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On The American Christian Divorce
by Steve Bussey
(Steve Bussey wrote this comment in
response to a September 17, 2024 facebook post by Philip Grant
Farthing On The American Christian Divorce...)
Much of this divide is tethered to the
modernist-fundamentalist split - which is actually more a
story of German and Dutch thinking with a smattering of
English and Scottish thought.
We see it played out in the US because
the country is like a megaphone that sadly sometimes exports
the worst aspects of its culture. The same can be said of
religion.
If you study how the modernist
fundamentalist debate of the late 19th and early 20th century
gave way to both neo-orthodox and neo-evangelical
perspectives, these debates were an extension of that
Dutch-German debate - and it was driven largely by reformed
thinking.
Wesleyans on the other hand emphasized
acts of piety and mercy (for those who were faithful to
Wesley) - and we see that idea scaled with the holiness
movement’s idea of revivalism and reform, distinct attributes
of the first and second evangelical awakenings.
Sadly, in the US, the Methodist
church’s drift and compromise in the area of slavery and the
formation of North and South Methodists compromised the
integrity of Wesleyan witness. The South drifting into a
fundamentalism fused with a pseudo-nationalism that resisted
issues of mercy justice, with the North embracing a radical
abolitionism and much of the allure of the industrialism and
intellectualism that would fuel the gilded age.
Following the Civil War, the Holiness
Movement was formed as a “return” to classic Wesleyan ideals
and sought to integrate revivalism and reform. The North was
quite brutal to the South and did exploit and abuse in many
ways - as much in the church as in society. There is a story
of Railton going to Texas and trying to heal the wounds and
reconcile Wesleyans in 1880 at one of the first Holiness Camp
Meetings in Texas!
Timothy Smith’s research demonstrates
this continuity - but this movement has also struggled.
The emergence of both Pentecostalism
and Boston Personalism further tore away at the Wesleyan
witness - and by the 1920s the more orthodox progressive
social reform collapsed into a secularized socialism and
ecumenism that under-emphasized confessionalism for a utopian,
post-millennial vision of personal and “social” holiness (not
how social holiness was originally understood by Wesley - but
now as a pseudo-socialism).
By the 1950s, Pentecostalism gave rise
to the charismatic movement. Fundamentalism gave rise to
neo-evangelicalism. Modernism gave way to liberalism and
neo-orthodoxy. During this time, the Wesleyan confession lost
its way. Aspects were scattered in these various camps. Add
the “Red Scare” of the Cold War and the “boom” not only of the
American population, but the idea of the teenager, pop
culture, etc. - and you have the next major iteration of these
ideas.
Enter television’s growing popularity
from the 50s to the 70s and these ideas evolve (or devolve)
even further. The reforms of the 60s in the areas of race,
gender, class, sexuality, etc. revolutionize and further
isolate these camps.
By the late 1970s, the social crisis
and a strange boom and bust in evangelicalism gives rise to
the “moral majority” and Christian right. At the same time you
have a crisis around the authority of Scripture, a larger
network of believers United through Lausanne, the rise of
“process” theology, a new wave of radical theologies such as
the death of God movement, etc.
The 1980s sees the introduction of
cable television, 24-hour news media, televangelist scandals,
HIV, AIDS, global famine, the collapse of communism. The
church growth movement gives way to the mega church as “Jesus
People” movements of the seventies evolve like the hippies
becoming yuppies into “seeker sensitive” monolithic
structures. Youth and children’s ministry shifts from
catechesis to fun and games.
The 1990s see the emergence of the
internet, Gen-X, postmodernity and skepticism to a
commercialized church. We witness the end of apartheid and an
accelerated “globalization” with the exportation of everything
from MTV to Word of Faith prosperity gospel messages being
pumped into places like Africa. Multi-national corporations
start merging and acquiring things everywhere - including
Christian companies from music to Bibles to Veggietales and
commodify these into “big business” - exporting these
alongside McDonalds and Nike shoes.
In this era, church “brands” became
swallowed up in all of this! Movements like “Promise Keepers”
and the Christian Community Development Association were
tackling issues around men being positive role models and
racial reconciliation and urban ministry being critical areas
to focus on. The “Toronto Blessing” and other charismatic
revivals in Florida, London and other locations fueled a new
wave known as the “new apostolic reformation” championed by
people like Peter Wagner, John Wimber, and many others.
Anti-American sentiment grew globally
as Russia collapsed and America sold itself as “the victor” -
and its’ culture became the mass-exported normative of a
globalized world.
9/11 struck fear in the world and the
early 2000s saw the rise of social media, where people could
find echo chambers of sub-cultures that would fuel their niche
perspectives. During this time, we witnessed the most extreme
splits fissuring. Groups like the emerging and emergent
movements began to “deconstruct” expressions and eventually
essentials. The phrase “progressive Christianity” become
popular. Cultural studies from German critical theory to
French post-structuralists (and post-everything!) have given
rise to a collective disdain for “religion” but a celebration
of “spirituality.” Spiritual formation and social Justice
became alt cultures.
These ideas resonated with millennials
and became highly interconnected globally through social
outlets. Those “cybercommunities” gave rise to post-geographic
movements knitting together by virtual solidarity to the ideas
(and ideologies) of their unique point of view. Fueled by the
language of justice and the turn inward to what has become
known as both “moralistic therapeutic deism” and “expressive
individualism,” and then fueled by a form of philanthropy and
“justice seeking” from the comfort of your own mobile phone
and we had a recipe for revolution of any and every sort!
Shifts in the field of sexuality and a
major shift in the media and the business industry
demonstrating support for more progressive views further split
the church left and right.
By about 2015, we have witnessed a
cataclysmic collapse of Christianity - deconstructing and
facing one of its greatest crises for several centuries. Many
locations - from Europe and the UK to the US to Commonwealth
nations like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand - have been
abandoning the faith in large droves BUT this has been
paralleled by an unbelievable EXPLOSION of Christianity in
Africa, South America, Asia and other places.
Due to the cosmopolitan nature of our
world and the increased mobility of people worldwide, much of
the “majority world” that embraces Christianity is speaking
prophetically to a once Christian “minority” world -
challenging the compromises on both the left and right.
All that to say… I wonder whether it
might be worth us returning to Wesley’s vision of embracing
both acts of piety and mercy? Humpty Dumpty has fallen and
broken and, while we cannot put him back together again on our
own - a return to the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of all
things can make whole that which seems beyond repair.
We are so desperately in need of true
revival and true reform. One without the other will not result
in a great awakening of our present generation.
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