COMMENTARY: A tough year for organized religion; a banner year for faith

c. 1997 Religion News Service (Tom Ehrich is an Episcopal priest in Winston-Salem, N.C., an author and former Wall Street Journal reporter. E-mail him at journey(at)interpath.com.) UNDATED _”How are Christmas sales going?”I asked a distributor in Mississippi.”People seem to be buying the basics,”he replied.”Underwear, T-shirts.” My one venture to the mall confirmed his view. Belk’s, […]

c. 1997 Religion News Service

(Tom Ehrich is an Episcopal priest in Winston-Salem, N.C., an author and former Wall Street Journal reporter. E-mail him at journey(at)interpath.com.)

UNDATED _”How are Christmas sales going?”I asked a distributor in Mississippi.”People seem to be buying the basics,”he replied.”Underwear, T-shirts.” My one venture to the mall confirmed his view. Belk’s, an upscale department store, was empty. No one browsed the section devoted to expensive leather purses. At The Gap, by contrast, people stood in line to buy basics like cotton tees, flannel shirts and khakis.


I see something similar happening in the world of faith.

This was a tough year for organized religion, especially for those gilded institutions which, like Belk’s, seem rooted in a former era. But for faith itself, it was a banner year. Not only did pollsters tell us more people believe in God, but people seemed to be acting on their faith: building houses with Habitat for Humanity, launching crisis-response ministries, forming Bible study groups, saying their prayers _ all in a T-shirt sort of way, like the friend who, with no fanfare, met every Friday with a group of men to talk about God.

In that peculiar winter solstice exercise of looking backward to gauge the year we just lived, here’s what I see in the world of religion:

First, denominations continued their slow, painful slide into irrelevance. Most historic denominations devoted their national conventions to arguing about sex _ a subject about which Jesus said virtually nothing _ and fighting over power. The power struggles weren’t yeasty tensions _ a new generation wanting to be heard, for example _ but bleak battles over ideology, like angry children bickering over who’s right.

Southern Baptists squirmed under the iron grip of ultra-conservatives and made headlines with a boycott of Walt Disney Co. for daring to provide benefits to gay employees, among other things. At the local level, most folks ignored the boycott and its unwanted publicity.

Roman Catholics in America cheered the pope but drifted farther from his conservative views. This year’s Roman Catholic heroine was Mother Teresa, who once walked out on a former pope when he seemed more concerned about her wearing a nun’s habit than about her ministry to the wretched.

Second, Generation X has arrived, and they are transforming the religious environment.

While retired men passed out bulletins to sparse crowds at traditional congregations, traffic police were required at non-traditional congregations focused on the young. Inside, pipe organs and European hymnody gave way to rock ensembles and hand-clapping music; dark suits gave way to _ you guessed it _ khakis and flannel.

It’s more than a style change. It’s the difference between making a church decision based on one’s station in life and making life decisions based on what one heard at church.


While boomers continued to sort themselves out by socioeconomic status, a new generation turned to home-schooling and missions work. The pastor of a wealthy Episcopal parish in New Jersey got hammered for services that lasted longer than an hour. In Manhattan, a growing youth-oriented Presbyterian congregation kept its folks three hours on Sunday.

Older congregations had buildings and money, but energy clearly has shifted to younger congregations meeting in schools, former aerobics centers and movie theaters, as well as mega-churches, where a good sound system matters more than brass plaques.

Third, from my limited view of a vast horizon, it seemed that people were going deeper into faith. A growing church in Corpus Christi, Texas, designed its new building around a prayer labyrinth, an ancient tool for spiritual growth. Spiritual retreats seemed popular. Religious books and music sold big. Daily newspapers expanded their coverage of religion.

My predictions for the coming year?

First, sex issues won’t go away. They’re a great substitute for dealing with reality.

Second, some congregations will invite women to polish brass and run bazaars and everyone will worry about finances; others will invite young believers to Bible studies and missions work. The former will languish and the latter thrive.

Third, the world of faith will continue to be largely unseen, centered in basics like personal prayer, carrying food to the grieving, visiting prisoners and looking for God in daily life.

MJP END EHRICH

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!