A Fifth Great Awakening?

Whether or not you agree with Robert Fogel’s thesis that the rise of evangelical Christianity in the 1960’s and 1970’s constitutes a Fourth Great Awakening, there is growing evidence that in the first decades of the new millennium we see the beginnings of the Fifth.

Last year, the Presbyterian Church (USA) joined the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Episcopal Church and the United Church of Christ by voting to lift the generation old barrier to ordination for GLBTQ Presbyterians. The change that has come to four of the five mainline Protestant denominations has brought with it a renewed spirit of hope for progressive Christianity.

For most of my life and for the entirety of my ministry, progressive Christianity has laid mostly dormant. Those who dared to profess a bold vision of the Gospel as the radically inclusive declaration of God’s love for all God’s children were pushed aside in the church or pushed out entirely. Far too many progressive voices simply gave up on the church and left. In other cases, progressives were purged from denominational leadership as whole denominations were subject to the ecclesiastical equivalent of a hostile takeover. (To wit the putsch in the Southern Baptist Convention in the 1980’s). How many of our sermons in how many of our churches have been edited on Sunday morning when Saturday’s courage morphed into Sunday’s pragmatism? How many of us let prophetic courage have its sharp corners softened to prevent anyone being hurt by them?

As prophetic voices became silenced, it began to look like mainline Protestantism was destined to be a community with a single voice speaking from somewhere to the right of center. Progressive Protestant Christianity, if not dead, was on life support. The few brave souls who dared to speak against the new mainstream of Evangelical rigidity were rapidly marginalized or excluded.  Like a Gothic Cathedral with only one strong wall and no wall opposite to support it, the church began to crumble. 
Then something began to happen. As the consequences of the Reagan revolution’s war on the poor, the environment, marginalized communities and on the very concept of social justice became evident, progressive Christianity, like Lazarus, woke up and began to speak.

A new day dawned in the church and with it a new commitment to the Gospel of Jesus Christ was awakened. Once again the proclamation that Jesus is Lord of all meant just that…ALL. Through the work of groups within various denominations and groups that transcended denomination and even national lines, the theology of inclusion and care for all God’s children began to be preached and proclaimed and heard. After a generation of political and ecclesiastical policies that work to exclude and marginalize, a growing voice in the church is saying, “enough!”

This moral awakening of the church cannot be denied. The time has come for the Church to stand against the voices of exclusion and bigotry in the world and declare that God’s divine “yes” in Jesus Christ is God’s divine invitation to love and care for one another; progressive, conservative, evangelical, liberal, gay, straight, male, female or in whatever guise the child of God may come into our lives.

As a Presbyterian pastor, I am proud that our denomination has thrown its cap over the wall and taken the path of prophetic witness. Presbyterians were at the heart of the First Great Awakening; perhaps we have a role to play in the Fifth.

With God’s grace, may we all have the strength, courage and faith to recognize the gifts of the Spirit in all God’s children and, trusting in God to guide us, together grow stronger in the light of Christ.

Reclaiming Our Relevance in the Wake of 10-A

Yesterday, May 10, the Presbyterian Church (USA) finally removed the language in its church constitution that banned faithful GLBTQ Presbyterians in committed relationships from being ordained or installed to the offices of the church.  The ammenment, known as 10-A, will go into effect in July.  This change that comes after nearly four decades of debate begs the question,


Who cares?

Who gives a damn what the PC(USA) does?

Is there anything more irrelevant than the internal machinations of an American Mainline Protestant denomination?

Fifty years ago, what happened in the church was big news. Now it rates little more than a wire service report and a file photo buried with the news release about filling potholes. What changed?

During the fight for civil rights in America it was the preachers who led the struggle for civil rights in the South. From Dr. King in Montgomery to the hundreds of clergy who risked their livelihood and even their lives to proclaim the Gospel message that each and every one of God’s children is due the compassion and respect of the church and society. Pulpits served as the starting line for a movement tha twould change the world.  Many churches were safe havens for those working for change and daring to stand in opposition to bigotry and hate.

Today, the church is scrambling to catch up. While debates nationwide continue over the question of same-sex marriage, the reality of same-sex relationships and the role of GLBTQ men and women is rapidly becoming a non-issue for most people. With the exception of a few paleo-conservative corners in American society, the kind of exclusion and bigotry the church’s ban represented is no longer tolerated. Once upon a time the church was a prophetic voice for the world, now the world has become the prophetic voice to the church. No wonder no one cares what the church has to say!

My hope is that this change in the PC(USA) will be a wake-up call for the church. Despite the prognostications of gloom and doom, the sky did not fall, the sun did rise and God did not strike vengeance and wrath upon those of us who have worked for this essential change. Perhaps there is a message in that. It is time for the church to get back out front and lead the charge into a future where none of God’s children want for food or water, clothing or shelter, respect or dignity.

It is a new day in the PC(USA) and not only is what we have to say relevant, it is essential. Hopefully we will not waste the opportunity to keep proclaiming the radical love and inclusion of God in Jesus Christ now and forever more.