strange bordering on the conspiratorial happened in the wake of the anomie unleashed by the sexual revolution in the US. Mainstream publications such as Time and Newsweek actively participated in driving the final nail into Christianity’s coffin. The magazines applauded rogue priests such as Episcopalian Bishop James Pike, who attempted to upend 2,000-year-old dogmas of the Christian faith and published articles advocating a modernised, more secular view of Christianity and God. With institutional chaos rampaging and church membership declining, the churches were willing to adapt religious teachings in accordance with the liberal spirit sweeping American culture and condone violations of the Christian moral code. The media not only abetted this trend, it became an agent of egregious change. Strong religious leadership from above might have arrested the decline. The problem however was that despite the contemporaneous big ecclesiastic names bandied around champions of the faith, true heroes, and potential martyrs could not be found. The hold of Mammon was all-encompassing; it had compromised all.
What Ross Douthat calls, appropriately, the age of accommodation in Bad Religion (2012) was “heralded by Time magazine’s famous cover story “Is God Dead?” which ran in April 1966.” He claims that rather than being a pitch for atheism, the story was actually a comment on emerging trends in Christian theology. However, from what he quotes of the article it is quite clear that the pitch was a not so subtle attempt at twisting traditional concepts such as God’s transcendence and Afterlife to more temporal ends. “God’s transcendence would be associated with the modern hope for a better future” and “…building the Kingdom of God in this life rather than preparing believers for the Hereafter.” The article also suggested that in the long run the churches might need to take an “agnostic stance” on long upheld doctrines such as immortality and resurrection of the dead. It stretches credulity, mine at least, to the limit to believe that this actually was an emerging trend in mainstream Christianity. More likely it was the hope of certain powers-that-be whose interests the publications served.
Nonetheless, the attempt at transforming Christianity to the new cultural paradigm was real. Churches compromised orthodoxy to become more inclusive in order to retain and attract members. Thus female ministers were ordained. Liturgy was revised to be gender neutral to please the gentler half. Minorities and immigrants were charmed with the message of social justice. Grace and forgiveness were emphasised over God’s attribute of justice. And music from the pop culture became ecclesiastical music.
The endeavour to make the Christian faith more inclusive was a response to the challenges confronting Christianity. Seminaries, where the country’s politics came to be considered more important than producing men of God, were incapable of producing pastors and priests capable of combating the scourge plaguing Christianity. In spirit though not in intellectual rigour, the changes were the same as the ones attempted by pre-War modernist theologians. It was an attempt to reconcile religion with modernity, but now, the same as then, the changes ended up making a travesty of religion. It appears that the real driving force behind it all was external to the churches. That force was a God-averse media and secularism of the elite in the halls of government, the courts, educational institutions and Hollywood, of course.
Some people genuinely believed that by eliminating doctrinal differences between denominations, loosening moral restrictions, and becoming more inclusive, they were better serving Jesus’ message of Christian unity and solidarity. The Episcopalian church was quick to become the People’s church. It pandered to whatever its followers wanted: “democratic, egalitarian, politicised, and sexually liberated, but with outward forms of liturgy and hierarchy still intact…” The liberal wing of the Lutherans and many other denominations were not far behind the Episcopalians in adapting to the new social realities. And membership declined because the reformers had misjudged what the people wanted. They still wanted a transcendental experience from churchgoing that secularised churches were unable to provide. It would have been good had the earnest reformers paid heed to Anglican Ralph Inge’s perspicacious comment: “He who marries the spirit of the age is soon left a widower,” but none listened because Mammon’s spell over the churches was pervasive.
Some tried to find solace in mysticism, yoga, Hinduism, and Buddhism. However, says Douthat, “Genuine mysticism ultimately depends on genuine belief.” Lacking genuine conviction in foreign and superstitious beliefs, these efforts are at best feel good exercises.
It is worth noting here that Islam has the answers to some of the west’s spiritual woes but centuries-old historical Christian antagonism towards the Muslim faith and the continuing role of the media to cast Islam in a bad light prevent most westerners from looking for answers in Islam. Hats off to the few intrepid souls who dare to do so.
The writer is a freelance writer and an electrical engineer. He can be reached at [email protected]