New Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson writes about how the African Anglican church installed a missionary bishop in the United States. That's right - African evangelism of the United States.
Why? Well, it isn't as some reported, simply a matter of battles over sexuality. Rather, Gerson writes, it is about a realignment of the Christian faith:
In 1900, about 80 percent of Christians lived in North America and Europe; now, more than 60 percent live on other continents. There are more Presbyterians in Ghana than in Scotland. The largest district of the United Methodist Church is found in Ivory Coast. And many of the enthusiastic converts of Western missions have begun asking why portions of the Western church have abandoned the traditional faith they once shared. Liberal Protestant church officials, headed toward international assemblies, are anxiously counting African votes, because these new voters tend to take their Bible both literally and seriously.
This emerging Christianity can be troubling. Church leaders sometimes emphasize communal values more than individual human rights, and they need to understand that strongly held moral beliefs are compatible with a commitment to civil liberties for all. Large Pentecostal churches are often built by domineering personalities promising health and wealth.
But the religion of the global south has a great virtue: It is undeniably alive. And it needs to be. A mother holding a child weak with AIDS or hot with malaria, or a family struggling to survive in an endless urban slum, does not need religious platitudes. Both need God's ever-present help in time of trouble -- which is exactly what biblical Christianity claims to offer.
Some American religious conservatives have embraced ties with this emerging Christianity, including the church I attend. But there are adjustments in becoming a junior partner. The ideological package of the global south includes not only moral conservatism but also an emphasis on social justice, an openness to state intervention in markets, and a suspicion of American economic and military power. The emerging Christian majority is not the Moral Majority.
What does all of this mean? At its root, I believe it means the end of shiny, happy Christianity where God is viewed as someone who is there to just make you happy and where words are more important than deeds. Are we up for the change?
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How come then, being a Liberal Christian ALWAYS means promoting abortion and homosexuality? Two things that cannot be supported by the New Testament, as both are really sexual immorality and promiscuity. two things that seem to define liberal theolgy.
Those who think the schism is primarily about homosexuality need to educate themselves a little more. This has been going on well before Gene Robinson was elected Bishop in New Hampshire. In response to some of the comments above, people need to stop conflating the belief that homosexuality is sinful with hatred of homosexuals. And, yes, some Christians need to watch the words they use as they do tend to hurt, whether they're meant to or not.
FabolousHeretic, you wrote: "The more Christians cling irrationally to their hatred of homosexuality, the more they will be justly left in the dustbin of history."
Do you mean Christians in general, including yourself, will be left in the dustbin, or just those Christians who cling to those beliefs? The only places where Christianity is expanding are places that generally hold the beliefs that you oppose. If these new believers go into the dustbin, so will Christianity. Of course, there's Islam, but if that religion ever takes hold in the Western world you'll be wishing Christianity and all its "hatred" were still the dominate religious force.
"The only places where Christianity is expanding are places that generally hold the beliefs that you oppose." Not in this country, Eric.
Tom, Is Christianity growing in this country?
Eric,
The opposition to homosexuality in Christianity is not growing. By the time the avg. 20 y/o today turns 50, the issue of homosexuality will be non-existent.
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