American Evangelical Christianity: A Failed Movement?

“Yes, to be sure, it had its flaws, but I have no regrets about growing up in the movement and spending my whole life in the thick of it. Except, I deeply regret that I am seeing it crumble and fail. I am not sure there even is such a thing as an American evangelical movement anymore.” - Roger Oleson

Discussion

I don’t know that I can go along with Olson’s history here at all. Yes, “we” used to be far more politically influential, but having been in Christ and the movement since ~1988, I don’t know that things have degenerated that much. We can certainly do well to make sure we do actually preach the Word, and that we don’t just substitute our own culture for God’s Word, but all in all, I think it’s a good thing that we don’t have mega-stars like Graham these days—we’ve seen too many lesser stars fall in the past few years to discredit segments of our community already. I’m not signing up to have another Billy Graham because the fallout when one fails is so bad.

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.