I got a
text this morning telling me that the seminary I attended is closing its doors.
That’s
not surprising. The school was started almost as an experiment. It was founded by
a bunch of liberal Baptists (a rare species, that) in the South as a place dedicated
to inclusive, free thinking. Most of the initial cohort of faculty members had
been fired by other seminaries for being too liberal. The seminary rented an
old house that was converted into classroom space.
And the
story is that at the first chapel service, the communion officiant meant to
say, “Take the cup and pass it to the person next to you,” but instead inverted
some vowels and said, “Take the cup and piss at to the person next to you.”
Hardly
a stable beginning.
But still,
my diploma (which is in a box somewhere) looks so official, so lasting. We kind
of think that institutions of higher education are permanent.
But they’re
not. Institutions of all kinds are changing. Especially religious-related
institutions.
Congregations
all across the country are closing their doors. The mammoth Crystal Cathedral shut
its doors in 2013. In 2016, three Baptist churches in Marshall, Texas, merged
together because they were no longer viable apart. More than 1000 Roman
Catholic parishes across the country have closed since 1995. In 2012, Temple
Sinai in Sumter, South Carolina closed. It was founded in 1815; the building is
now a museum.
Religious
life in America is changing. Fewer people take part in religious services. The
people who do take part, show up less frequently. People are giving less and
volunteering to be active less. In 2012, 19% of Americans said they were spiritual but not religious. In
2017 that number had increased to 27%.
There
are many reasons for those changes. Here are nine:
1. Social
expectation and pressures have lightened. People used to go
to church because they felt guilty if they didn’t. Guilt is out of fashion.
2. Church
is no longer the best (or only) show in town. Sport events take
place on Sundays. Stores are open on Sundays. That hasn’t always been the case.
3. Increased
mobility. People travel more. Affluence lets us gas up our
cars and take our kid's travel soccer team to another state or head to the beach
for the weekend.
4. Weekend
work. More businesses are open on Sunday than 30 years ago. And working remotely means that a Sabbath can be spent responding to email rather
then resting or praying.
5. Globalism. With
the click of a mouse, a person raised a Baptist in East Texas can “become”
Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim. Plus, a good TED Talk online can be far more
meaningful than a boring sermon in person.
6. People need a day to do nothing. Dual-income, stressed-out, over-scheduled families need some time to sleep late, do the laundry, pay the bills, and go eat at Denny’s.
7. Individualism. “Do
what you want, think what you want, believe what you want.” Those are things we
say to each other. It’s not surprise, then, when someone says, “Okay, I’ll stay
home and be a ‘Lone Ranger Christian.’”
8. Burn
out with no spiritual growth. Religious
groups have worked people hard in the past and people experienced
little benefit.
9. Scandal
and Politics. Sexual abuse scandals, televangelist scandals, and the
close identity of religion with political parties are turn offs to many people.
I
probably stole these ideas from other writers over the years. (Sorry about
that.) And I’ve observed them in my own work as the minister of liberal churches. These ideas--and a host of other factors--helped my experimental little seminary go out of business. Change happens. Institutions shut down. Churches close. Roads twist. Life evolves.
Let
me steal another idea. Theologian and writer Diana Butler Bass has written about changing religious life. Bass says
(in her book, Grounded, I think) that
religious people have a choice—They (we?) can be inconsolable mourners at the graveside
of dead religious institutions. Or, they (we?) can be expectant midwives at the places where
new things are being born.
