Are Conservative Churches Really Winning by Being More Orthodox?

[cbayer]

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/atheologies/6933/are_conservative_churches_really_winning_by_being_more_orthodox


Big crowds, drawn by moral strictness

March 18, 2013
Are Conservative Churches Really Winning by Being More Orthodox? Or, one more reason for journalists to be better versed in U.S. religion
By DANIEL SCHULTZ
Daniel Schultz, a.k.a. pastordan, is a minister in the United Church of Christ. He serves a small and very patient church in rural Wisconsin. He is the author of Changing the Script: An Authentically Faithful and Authentically Progressive Political Theology for the 21st Century, forthcoming from Ig Press.

This weekend, NPR’s Scott Simon invited Mary Eberstadt, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, to discuss what lies ahead for the Catholic Church under Pope Francis. Eberstadt used the opportunity to promote the thesis of her forthcoming book, How the West Really Lost God: A New Theory of Secularization.

Despite its title, Eberstadt’s book—and her interview with Simon—peddled a well-worn idea. As Eberstadt herself put it,

Over time, the churches that have tried to lighten up the Christian moral code and put forth sort of a kindler, gentler version of Christianity as they see it, have not done well. They have not done well demographically and they haven’t done well financially. Churches that stick to orthodoxy do better over time because in part it's only those churches that tend to create families that can be of size and carry on the Christian tradition.

This harkens back to Dean Kelley’s 1972 book, Why Conservative Churches Are Growing, which argued that liberal denominations were losing a battle of ideas to stricter, more conservative communions.

The new twist here is Eberstadt’s argument that “orthodox” churches are winning not by directly drawing converts from liberal churches, but through the sheer power of birth rates.

more at link

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Something to be said for that idea...

Mormons and orthodox Jews have huge families, as Catholics used to, and fundie churches seem to also have larger families, all encouraged by the elders. And they have built in support networks so you don't have to worry as much about the work and the costs like the rest of us do. Cults have done this, too.

So, even if they lose a few along the way, the community is assured of new blood. Lots of new blood far beyond replacement needs.

OTOH, how many Congregational churches out there are greying out?

It seems not so much religious, but human, for people to go for ready answers and avoid a lot of the work. If some preacher, rabbi, or mullah is willing to give us answers, all the better that we don't have to figure it out ourselves. Even better if said religious authority is absolutely sure of himself and we need doubt or explore nothing he says.

But, this instinct to go for the easy answers could lead many of the flock to head for even easier answers, so backing up the talk with lots of baby tabula rasae helps stack the deck.

[cbayer]

2. He knocks down some of these arguments and makes some other

proposals for the changes in numbers, but I'm not convinced there is an easy answer.

Apparently, a lot of young hispanics are leaving the catholic church, but a lot are leaving the mainline protestant churches as well.

I think younger people are looking for less easy answers, but older populations may be returning to institutions where they don't have to be challenged as much.

[kwassa]

3. No, this is a myth promulgated by conservative Christians of different denominations

I heard Eberstadt's interview, and found her more than a little scary. And wrong, in the sense that there is little factual evidence supporting her position.

The same argument is made in Episcopal church disagreements, but there is literally no proof that it is true. Studies done by Faith Community Today, which I will post separately, show that individual conservative and individual liberal churches can both be very successful. Overall, however, US church attendance is declining, affecting all faiths, including non-Christians as well.

[rrneck]

4. Which orthodoxy?

Last edited Wed Mar 20, 2013, 12:05 AM - Edit history (1)

People hear one mega organization after another bellowing at them all day every day. Uncounted orthodoxies are produced, massaged, focus group tested, formatted and injected into their heads for every direction. They hear the Apple orthodoxy right behind the Toyota orthodoxy. All day long every day they hear, "This is how it ought to be" wrapped around a product.

There is no single problem that confronts us today any more than any other time in history, but one of the most pervasive to my mind is the confusion caused by a plethora of choices that only lead to a desire to choose again. It's like drinking Coke to quench a thirst. We don't have to take an idea and actually make it work. All we have to do is discard it for one that most easily seems to fit the task at hand.

So how is a church supposed to distinguish itself from among all of the other claimants to orthodoxy? I don't have a clue. Religion is in a tough spot. People have become desensitized by spin. There seems to be a sort of exhausted cynicism in the world. So if some church somewhere actually did produce an orthodoxy that would offer us the tools we need, how would we get the message? It would have to format it for distribution in the same culture that would discredit it for it's delivery. It would have to become the thing that is killing us. That's the problem with "reimagining" Christianity. Again. The Christian faith hooked its cart to the horse of mass production and that horse is dragging us over a cliff. And that's probably why "It seems perverse to say that members of liberal denominations show their displeasure with religious conservatism by walking away from their own churches, but that seems to be exactly what’s happening."