Rhetoric Race and Religion
I am filled with optimism about the future of liberal religion in America.
It is not fashionable to hold this view. In both the Jewish and the Christian world, conventional wisdom affirms that the liberal religious groupings are in crisis: Their numbers are falling, their institutions are in decline, their birthrates are low, etc.
Don’t believe it. Heaven knows that there are multiple problems that afflict liberal denominations of all faiths–although one should not think for a moment that all is well on the more traditional side of the religious spectrum. But at a time when religion is flourishing in America–for proof, read “God is Alive and Well,” by Gallup Editor-in-Chief Frank Newport (2012)–and religious institutions of all kinds are buffeted by turmoil and change, the liberal religious world is generally responding to the difficulties it faces with typical American inventiveness. What we are seeing in liberal religious circles is not collapse but creative rethinking and a good deal of dynamism, along with openness to new ways of affirming liberal religious values.
I suggest that there are 5 very specific reasons to believe that prospects are good for liberal religion in America.
Read the rest here
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In