"Trump Bump": Political Liberals Return to Tiny Liberal Churches to Protest Trump
"Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch" (Matthew 15:14)
The Christian Science Monitor ran an article on the "Trump bump" in liberal congregations.
I want to know: how big a bump is this?
Where is it taking place?
Protestant denominations in the North began adopting the social gospel in the mid-1880's. This non-gospel did not preach salvation of souls from hell by God's grace. It preached welfare state politics and sometimes even outright socialism, all in the name of Jesus.
By the 1920's, this heresy had become highly influential in mainline Protestant denominations in the North. But it created resistance: first by Bible-believing laymen, and then by heretical seminary professors who adopted the non-political theology of Swiss theologian Karl Barth. Barth did his best to strip all supernatural content from church creeds. But he also dismissed politics in the name of Jesus.
By 1926, the takeover of most Northern denominations was complete. The main exception was the Missouri Synod Lutherans. In that year, growth slowed for mainline denominations, and growth increased for fundamentalist congregations. By the mid-1960's, mainline denominations, North and South, began to shrink. This has not reversed in half a century.
Now we learn of what is almost certainly a brief reversal. The article offers no statistics. So, this may not be a widespread phenomenon. I think it is a marginal change in a marginal theological movement.
Theological pagans are returning to tiny churches that preach the social gospel. They feel all alone. They want to get psychological support from others who also feel alone. They do not believe in heaven or hell. They are alienated people who have finally figured out that half the country hates Hillary Clinton's politics, and therefore also hate the politics of liberal snowflakes. These people see politics as a means of salvation. They just cannot believe that what they regard as self-evident politically is despised by half of the electorate. So, they seek solace in tiny, out-of-step, nearly empty liberal congregations.
This is not how the Christian Science Monitor put it.
April 14, 2017 GREENPOINT, BROOKLYN--A year ago, Tammy Rose never imagined she'd be active again in church, holding a palm branch with a community of Christians marking the beginning of Holy Week.
For nearly two decades, in fact, she had more or less abandoned the faith, disillusioned by what she saw as a constant focus on conservative social issues and pressing needs for more donations.
But if politics helped drive her away, it is politics that, in some ways, is drawing her back to the fold. And on this sunny Sunday morning at Greenpoint Reformed Church, not too far from the Brooklyn artists collective where she lives, Ms. Rose is beaming as she joins the responsive call to prayer:
"Who are we?" intones the Rev. Jennifer Aull, the congregation's minister for community service. Responding, the congregation says together: "We are young and old, gay and straight and in between. We are single and partnered, happy and sad, confused and inspired. We are street smart and college-educated. Some of us can't pay our bills and others have more than enough to share.... We are God's people. We are the body of Christ."
Stop the presses! A liberal woman goes back to church to hear the opinions of another liberal woman!
Then comes the statistically unsupported story.
Like a number of progressive congregations across the country, Greenpoint Reformed has seen both a surge in attendance and a newfound energy within its pews over the past year. Since the rise of Donald Trump to the US presidency, in fact, liberal enclaves have reported something of an awakening.
"Enclave, noun. "A portion of territory within or surrounded by a larger territory whose inhabitants are culturally or ethnically distinct."
This is not a spiritual revival. Rather, it is a political movement that finally meets on Sunday mornings. We read:
Hundreds of churches have joined the "sanctuary" movement to protest the administration's immigration policies since the election, and thousands have begun donating more money to religious groups supporting social justice issues, many report. At liberal seminaries like Union Theological in New York, students and community members have packed into public lectures on the "social gospel," standing-room-only crowds that have left administrators stunned.
I see. Hundreds of churches. And how many Protestant congregations are there? About 300,000.
The call to worship on this Palm Sunday embodied some of the reasons Rose decided to return to church last year. "When I visited for the first time last Easter Sunday, I was like, oh my God, these are my people!" she says, noting she had been drawn by the rainbow flag and Black Lives Matter banner draping Greenpoint Reformed's front facade. "I suddenly felt comfortable in this gang of -- how can I put it? Everyone's a little quirky. I was really happy that there was a place where that diversity could be celebrated."
So, she violates the commandment against taking the Lord's name in vain to prove that she is now one of the faithful.
She is typical of this "revival," I feel sure.
Yet the congregation also offered something a bit more intangible, says Rose, a playwright and artist with a day job in Manhattan's tech industry. Already part of a community of politically-active artists, she is a regular presence at street protests.But here in a community sharing prayer concerns together, or celebrating a gay couple's renewal of their marriage vows, or including children coloring their Easter eggs -- "I come here and I just feel replenished," she says.
Replenished. How inspiring.
The question is, how relevant?
It's all about politics. This has always been the heart, mind, and soul of the social gospel.
Liberal Christianity and mainline Protestantism have been contracting for decades, in fact, losing millions of members and the cultural influence it once was able to wield. Mainline Protestant churches, including those in Presbyterian, Lutheran, and Methodist denominations, have lost roughly 5 million adult members since 2007, and now comprise about 15 percent of the US population, according to Pew Research.
That Pew study also reported on the age distribution of mainline congregations. They are growing older.
Put differently, they are dying off. This has been true for half a century.
"Churches that are channeling this new anti-Trump energy into justice and caregiving issues, they're not leaving their understanding of the Christian gospel behind," says Bill Leonard, professor of Baptist studies and church history at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. "They are saying: This is who we are, we have a history of this, and we can't be silent."
There are so few of them that they must shout at the top of their lungs just to be heard next door.
Rev. Ann Kansfield, the minister of proclamation at Greenpoint Reformed, isn't sure how much the congregation's recent surge can be attributed to a "Trump bump." More people voted for Bernie Sanders in Greenpoint, after all, than any other area of New York City in the Democratic primary last year, and Reverend Kansfield noticed a simmering political energy going back to 2015.Up to then, the church had plateaued with about 35 adult members. On Sunday, there were more than 60, including children. "We were already established as the progressive church in the neighborhood," she says, noting that LGBT inclusion and its soup kitchen and food pantry were its primary ministries. "But with this new energy, we've been doing some deciding over who we are and what we do, and what following Jesus should look like in our context."
Wow! Sixty members, up from 35.
For comparison, the average Protestant congregation in the United States has had about 75 to 100 adult members ever since 1776. But membership requirements were more rigorous in 1776 than today.
After many members were abuzz following the Women's March on Washington in January, the congregation put together a social justice task force. Kansfield has been making contacts with consortiums of faith groups mobilizing for progressive causes."But this is a marathon, not a sprint," says Kansfield, who is also one of the chaplains serving the Fire Department of New York. "It would be really easy for us to tire ourselves out with all our spreading and fretting. But how do we actually invest our energy and time and resources to where it will strategically matter?"
These people have been losing this marathon since 1926. They are now using walkers.
Sustaining the current spike in attendance at liberal churches may be difficult, however, given the long-term trend of decline, scholars say."If we do in fact see an uptick in attendance, it will reflect the fact that liberal Christians are searching for spiritual resources to speak to the sense of despair they feel about the current political direction of the country," says Grainger. "What organized religion offers is not only that broader network of support but also the theological reassurance that, even if things aren't going well in the short term, in the longer arc of history, God is in control."
God is indeed in control, which is why liberal congregations have been moving from sparsely attended to "For Sale."
Yet with the religious landscape in the US still in the midst of seismic changes, including the decline of church attendance and the rise of the so-called "nones," those who do not affiliate with a religious tradition, a liberal de-emphasis of traditional doctrines and a focus on a social gospel might be attractive.
Seismic changes. Right. As we can plainly see.
The fellow who wrote this article needs to do more research.