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As I've always said, when your Christian faith isn't based on the Bible but instead based on modern secular cultural norms, how can such faith stand? Mainline Protestant denominations such as the Episcopals, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc have all "modernized" their message, supporting total sexual liberation and the freedom to reject large portions of Scripture dealing with supernatural miracles, in hopes of attracting a younger, more open minded crowd but instead the opposite has happened. Over the past ten years, attendance in mainline liberal Protestant churches has collapsed. I think it is to a point that liberal Christianity has more in common with atheism than it does traditional Christianity and there is nothing it offers that people can't get from an atheist or self-help group.
What people are hungry for is the Word of God and the unadulterated Gospel of the Bible. It's no co-incidence that the churches preaching that Gospel, the one preached by Peter, Paul, and John, are thriving.
Jesus condemn religious conservatives harshly. The sermon on the mount is quite a liberal philosophy. Conservatism is destroying religion. Keep it up, you're a perfect example of why people are turning away from it.
Jesus condemn religious conservatives harshly. The sermon on the mount is quite a liberal philosophy. Conservatism is destroying religion. Keep it up, you're a perfect example of why people are turning away from it.
Do you think Jesus was liberal? Was doctrine important to him?
The OP's observation is right on and this has been going on for many years. The mainline liberal churches are for the most part shrinking drastically, and the more liberal they are, the faster they shrink.
I don't think Fyero has read the "Sermon on the Mount" recently It promises persecution for all believers, it condemns the sin of adultery and murder that happen in the heart. Jesus says that few will be saved. The Sermon on the Mount has all kinds of things in it, and can hardly be labeled conservative or liberal, at least in the way most people label doctrine.
Jesus condemn religious conservatives harshly. The sermon on the mount is quite a liberal philosophy. Conservatism is destroying religion. Keep it up, you're a perfect example of why people are turning away from it.
Why don't you refute what my post and what the article states? If Liberal Christianity is the future then give evidence as to why you think that instead of simply parroting tired liberal talking points. One thing thats consistent about Jesus' message throughout all history is it always goes against what is the cultural norm, be it the Pharisees of ancient Judea, the slave society of 19th century America or the hyper-sexual society of the 21st century. I don't really think you can classify his message as liberal or conservative as the definitions of such labels change with time. Jesus' message hasn't changed and never will.
Why don't you refute what my post and what the article states? If Liberal Christianity is the future then give evidence as to why you think that instead of simply parroting tired liberal talking points. One thing thats consistent about Jesus' message throughout all history is it always goes against what is the cultural norm, be it the Pharisees of ancient Judea, the slave society of 19th century America or the hyper-sexual society of the 21st century. I don't really think you can classify his message as liberal or conservative as the definitions of such labels change with time. Jesus' message hasn't changed and never will.
Um, you missed like about 1500 years in the middle there where conservative Christianity was the cultural norm, certainly throughout Europe and then in the New World.
But other than that millennium and a half, oh heck yeah, it was sure rebellious to be conservative and Christian...
As I've always said, when your Christian faith isn't based on the Bible but instead based on modern secular cultural norms, how can such faith stand? Mainline Protestant denominations such as the Episcopals, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc have all "modernized" their message, supporting total sexual liberation and the freedom to reject large portions of Scripture dealing with supernatural miracles, in hopes of attracting a younger, more open minded crowd but instead the opposite has happened. Over the past ten years, attendance in mainline liberal Protestant churches has collapsed. I think it is to a point that liberal Christianity has more in common with atheism than it does traditional Christianity and there is nothing it offers that people can't get from an atheist or self-help group.
What people are hungry for is the Word of God and the unadulterated Gospel of the Bible. It's no co-incidence that the churches preaching that Gospel, the one preached by Peter, Paul, and John, are thriving.
Besides Episcopalians, whom do they have actual numbers on to support the meat of this article?
Also, where are the numbers to support the assertion that conservative Christian numbers are growing by comparison? Or growing at all? And how is "conservative Christian" defined? Are they talking fundamentalists? Just curious.
Methinks there are many good reasons this article appeared in the Opinion pages.
Um, you missed like about 1500 years in the middle there where conservative Christianity was the cultural norm, certainly throughout Europe and then in the New World.
But other than that millennium and a half, oh heck yeah, it was sure rebellious to be conservative and Christian...
European state-controlled Christianity may have been conservative politically but it wasn't Biblical Christianity. There were a lot of people who opposed the Catholic church and later the Anglican church on Biblical doctrine that were condemned as heretics. True Christianity has always went against culture, even when that culture has been supposedly Christian.
I didn't read the entire thread, but just wanted to say that I think liberal Christianity is thriving. It is the churches that are collapsing. All the lies they have been built on are being exposed more and more and people are disgusted with them. The Christian Right in America has been stripped naked and exposed for what it is. No doubt about it. Not everyone will be able to see it though. Those on the inside are still wearing the blinders.
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