The Incredible Shrinking Evangelical Church in America
A good friend of mine frequently asks, “Where are all the Evangelicals?!?” This friend is active in a number of pro-life, pro-family groups and says that, without fail, the groups are populated almost exclusively with Catholic brothers and sisters and he often finds himself the token Evangelical participant. While remaining thankful for the large number of stalwart Catholic brethren on the front lines, I have to echo his question and wonder just where all of the Evangelicals are during these crucial opportunities to engage. Where is our coalition of leaders who have aligned to stand against the intrusion of government into our lives and liberties, as the Catholic bishops have done? Where are the lawsuits from prominent Evangelical congregations, filed to halt the degradation of religious liberty in America? Aside from Hobby Lobby, the silence is deafening.
Forget the fact that as a nation the number of pre-born children we have slaughtered in the name of convenience and pleasure is estimated to equal the current populations of Australia, Belgium, Greece, Israel, and Switzerland combined. And this is only an estimate; there is reason to think that the number could be far higher since the record-keeping in many inner-city clinics, where the demand for abortions is often the highest, is sketchy at best.
Raise your hand if you can find the name of the anti-abortion panel which Pastor Bill Hybels helped form. Please share the story about the time you stood in line with Pastor Hybels outside of an abortuary, both of you offering to speak to young, expectant mothers about choosing life and the options she might have, apart from the death of her baby. [Crickets] I sincerely hope such stories exist, but have yet to hear of any such tale.
So where is the pastor of the largest church in the land? It turns out to be an easy answer. He’s busy shilling for the amnesty of illegal immigrants. Pastor Bill Hybels, shepherd of the largest church in America, has joined with a number of other “leaders” in the American Evangelical community to form the Evangelical Immigration Table; an ecumenical effort based around lobbying Congress to pass amnesty for illegal immigrants. Awesome. Talk about being on the front lines where the vehemence against our Lord is the fiercest…
What about American Evangelical Pastor #2? Forget the fact that we are steadily marching towards the institutionalization of depravity and the rabid deprivation of religious liberty in this land. Chaplains are threatened with punishment, including a court-martial, for use of the name Jesus Christ while the Air Force builds prayer shrines for use in the service of witchcraft. Don’t pay any attention to the fact that private business owners are being forced, via government-boot-on-the-neck, to participate in so-called gay marriages, despite their constitutional objection is based on religious belief.
Don’t worry about any of that because the pastor of the second-largest church in the country has announced that he doesn’t like to speak about sin and that he would attend the gay marriage of a friend, even though he claims to believe that homosexuality is sinful. Would he also attend the “key swap” party of a married friend, if asked? Or would that threaten his next book deal?
It is small wonder that the American Evangelical church is AWOL for some of the most definitive social engagements in the history of this nation, given the fact that their “leaders” are running as fast as they can the other way. The so-called “leaders” of American Evangelicals aren’t simply sitting on the sidelines, they are trying to hotwire the team bus while the rest of the team is in a pre-game huddle.
