How should we respond to the bullets currently flying in the culture war? Each week has brought another loaded headline–from President Obama’s appearance at Notre Dame to the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. The murder of George Tiller while he was serving as an usher at Reformation Lutheran Church made him the latest casualty in culture war. He becomes another means to raise money for both sides of the fight. The same week, a Muslim convert shot two army recruiters, killing Pvt. William Long from Conway, Arkansas (hometown of new American Idol, Kris Allen).   Now, comes another salvo, shotgun blasts inside the Holocaust Museum.  A security guard died at the hands of an 88-year-old  white supremacist.  That is a lot of hate spewing across our nation.   Lebanon is holding peaceful elections, while we continue to fire on each other. Somehow, these latest culture war casualties haven’t inspired renewed calls for gun control.   At the very least, we can pause long enough to grieve over what we are doing to each other.

continue reading

Time magazine famously announced that “God is Dead” on April 8, 1966. While their cover story captured the zeitgeist percolating through university classrooms and philosophical debates, Time failed to anticipate how grassroots the religious impulse remains. Mainline denominations caught in the theological currents of the sixties (Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians), did experience significant decline. But the evangelicals who stuck to their core convictions during a time of great upheaval saw profound growth over the following forty years. God joined Mark Twain in suggesting that “The tales of my death are greatly exaggerated.”

Now, during another Holy Week and Passover observation, a national newsweekly has announced “The Decline and Fall of Christian America.” Jon Meacham’s argument in Newsweek doesn’t put God or Christianity on trial. He wrote an additional piece to clarify his intentions (beyond a brilliantly timed strategy to drive sales and light up the blogosphere during Holy Week). Instead, Meacham points to the rising tide of individuals claiming no religious affiliation in the 2009 American Religious Identification Survey. Those who consider themselves outside of faith have doubled since the 1990 survey, from roughly 8% to 15% (with another 5% refusing to even answer the question). Dispute that rising tide, America remains comprised of a remarkable number of Christians. But those Christians must figure out how to navigate a world in which their morality may no longer be a majority.

continue reading