April 12, 2009:

Ponderings of a Pilgrim PASTOR

“Principles For Liberal Christians:  The Church and Those of Little or No Faith”

Here’s a test:  What is the fastest-growing religious group in the country?

                        A.  Southern Baptists                 C.  Non-denominational Christians

B.  Roman Catholics                  D.  None.  As in, no religion at all.

            Does that surprise you?  It shouldn’t.  Recent months and years have seen a growing number of books promoting atheism.  Frankly, some of them are so militant in their lack of belief in God, they remind me of the militant faith of fundamentalist believers in every religion!  But an even larger group of people have simply stopped having much concern for religion at all.  They are not necessarily hostile to religion and faith but they prefer to keep their distance.

            You may have seen a recent OpEd article in the Chattanooga Times Free Press trying to help believers understand this new phenomenon of “None of the Above.”  In our increasingly secular culture, people feel no particular social pressure to attend church. Given how busy most people are these days there are plenty of ways to spend time on Sunday by themselves or with family and friends.

            But even if some of these secular and sceptical folks show up in church, what they find in too many places is not likely to convince them to come again.  Church members are sometimes less than welcoming to newcomers.  Worship is less than exciting.  And the sermons?  Well, many of them ask people to leave their twenty-first century minds behind and go back to the seventeenth or eighteenth century.  Worst of all, some preachers preach hatred toward those of different sexual orientations or different religious beliefs.  Who would want to be part of something like that?

            We here at Pilgrim like to think we offer an alternative to much of what is wrong with the Protestant Church today, but we dare not congratulate ourselves on our difference.  More than ever before in the history of the Liberal Church, we need to be sure that we welcome all people and all points of view because we, too, need to grow.  We also need to show a special patience and kindness toward those who want little or nothing to do with religion.  Who knows?  If we are a little more “Christian,” maybe there would be fewer of the “None of the Aboves!”

Love, Pastor Dave