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In our last post we looked at some of the data relating to the vitality of the contemporary Christian Church. (It is important to point out that I am primarily talking about the Protestant Church; the Catholic Church has many of the same problems). We noted that by some measures (giving and volunteerism) the Church and its community seemed to be effectively manifesting Christian values. However, in important ways, the Church is showing great weakness:
- Both church membership and belief in Christianity itself are declining at a rapid pace; what is particularly true is that younger people are less likely to call themselves Christians.
- As it faces an increasingly secular and liberal society (in the social sense and not in the political sense), the Church has not only been unable to change the culture, but on the contrary, has been slowly drifting toward it.
The Church’s Mission. In Matthew 28 we read (in the NIV):
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go… 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” What Jesus commanded the disciples was the same command he is giving us today: “Go and make disciples of all nations…” We need to evaluate the Church by this standard. How is it doing at making disciples? Clearly the data tell us, “Not very well.” (At least in the West; the Church is very vibrant and growing in Africa, Latin America and Asia). In America, we are losing members and many of today’s Christians follow the teachings of the world, rather than the teachings of Christ.
A Major Challenge facing the Church today is restoring trust in the Church and its leaders. If the world believes we are like the Pharisees of Christ’s day, hypocritical and more interested in worldly power than treasures in heaven, the American Church is doomed to fail. So the number one response has to be to restore trust. Let’s look at some of the reasons trust in the Church and its ministers is declining. (It should be noted that this is a time in America of increasing distrust of all institutions).
Honesty. The world does not see Christian clergy as modeling honesty and a high standard of ethical behavior. According to Christianity Today only 37% of Americans believe that clergy have very high ethical standards, while 16% believe they have very low ethical standards. This puts clergy below accountants and ahead of bankers. More importantly, perceptions of clergy honesty have been declining since 1978 (see chart below) and have dropped off precipitously in the last decade.
Sexual Abuse. Sexual abuse has been seen as largely a problem for the Catholic Church, with its many scandals and unmarried clergy. The scale of the abuse of minors in the Catholic Church, and the Church’s decision to cover up abuse when they found it, has tarred all Christians. But Protestants are not innocent either. While there are no data on the prevalence of sexual abuse in the Protestant Church, there are many anecdotes. What follows is largely focused on the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) because of the availability of some important reporting on the SBC, but every denomination has experienced sexual abuse by its clergy and leaders.
The Houston Chronicle ran a six-part exposé of sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Church (SBC), revealing more than 700 assaults of men, women, boys and girls by 380 church leaders and volunteers, and the systematic cover-up of these assaults. The case of Debbie Vazquez is just one of these. The following is quoted directly from that article
“She was 14, she said, when she was first molested by her pastor in Sanger, a tiny prairie town an hour north of Dallas. It was the first of many assaults that Vasquez said destroyed her teenage years and, at 18, left her pregnant by the Southern Baptist pastor, a married man more than a dozen years older.
In June 2008, she paid her way to Indianapolis, where she and others asked leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention and its 47,000 churches to track sexual predators and take action against congregations that harbored or concealed abusers. Vasquez, by then in her 40s, implored them to consider prevention policies like those adopted by faiths that include the Catholic Church.
‘Listen to what God has to say,” she said, according to audio of the meeting, which she recorded. “… All that evil needs is for good to do nothing. … Please help me and others that will be hurt.’
Days later, Southern Baptist leaders rejected nearly every proposed reform.”
One of those SBC leaders, Paige Patterson, the president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, was forced into early retirement in 2018 after reports that he’d told a rape victim to forgive her assailant rather than call the police.
Boz Tchividjian, grandson of Billy Graham, former prosecutor of sexual violence against children spoke in 2019 at a Southern Baptist Conference on caring for victims of sexual abuse in the church. Hear the heart of God as this prophet speaks.
Sexual abuse in the Christian Church, and what is worse, the cover-up of that abuse, makes us hypocrites. What does Jesus say about hypocrites in Matthew 23:27? “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.”
Conclusion. The Church in America is failing by its most important metric: its failure to make disciples. There are many reasons for this failure, but one of the most important is the fact that Christians, let alone non-Christians have lost their trust in the Church and its leaders. A major, but clearly not the sole reason for this decline in trust is the prevalence of sin and hypocrisy within the Church. Our next post will review the data and argue that if trends continue the Christian church could become totally irrelevant in America in fifty years.