Written by: Richard Volzke on March 20, 2014

The rise and decline of the church’s influence in the 20th century was affected by various factors and trends of that day. Political, economic, geopolitical, and inner self-awareness all effected how Christianity was viewed in society, either positively or negatively. Douthat, in his book Bad Religion, explains that every human being is religious and believes in some alternate reality. This basic truth is what has allowed the church flourish throughout the centuries, however also permits heresy and false doctrine to infect American society.

In the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s there was an extreme anti-Christian movement throughout the world. Totalitarian regimes, like Nazis Germany and the Soviet Union, denounced basic moral ideas such as loving your neighbor.  Further, they propagated the idea that the existence of God was outdated and irrelevant in that modern age. The church had lost influence and appeared to become irrelevant and weak to society. Modern science and humanism had become accepted and practiced widely in the 1930’s and early 40’s.

In the mid-1940’s, American society and the Christian church took a stance against the humanistic theologies of the day. Douthat states that, “it was no longer possible to believe that the values of liberal humanism were self-evident. Humanism needed to be grounded in something higher than a purely material account of the universe, and in something more compelling than the hope of a secular utopia.”[1]

In the late 1940’s and early 50’s, there was a resurgence Christian values in American society. Sales of the Bible soared throughout the decade.  Hollywood even produced films that supported the Biblical beliefs, such as Ben Hur, The Ten Commandments, and Moses.  A “golden era” mentality of family values and God were prevalent in the culture at this time.

In the 1960’s, a social justice trend swept across the American landscape.  Civil rights campaigns were common, as more Americans demanded that all individuals, no matter the color of their skin, should be treated equally and fairly. Despite this trend, in southern states racism was still prevalent.  Southern churches did not take a Biblical stance; neither supported the civil rights movement. Their refusal caused division between them and the rest of the country, with regard to segregation. Southern church leaders were reluctant to stand up and support equality and fairness for blacks, out of fear of angering their parishioners. The country was divided between those who supported Martin Luther King Jr. and his call for equality versus keeping segregation that had been in place since the Civil War.

Despite the segregation issue in the1960’s, many Christian denominations experienced growth in membership and influence within the United States through this period. Unfortunately, this was a short-lived period for the church.  By the 1970’s a dramatic decline in membership and attendance occurred across mainstream Christian denominations. Many factors contributed to the decline, but the author suggests that the move towards, “more do-it-yourself and consumer-oriented spirituality”[2] is a major factor in this decline.  In the 1970’s and 80’s American people became more spiritually minded and looked to other religions and self-help books instead of Christianity to define their identity and society.

Douthat suggests that during these time periods the Christian church had two ways to respond to the moral decay and heresy. The church could either “accommodate or resist”[3] the changes that were taking place in society. According to the Douthat, neither of these approaches was successful in helping the church to prevent a loss of membership.  Both approaches were ultimately blamed for continuing decline in the church’s influence in the culture of the day.

In today’s culture, the church is still battling internal and external influences intent on changing biblical truths.  These forces seek to redefine and turn the church into what they want it to be, which propagates false doctrines. As Christian leaders, we constantly struggle to maintain the integrity of the gospel message while making it relevant and pertinent in the current culture.  We can learn from the past mistakes that the church has made.  While issues we face may appear on the surface to be different, the concept is the same.  Why is it then that we tend to repeat the same mistakes over and over across societies and time?  An example that I can think of is the current environmental movement.  So many churches refuse to talk about how green living is applicable to us as Christians and they don’t translate what the Bible has to say about this.  Yet, because science and marketing have sent such a strong message many people are adopting “green” lifestyles.  I live in a very liberal environmentally conscience community, and have heard many say they won’t go to churches that ignore our responsibility in this area.  I recently asked one of our church leaders about why we don’t take a more active stand on this in the Wesleyan church.  The response I receive back was “we have a policy and statement on this on the website.”  I have to say that I was disappointed.  A write-up on a website with no real effective action within the body of the church is unacceptable.  Are we repeating past mistakes, such as when we saw a decline in the church membership through the 1970’s?

About the Author

Richard Volzke