The title of this entry is completely misleading, for surely the church is not only equated with evangelicalism, and vice versa. Might evangelicalism fade, weaken or collapse? Perhaps. The church? Well, Jesus said: "I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not overpower it" (Matthew 16:18).

Today's Christians need to be quite a bit more honest and introspective if they find their message and their creed not being readily received. Might the fault lie no so much with secularism, indifference or the devil (or whatever theological bogeyman we choose to blame), but with our own failure to live up to the example set by Jesus?

Nonbelievers might be more impressed with Christians taking unmarried pregnant women into their homes and helping them through birth and childrearing out of pro-life convictions, rather than funding and lobbying through PACs to outlaw abortion.

They might also be more impressed with Christians shielding "sinners" from being stoned to death (literally or figuratively), as Jesus did for the adulterous woman cornered by moralistic bullies, rather than Christians being the ones who are bent on doing the stoning -- as some sadly are today.

What the world needs from us today is whole lot less "Christian" and a whole lot more Christlike. That was the attitude, outlook and behavior that stymied the pagan Greco-Roman world and attracted it to the church: "They not only feed their own poor -- they're feeding ours as well!" If Christlikeness, rather than social dominance and political power that so much of evangelicalism seemed obsessed with grasping, were to become our priority, there might not be so much hostility to Christianity, and its demise might not seem so imminent. More often than we care to admit, it's not that people don't like religion, so much -- they just don't like phonies and hypocrisy.

Beautifully put, Gregory!

And, perhaps you have a point about the title...

Peter Carey+

This reads more like PR for Spencer's consulting firm IPO than anything else.

He still fails to recognize that Evangelicalism is failing, NOT because of secularism---but because (US-style) Evangelicalism is NOT OF CHRIST (In short: Evangelicalism is Anti-Christ!)

Irony of ironies, it is secularism which has more Good News than does Evangelicalism [Not as much as TEC has/preaches---but that's just my bias! ;-)]

This phrase kills me:

Being against gay marriage and being rhetorically pro-life will not make up for the fact that massive majorities of Evangelicals can't articulate the Gospel with any coherence.

He's saying that "Being against gay marriage and [anti-reproductive choice]" is a GOOD thing! :-0 (It just "will not make up" for ConEvs admitted theological ignorance: the one that showed up in that PEW survey).

Spencer thinks he's diagnosing a problem. He isn't: he IS the problem.

The GOOD NEWS (the one we find in much, though not all, of secularism) is the solution.

If TEC keeps preaching Jesus's GOOD NEWS, then no matter the demographics or culture, will come all right (in The End. Y'know, RESURRECTION! Alleluia! :-D)

JC Fisher

Ooops, that last line SHOULD say "we will come out all right" ;-X

JC Fisher

Is Spencer falling prey to the fear inherent in a good deal of "evangelical" theology?

I'm seeing an increasing number of young people disillusioned by forms of reactionary evangelical Christianity come into The Episcopal Church. They've learned that pat answers don't fit the complexity of life's questions, and they want something more rooted in historic tradition, authentic to who we really are in relationship with a wondrous God in Christ, and open to all people.

Spencer's "sky's going to fall" article belies the reality: the sky is already falling, but probably not in the apocalyptic way he predicts.

It brings to mind T. S. Eliot's famous stanza:

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

I should point out the column is over a year old (March 2009). Michael Spencer, the writer, died earlier this year of cancer.

"(In short: Evangelicalism is Anti-Christ!)"

I'm sorry JC Fisher, but you've just accused John Stott, JI Packer, Bp. JC Ryle, and other faithful Anglicans of being some sort of sub-Christian. I suspect you need to start taking a look within and stop casting those very same stones that you accuse those who disagree with you for lobbing.