There will be a storm that American Christianity, as it stands today, will find difficult to withstand.

Religion beyond the margins

More than marginalized?
For nearly a generation now, religion in America – especially the Christian religion – has been designated a role on the margins of society. Denied a place at the table of public policy and social issues, except through their own media and in their own contexts, Christians have protested this shunting to the sidelines, but, in the main, with little effect.

Christianity has continued to thrive in this country, after a fashion. But the influence Christians have been able to wield in the large issues of our society has been mainly a grating one, with little lasting effect.

Meanwhile, other developments have increased the pace of secularization’s spread into every sector of our society. And over the past decade, certain factors have begun to come together which could be the makings of a “perfect storm” that could blow away whatever is left of Christianity’s influence in public life.

I don’t mean that the churches will all close their doors or that pastors will be rounded up and shipped to the gulag. I simply mean that, as irrelevant to social and moral factors as Christians are today, events are developing which could marginalize the Christian contribution even more, if not stifle it altogether.

Five factors
A recent report in the The Economist (“Biology 2.0,” June 19th 2010), celebrating the tenth anniversary of the decoding of the human genome, suggests that a perfect storm, spawning even more rapid secularization, may be brewing just beyond the horizon.

Five factors have emerged and are coming together in ways that threaten the role of Christian faith in America’s future. Left unrecognized and unaddressed, these five factors virtually ensure that a long season of isolation and perhaps worse is preparing to settle on the Church.

The first of these developments is advances in genetic science. Now I am not suggesting that these advances are all negative and dangerous. Not at all. But so much progress has been made, and the promises of new drugs and new treatments as a result of genetic science have been so hyped, that anything which threatens to stand in the way of unfettered genetic research can expect to be roundly opposed.

As The Economist puts it, “post-genomic biology – biology 2.0, if you like – has finally killed the idea of vitalism, the persistent belief that to explain how living things work, something more is needed than just an understanding of physics and chemistry.” In other words, if you want to talk about genetics, and you think to inject the language of transcendence or spirituality, you can forget it.

The second development is more recent, but it has been brewing ever since the Great Depression. This is the progress of big government. What has been growing steadily for a generation has, in the past two years, achieved quantum leaps of growth into more and more areas of private life. The recent health care reform act is an example of how big government intends to throw its weight into an arena previously reserved to private interests. At the same time, President Obama’s lifting of President Bush’s restrictions on stem cell research – over the protest of whatever Christian voices could be rallied to object – is an indication of how these first two developments, as they come together in the name of the “public weal,” will not likely be open to Christian views. Other governments, such as China and Great Britain, are also investing heavily in genetic sciences, in the hope of sponsoring breakthroughs to new products and services.

The third development is the promise of big money. Drug companies, physicians and hospitals, and researchers and therapists already sense the potential of these fist two developments to create new market opportunities for them. Billions have been and are being invested in drugs and treatments, using stem cells and other kinds of genetic research, with the hope that an even greater return will be realized at some point. Businesses that detect “the smell of money”, as The Economist put it, are not likely to be persuaded by religious protestors to consider other options.

The fourth development follows from the second. It’s what Frederik von Hayek referred to in his classic, The Road to Serfdom,as a nation of serfs. As big government moves into more and more areas of life, such as health care, social security, and various private sector enterprises (banking, insurance, autos), people may object at first, but, as the benefits begin to role in, they will acquiesce in the “nanny state” mentality and, like the Egyptians before Joseph, gladly relinquish their freedoms for the promise of security and survival.

The final development is the increasing tendency of Christians to disqualify themselves as viable contributors to public policy. Insipid and self-serving gospel schemes, inconsistent morality on the part of leaders, a no-nothing approach to opposing social change, and a community whose moral and ethical behavior does not stand out as different, appealing, or even consistent make the social views of Christians suspect, if not laughable.

These five factors, long in development, have begun to swirl together in a way that threatens to create a critical mass of heightened secularization and pragmatic thinking in all matters of public policy. And, should this development continue, that will be a storm that American Christianity, as it stands today, will find difficult to withstand.

Is it too late?
For all that, it’s not too late to seed the clouds of this developing perfect storm with some calming remedies. Here is a call, not for retreat, but for richer, more meaningful engagement on the part of Christians in all walks of life with the big issues facing our nation today.

But first we must address the need for greater consistency and constancy in our walk with the Lord as a community. We will have nothing to offer our nation of a constructive nature until we begin, as a community all across the nation, to resume the pursuit of holiness in the fear of God (2 Cor. 7:1).

But then we must look for ways to support those Christians who are seeking to engage the moral and social issues of the day from their own personal and professional vantage point. Organizations such as The Center for Faith and Science International should offer great hope and encouragement to the Christian community that platforms exist from which serious and informed Christians can speak into the issues of the day with great effects. Such efforts deserve our prayers and support.

Every Christian must recognize the signs, the warning clouds of the coming perfect storm, and, rather than merely take shelter from the storm, begin to take steps to engage it, wherever we can, by whatever means. Become a consistent and informed Christian. Engage your neighbors in conversation. Look for ways to affect these large issues whenever they enter the public square or the political arena.

This is part of our responsibility to seek the peace of the nation to which God has sent us (Jer. 29:7). That nation will know no peace which continues to shunt the followers of Christ to the margins of society and to minimize the role of God and His Gospel in public life. And those believers will not be able to fulfill their callings, nor to know full and abundant life in Christ, who fail to engage the spirit of the times with the Spirit of the living God.

T. M. Moore is Principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe (www.myparuchia.com) and Dean of the BreakPoint Centurions (colsoncenter.org). Sign up to receive his daily devotionals, Crosfigell, at MyParuchia.com, ViewPoint at colsoncenter.org, and Pastor to Pastor, at worldviewchurch.org.