Saturday, Feb. 07, 2004 - 3:01 p.m.

No deep thoughts

I am going to try to sneak this in here. I would hate to lose it again. Something with the way I save Word doc goes coo-coo. I have to turn in this rewrite Tuesday so the teacher can edit it.

Is The American Church In Trouble?

America�s mainline churches are fighting for their lives as their leaders yield to demands from members and society to open the doors to the homosexual vanguard eager to fill ministerial positions previously forbidden. Half a century of throwing baggage overboard to accommodate the heavy cargo of ecumenicism has already caused the paying passengers to find more sea-worthy boats and trust-worthy captains. Caught between a moral devolution and divine mandate, these church leaders are tearing out the constructions that made a church different from a civic organization like the Rotary Club. The only problem is that a boat is needed to cross the sea, not a polished mahogany bookcase or a bicycle.

As homosexual right groups put increasing pressure upon state legislatures to recognize their unions and legal positions, the same pressure is being applied to all other areas of our culture. We have already seen the pressure used on other organizations as the Boy Scouts and the Armed Forces. Even such seemingly private concerns like renting a house have been impacted. Will public schools be required to have a quota of openly homosexual teachers? What about private schools? As American religious groups deal with the increasing cry for �equality�, they are not alone. What is the source of this pressure? Where did it come from and where is it going? As we see the trail forward and back, what will be the consequences?

The loud knocking of homosexuals at the door will not change a large part of the church in America, but another large part will be changed beyond recognition. Indeed, the homosexual demand will be only one of the many clamorous cries for change. Homosexual leadership may hasten the disintegration of mainline churches, but it will not be the only destroyer. This will not even be the first crumbling of a religious presence. Ecclesiastical edifices have come and gone many times since Jesus Christ declared, �Upon this rock, I shall build My church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.�

In each case, the giant crowd pleaser is torn apart and disappears only to rise phoenix-like from the ashes and thrive for a time, then repeats the cycle brought about by new cultural pressures. One merely has to examine history and see how Constantine�s attempt to weld church and state together fell apart, or how the Catholic Church�s control of England collapsed under the weight of royal lust, or how the religious communes of the nineteen seventies vanished beneath the crushing mammoth of American materialism.

No, this will not be a new phenomenon, the melting away of the mainline religious structure in America. The presence that will endure is a splintered grouping and always has been. New religions totally different from traditional churches in their beliefs such as Latterday Saints, Jehovah�s Witnesses, Pentecostals and Unification will all go on. These instances laid new rules and standards in place at the time of their inception and they will very likely continue on, although culture will bring change in some ways. The many dissenting groups who separated themselves in previous years in reaction to earlier cultural changes will also go on. Even though these may have held the same writing, the Bible, to be the authority, they were convinced it was to be taken literally, and not filtered though the winds of change.

Rather, this will be just one more mild retreat by the huge conglomerate of pious thought, an amorphous mountain that always absorbs whatever whim strikes public opinion�s fancy, and once more chooses peace at any price. The price they pay will be enormous. This time, they will lose a group they cannot replace,the backbone necessary for survival, those who have dedicated themselves to supporting their church with their pocketbooks. Even though they may not have had the courage of conviction that drew away others in earlier departures, they are vitally different from other groups. Have you ever seen a Soroptomist sacrificing to keep a club alive, a Lion or an Elk member who digs deeply into personal living expenses to help out? No, club members pay their dues and go on with their lives. And why not? The club is merely a vehicle that enables them to carry out philanthropic exercises to benefit their fellow man, a worthy reason to be sure, but not one to give a life for.

This type of falling away has taken place before in mainline churches in America. The ecumenical movement caused many of the faithful to gather up their Bibles and their tithes and head for more satisfactory pastures. Ecumenicism tried to unite different bodies of religious thought under the umbrella of unity. Attempting to lay aside differing doctrines and practices, and concentrating on what they agreed on had ushered in a vast blurring of the lines in most large denominational bodies during the last fifty years of the twentieth century. The troublemakers had all left. Lutherans who objected to the changes taking place within their places of worship moved over to Missouri Synod

Lutheran, Presbyterians to Bible Presbyterian, Methodist to Free Methodist, Baptist to Independent Baptist. Sometimes the band who left was the one wanting to yield to

cultural pressures, as we saw happen in the Southern Baptist Convention. When conservative thinkers gained control of the Convention, liberal members left to form their own new group. Frequently, the new group was a remnant, true to the original created long ago. Occasionally, the latest formation was only a copy of a copy.

This recent push by homosexual advocates may send the church in America over the edge into just another social or civic club of like-minded, like-goaled individuals. Those will now decimate mainline denominations, already weakened by the initial exodus of the flock with Biblical convictions, with moral convictions.

This coming dissolution will be interesting to watch. Interesting, but sad, for these diminishing monuments to alteration long ago deserted their true calling received from the One who founded the church on the bedrock of His own body. Over two thousand years ago, Jesus decreed, �Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you���

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