I woke up this morning to the sight of a USA Today article highlighting a recent Pew Research Center study finding that "Nones" now make up 22.8% of the American population and Christians are in decline. (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/05/12/christians-drop-nones-soar-in-new-religion-portrait/27159533/) It's not a new story. In fact, things have been trending this way for years now. However, the comments on Facebook were telling. Some tears. Some expressed fear. Some felt more challenged to love their neighbors in the name of Jesus. Many expressed compassion and thoughtfulness.
I have to say I don't know any "nones." I do know Maggie. I know Steve. I know Bonnie and Amanda. I know Simon and Keri. I know Emily. I know Ted and Amy. I know Matthew and Michael. I find them thoughtful, gracious, loving people who are trying their best to find their way in this world just like all of us. If you asked them what they believe, they all might take a moment. They honestly just don't give it much thought which doesn't mean they are "belief-less." I think they might even take offense to being categorized as "nones" although they fit the profile of the Pew Research Center findings. Over the years, we've had these wonderful conversations about Jesus. They are fascinated by him. They love his tenderness and compassion. His sense of justice for the poor and oppressed. His mission to bind up the brokenhearted in our world. They love giving their lives away for various causes. They want to make the world a better place.
What they don't like is religion. Talk to them about "church" and you will hear some heartbreaking stories. Stories of abuse when they were young. Stories of being rejected. Stories of being disappointed. Some of them have walked away from organized religion because of the pain they've suffered. Others have walked away because they have honestly studied it and decided they simply cannot believe. Still others haven't really walked away...they're just apathetic to the whole thing. They don't see the point. I have to say I love each one of them. They enrich my life tremendously. I would be a lesser person without them. But as a Christian, I also long for them to fall deeply in love with Jesus. I pray for them. I try to find ways to serve them. I invite them into my life to see the difference Jesus makes. They often tell me they can see the difference and they are intrigued by what makes me tick. So we continue the conversation and the journey together.
What I hear as I travel around the country and listen to many of my brothers and sisters in Christ is a lot of fear. We fear for the future of our families. We fear for the future of our churches. We fear for the future of our nation. And I actually think this is okay. Because we love our families, our churches, and our country. Whenever there is a threat to something or someone we love, we naturally feel fear. The question becomes what do faithful Christians do with such fear? Do we circle the wagons? Fight back? Lash ourselves to a particular political party who will protect our waning influence and privileges? Do we use what power we have to preserve our way of life at all costs? I love what Lesslie Newbigin once wrote as a missionary returning to his beloved England after forty years in India and finding the Anglican church immersed in this same conflict and struggling to find her way. “When the Church tries to embody the rule of God in the forms of earthly power it may achieve that power, but it is no longer a sign of the kingdom.” His concern - so eloquently put - was that the church was just powerful enough to win some battles in the culture war but by doing so, lost sight of her primary mission - to be a sign and foretaste of God's Kingdom in this world.
American culture is becoming more and more pluralistic. The rise of social media and the ubiquity of the internet has absolutely leveled the global playing field. It's a brave new world. Values and beliefs in this new reality will be hotly and continually contested. Some of these battles will play out on the national political stage (i.e. marriage) and some will remain very local. Some will relish these fights. Others will run from them. Still others will ignore them altogether. Power struggles will ensue. Agendas will be pushed and even litigated. Inalienable rights will come into conflict with other inalienable rights. Language will be redefined. There will be no majority but rather shifting coalitions of minority groups all vying for influence and control. Welcome to the 21st century in the United States.
So how do we respond? As Christians? As the church of Jesus Christ? Strangely enough, the answer is to do what the church has always done. We follow a Savior who had the "right" to defend himself. The "right" to demand obedience. The "right" to exercise his kingly power over others. The "right" to call down legions of angels to decimate his enemies. He had the "right" to assert his authority of God over all the earth. But he made himself nothing, taking on the form of a servant. He did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. He humbled himself even to the point of letting his creatures, those he helped shape and fashion in their mother's wombs, torture and kill him on a cross. And with his dying breath, he prayed for their forgiveness.
When I read the gospels, I never get the sense that Jesus was afraid of the world. Or the people in it. Yes, he was afraid of the suffering he would endure. Afraid of the cross and the death he would die. But that just makes him more human, more accessible, more real to me. I never get the sense that Jesus cared much about the games the Roman or Jewish politicians played or making sure his local synagogue retained their tax exempt status or his rabbi their housing allowance. These are privileges and advantages that we've enjoyed in this country for many years because we held home field advantage. One never gets the sense that Jesus was seeking to reestablish a theocracy in his time. No, he understood his mission. He knew his true enemy. And he kept his eyes fixed on the goal. To die for those he came to save. To offer his life as a sacrifice for those he loved so much. Again, I love how Newbigin puts it, “The gospel is not just the illustration (even the best illustration) of an idea. It is the story of actions by which the human situation is irreversibly changed.”
Now more than ever we need Christians who will take seriously the call to follow Jesus. Christians who are willing to leave the friendly confines of their holy huddles and build friendships with the diverse people who live and work and love and play all around them. Christians who will share their lives authentically with the "nones" of our world not with any agenda in mind other than to love them like Jesus. Unconditionally. Love without strings. Notice we aren't talking about unconditional acceptance. We are talking about unconditional love. There is a difference. And what I've found in my relationships with Maggie, Steve, Bonnie and Amanda, Simon and Keri, Emily, Ted and Amy, Matthew and Michael and others like them is when I give them the freedom to be themselves; they give me the freedom to be myself and the result is a wonderfully rich relationship that blesses both our lives.