The United Methodist Church is prepared to split so that traditionalists and progressives can be missional without the distraction of battling each other over sexuality. Will either new denomination be missionally effective in the current American culture?
Author: Mark
Public Trust and the Prophet
Religious leaders are not garnering high levels of trust among Americans. This requires them to think carefully about how they will participate in the public square. A rethinking of what it means to be “prophetic” is in order.
New Challenges to Christian Witness for Evangelical and Mainline Protestants
New research shows that Evangelical Protestants are more knowledgeable about the Christian faith than Mainline Protestants, but are much less liked. They are about equally knowledgeable about other belief systems. This presents challenges for both.
Disrupting Happiness
Disrupting Happiness: If there is so much evidence linking religion to a greater sense of well-being, why are so many people walking away from the Mainline Protestant Church?
What if Evangelicals and Liberals Want the Same Salvation?
As we head into the Christmas holiday, we have become accustomed to the culture wars starting up again about whether it is appropriate to say “Merry Christmas” or whether religious symbols can be displayed on public land. These issues are usually set up as examples of conservatives (Christians) vs. liberals (non-religious). Predictable, right? The conservative…
Europe Offers a Clearer View of US Divisions
At a recent conference I attended, a British presenter described the rapidly diminishing number of Christians in the UK. After doing so, he turned to the several Americans in the room and joked, “Don’t worry, though, you’ll be joining us soon!” The idea that Europe is a bellweather of religious adherence for the United States…
New Salvation Quiz
I have developed the quiz “What’s Your View of Christian Salvation?”. Just click on that title in the menu at the top of my website. It will take you to a 9-question quiz that probes what you think is good and what concerns you most. Based on this, it lines you up with one of five historical figures, explains their view of salvation, and gives you some practical ideas of how that view can be put into practice.
Who Is the Audience? To What End?
The Pew Research Center came out with a new report on 29 August entitled “The Religious Typology.” In an attempt to develop a new way of categorizing Americans as related to religion, this study asked people a series of questions about such items as their beliefs, religious activities, and sources of meaning. Researchers then used…
Unexpected Commonalities: White Evangelicals and Nonwhites in America
Pew Research Center has just released a new report on what Americans believe about God’s nature and activity. The report begins by reminding us that Americans are still a religious people with 56% believing in the God of the Bible and 33% believing in some spiritual force or higher power. (Notably, these are much higher…
The Mainline’s Missing Liberals
Pew Research has come out with new data with discouraging news for white mainline Christianity in the United States. In a previous post, I reviewed data showing that white mainline denominations are skewing more liberal, something that it has consciously chosen to do over the past century. This means that the white mainline denominations should…