Dr. Tim Keller, a pastor and author in Manhattan, on the death of the mushy middle.
This is of course true in more spheres than religion and faith; for example, here are two NY Times articles on the loss of mushy political centrists and the increasing and predictable polarization in politics.
[HT: The Resurgence]
Too often, and for too long, American “Christianity” has been a political agenda in search of a gospel useful enough to accommodate it. There is a liberation theology of the Left, and there is also a liberation theology of the Right, and both are at heart mammon worship. The liberation theology of the Left often wants a Barabbas, to fight off the oppressors as though our ultimate problem were the reign of Rome and not the reign of death. The liberation theology of the Right wants a golden calf, to represent religion and to remind us of all the economic security we had in Egypt. Both want a Caesar or a Pharaoh, not a Messiah.
Leaders will always be tempted to bypass the problem behind the problems: captivity to sin, bondage to the accusations of the demonic powers, the sentence of death. That’s why so many of our Christian superstars smile at crowds of thousands, reassuring them that they don’t like to talk about sin. That’s why other Christian celebrities are seen to be courageous for fighting their culture wars, while they carefully leave out the sins most likely to be endemic to the people paying the bills in their movements.
Where there is no gospel, something else will fill the void: therapy, consumerism, racial or class resentment, utopian politics, crazy conspiracy theories of the left, crazy conspiracy theories of the right; anything will do. The prophet Isaiah warned us of such conspiracies replacing the Word of God centuries ago (Is. 8:12–20). As long as the Serpent’s voice is heard, “You shall not surely die,” the powers are comfortable.
The PEW Forum released a study last week looking at what Americans know about religion, their own and others. Aside from the prominently-circulated headline that apparently atheists and agnostics know more about religion than those who call themselves religious, there are some revealing stats from deeper in the report.
For example, only 43% of mainline Protestants and 71% of Evangelicals can name the four Gospels. 
Only 28% of Evangelicals know that Protestant Christians believe in salvation by faith alone. Half of that number, 14%, of Mainline Christians know that. More than 80% of both groups know instead that Mother Theresa was Catholic. 
Historically, Evangelicals have been defined by a high view of Scripture and the centrality of the Gospel, Jesus’ death on a cross for our sins and resurrection to conquer satan, sin, and death. Yet, this study shows that large portions of Evangelicals can’t even tell someone what the four Gospels are (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) or that we are saved by faith alone in Christ alone. The truth is, many Evangelicals and most mainline Christians need the Gospel just as bad as non-believers. It simply cannot be assumed that just because someone is in your church or calls themselves a Christian that they are. Here are two practical ways we try to do communications in a way that points to Jesus - and thereby point to the authority of the Bible and God’s gift of salvation - here at Mars Hill Church.
[I originally wrote this for another blog in February 2010]
Last week the PEW Forum released a study on religion among the Millenials (those aged 18-29). Here are some of the findings.
While 86% of of young evangelicals are certain in their belief in God, more than half believe that people can go to heaven without Jesus.
The results also show that Millenials are more apt to believe in heaven than hell.
The Root
A couple things that we can say about these findings are that we see a continued decline in orthodox Christian belief that is more than likely the effect of our culture’s pluralism and moralistic therapeutic deism (as diagnosed by Christian Smith from Notre Dame). Here are the traits he associates with that worldview.
Less Compelling Than Flattery
“It is one of the defining marks of Our Time that God is now weightless. I do not mean by this that he is ethereal but rather that he has become unimportant. He rests upon the world so inconsequentially as not to be noticeable. He has lost his saliency for human life. Those who assure the pollsters of their belief in God’s existence may nonetheless consider him less interesting than television, his commands less authoritative than their appetites for affluence and influence, his judgment no more awe-inspiring than the evening news, and his truth less compelling than the advertisers’ sweet fog of flattery and lies. That is weightlessness.”
–David F. Wells, God in the Wasteland (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 88.
Not only are those who don’t know Jesus lost, it’s clear that a growing number within the church are lost as well.
Though evangelical books have had a hand in creating this more moral era, the larger takeaway from the Christian books is not that girls should imagine themselves as subservient wives, but that they should prepare themselves for adulthood. Certainly heroine Candace Thompson sees marriage as her ultimate goal when she is choosing a boyfriend. But she also wants someone “who valued what she did, would take her seriously, would help her grow as a person, and would love and respect her.” That’s not a girl preparing for a life as a doormat; it’s a girl learning about the importance of emotional strength. It’s a girl who refuses to settle for a so-so boy who is not on track to be a good man. As far as girlish escapism goes, it’s better than holding out for a Prada purse.
