The Partisan Social Gospel is Creating Empty Mainline Churches
Religion & Liberty Online

The Partisan Social Gospel is Creating Empty Mainline Churches

open-bible-empty-pewsTwenty years ago, mainline Protestant denominations supported legislation that protected religious freedoms. Today, those same denominations have decided that advancing the sexual revolution is more important than defending the conscience of their fellow Christians.

In an op-ed for the Washington Times, Nicholas G. Hahn III notes how churches that join in sexual-revolution politicking are finding they are preaching to empty pews:

This kind of sexual-revolution politicking leaves almost no room for prayer, and offers the faithful little more than what secular politicians already do. Perhaps in a last-ditch effort to stay relevant amid the rise of “nones,” pastors who politick from the pulpit seem to confuse their priorities. President Clinton warned in 1993 that “both religion and government could be perverted if there were not some space created and some protection provided.” If the religious ruckus in Indianapolis is any indication, Mr. Clinton might be a prophet.

This is the liberal Christian dilemma: accelerate decline with politics as usual, or confront the church attendance crisis with religion. The religious left’s Good Friday is here. If it drops the partisan social gospel, it could begin to see a resurrection of its own.

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Joe Carter

Joe Carter is a Senior Editor at the Acton Institute. Joe also serves as an editor at the The Gospel Coalition, a communications specialist for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and as an adjunct professor of journalism at Patrick Henry College. He is the editor of the NIV Lifehacks Bible and co-author of How to Argue like Jesus: Learning Persuasion from History's Greatest Communicator (Crossway).