Conclusion: Modern Day American Christian Identity

Christian Identity: Mainliners, Evangelicals, and the Global South

Class Date: April 12, 2023

By the early years of the 21st century, most of the world’s Christians lived outside of North America and Europe. How this happened and the conflicts it creates for mainline Christians are the subject of today’s discussion.

By the 1960s, theology as an academic discipline experienced a steady decline in interest and divergent approaches further developed. As noted in earlier studies, mainline Protestant seminaries taught their students the methods of “Higher Criticism”, which is a means of analyzing the cultural and historical conditions that may have contributed to the content of the scripture. Evangelicals were never particularly interested in this interpretation, as they believe this challenges the authority of scripture, which was inspired by the Holy Spirit to be our guide to life on earth and in Heaven. Moreover, over time mainline seminaries wedded their theological perspective to progressive causes, believing that it was the job of the church to actively work for social change. In the 1960s, the churches became involved in the civil rights movement and feminist theology. By the 1970s and 1980s, a new theology was developed out of the black power movement.

Many mainline Christian church members did not support these progressive political causes, and this contributed to a rapid outflow of people who continued to identify as mainline Christians. Also, many of the children brought up in mainline congregations during the 50s and 60s did not remain active in their congregations, especially after having left home for a college education.

While mainline churches were losing members, evangelicals were building huge mega churches in suburban areas. The message tended to be centered on the simple gospel proclamation and their claim was they were being faithful to scripture. These were non-denominational churches and their clergy tended to have personal charisma and marketing skills. Some became celebrity pastors on the national or international stage. They had a big role in spreading Christianity to the “Global South” (Africa, South America, Southeast Asia). Christians in these regions tended to be conservative on social issues, and adopted a form of Christianity highly influenced by evangelicals. Global South Christianity became problematic for the Americans and Europeans not only as anti-gay, but also because they lack gender equality.

Here are some takeaways regarding the condition of Christianity in today’s world. The progressive Protestantism that wielded so much power in America up the the 1950s is rapidly shrinking. Evangelicals do not have the same level of attraction that they did just a few decades ago. Muslim persecution of Christians in Africa is similar to the church in the first few centuries. The future of Christianity is uncertain.