From the VCC Newsletter on 9/24: The Rise of the Religion of Nones

“The religion of none” is a fastly growing faith in America. A quick browse of the internet will reveal numerous studies that point to a rise in the number of people in the US, Canada, and other western societies who claim “None” under religious affiliation. The assumption of most polling organizations is that faith is in trouble and secularism is on the rise. I don’t agree. Today I am encountering more people with a pagan worldview than a secular one. Typically those who abandon Christianity are not believing in nothing, they are trading organized religion for superstition (disorganized religion). If you look at these studies carefully people have not stopped believing in the supernatural world; they have traded faith for a faith of their own convenience, with their emotions (or sometimes their own reasoning) as the final arbiter of truth. This “cafeteria spirituality” is free to believe Jesus is the Son of God, yet doubts the Bible that teaches that he is. They can redefine morality to fit cultural acceptance, thus making many Christian values essentially immoral while embracing behaviors that have been viewed as perversions for millennia by every culture in history.  The absence of Christianity (or any organized religion) does not lead to atheism or agnosticism; it leads to superstition.

Some would argue the transition in American religion from Christianity to “none” is a  new invention and that superstition is hanging on because of Christianity. Yet if we observe China as an example, we see a different story.  China has been committed to atheism as the official position of the Chinese Communist Party since 1921 (the party itself being the only official political party of China since 1949). They have had more than 69 years of freedom from religion, and yet most people are not actually atheists, despite their documentation. In the 1980’s, when I was teaching conversational English to Chinese students at Texas Tech University, I found that my most ardent communist students were not actually atheist, despite their insistence, but rather the most superstitious people I had ever met. From lucky numbers to being haunted by ancestors, these Western educated, hardcore Mao Communists were not actually atheist or even agnostic. They had fallen into patterns of believing a hodgepodge of unconnected spiritual ideas. Fast forward to my trips to China in 2006-2007, I encountered this same superstition. Even now in 2018, among the Chinese students in America, this same superstitious outlook prevails.   Instead it has been nurtured in the hands of atheism.

My point is this: the primary exodus from the Christian church is mostly about two things. The first is the rejection of the Church and the Bible as an authority. The second is a lack of critical thinking coupled with insistence on dogmas that are not specifically biblical but philosophical and theological when it comes to topics like science, politics, and social issues.   I hope you will join me as we look at a world reverting to superstition and secularism, and how we can engage this world in meaningful dialogue, especially with those who have left the church.

Advent and Lent in a Modern Church

I am not a very traditional kind of church person. The church I lead is not formal. Most people call me by my first name, we drink coffee in our auditorium (I usually call it an auditorium rather than a sanctuary). I wear jeans, or slacks, but I never wear a tie, or a robe. Most people wear shorts when it is warm outside, and this is Florida, so that is most of the time. We have guitars and drums and I really do not like hymns, even when they are played on a guitar. So then people are always surprised about the role of Advent and Lent in our church (although we don't even do them in a traditional way). It's not because I dislike the pageantry or the liturgy of tradition, I am just not very formal personally.

For me, Advent and Lent are not about tradition, but about discipleship.  My doctorate degree is actually in Christian Education. So while my dissertation was about the role of biblical literacy in relationship to discipleship and transformation, I spent a lot of hours reading studying about education and learning. I am convinced that the reason things like liturgy and spiritual disciplines resurface again and again, is because they work. These practices of fasting, the lighting of candles and the keeping of church calendars, reading of prayers and so forth year after year, all reinforce what we believe with doing, smelling, and seeing, and sharing. It is the shared practice, and the sight, sound, doing combination that burns these things deep into our minds and evoke emotional responses within us. Nothing in modern education has been able to replace these simple practices.

The intent of Advent and Lent at the Vineyard isn't about time honored traditions, it isn't about being avant-garde or trendy, it is about repurposing and reinvigorating things that really work, so that they do not become routine and empty but instead create a great experience that deeply imbeds our hearts and our minds with truth.

As we make our way into this Advent season, my prayer is that you will use the tools of this great tradition to make room for Christ and the message of peace to those who know and do his good will.