Rachel Held Evans has a post entitled The Mainline and Me,
in which she discusses her issues with mainline Protestantism. My
favorite commenter under that post goes by the name of “Water_to_wine”,
and I’d like to highlight some of her wisdom:
1. Rachel feels that there’s something missing from mainline
Protestantism. She states: “I miss that evangelical fire-in-the-belly
that makes people talk about their faith with passion and conviction. I
miss the familiarity with scripture and the intensive Bible studies. I
miss the emphasis on cultivating a personal spirituality. I miss
sermons that step on a few toes.”
Water_to_wine responds: “Interestingly enough, the things that you
mention as being ‘missing’ from mainline are the very things
I’m personally relieved not to be exposed to any more. For me, in the
evangelical church passion and conviction came across as arrogant
certainty and a reflexive dismissal of other views. Intensive Bible
study led to bibliolatry and discussion in such studies was always about
towing the evangelical line, not thinking critically or wrestling with
issues. Personal spirituality led to an individualistic view of
salvation and generally manifested itself as mushy, gushy ‘Jesus &
Me’ spirituality or people essentially bragging about what great
spiritual giants they were. Sermons that stepped on toes weren’t about
changing hearts or minds, they were about circling the wagons and
calling out those whose intellectual or social commitments differed.
“Those are my own personal perceptions of my experience in a
particular place at a particular time. I’m sure that there are good
evangelical churches out there, but I’m much happier being part of a
church that focuses on community and that has a certain degree of
humility about their ability to know things and about what kind of
Christians they really are. I feel like I can be in authentic
relationship with people like that.”
2. A regular commenter on Rachel’s blog, Karl, offered a thoughtful
critique of mainline Protestantism, based on his own experiences. He
talked about a visiting priest who said that we are all sons of God and
that Jesus did not literally and physically rise from the dead, and
those in the church who felt that these issues actually matter felt
marginalized. I could sympathize with Karl here because, as liberal as I
am, I am happy to attend a mainline church that values the Bible and
Christian doctrine, rather than getting flaky on me (see my thoughts here
on mainline flakiness). But another point that Karl made was that
mainline Prostestantism conforms to cultural norms and does not offer
people anything that they can’t get out of the New York Times. To this, Water_to_wine astutely responded:
“Interesting take. I’ve noticed the opposite. In my
particular experience, it’s the evangelical churches that commercialize
everything with coffee, books, cds, and t-shirts available for sale in
the gathering areas. If I want to go to the mall on Sunday morning, I
can. If I want to hear a rock band or pop group perform, sing some
karaoke-type tunes, or listen to a comedian, I can stay out late on
Saturday night and sleep in on Sunday morning. If I want to hear
political rants of any kind, I can turn on the radio or read the comment
board of practically any news website. My experience has been that the
mainline is the one that’s offering something different. My church is a
place I can go where no one is trying to sell me anything or keep me
constantly entertained! My mainline church is decidedly ‘uncool,’ and
that is one of the things I love about it!”
I said this once on Rachel’s blog, and I’ll say it here: Well said, Water_to_wine!