YOU ARE BEING DE-EVANGELIZED

How often I would like to go up to people and inform them: “You are being de-evangelized!”

 

They might give a blank look but church people would understand what is happening.

 

We have brought you up in the Christian faith but the way you are living is pulling you further and further away from the very center of our faith. You are being pulled away from the very person and mission of Jesus Christ. 

 

The very first way that you are being de-evangelized is to drop out of the church community. This is the third generation that has pulled back more and more from belonging to and being responsible for community. Now, community means belonging and being committed to our own family, our church, our school and the local civic community. Almost everyone has withdrawn from being part of the social group that works to promote the values of the country. If there are any social volunteer groups left, they are all grey hairs. 

 

Religious faith, whatever type it is, will only survive if it is lived in community. Christians lament that all their young people have dropped out. But our Moslem sisters and brothers share the same lamentation. Religious faith will not survive if it is isolated and not supported by sisters and brothers who are also trying to live the same religious commitment.

 

You are being de-evangelized by the magnetic attraction to individualism. You are strong and can make your way through this life as an individual. You rely very little on the support of other people. There is no institution, with firm beliefs and values, that is larger than the individual. If it feels right for you than it is the right thing to do! Period!

 

Too often when people describe their belief in God, it is a very self-serving idea of God. They have this nice, sweet divine person who is too good. This God will never make heavy demands on their lives or lead them through some very tough struggles. In this nice, sweet concept of God there is no room for a God who places clear expectations on our lives. There is no God who has a clear direction for what is right and what is wrong in this world.

 

Grandparents lament that their children never go to church anymore. This is true, but these grandparents need to observe that dropping out of church is only the first step of all the other groups that they have discontinued any commitment. They do not belong to any service group, they are absent in voting at civic elections, and the bonds to family are becoming more tenuous with each generation. 

 

Even though we have healthy values about our fellow human being we are experiencing the dying of our participation in the transcendent. We are great as Canadians.  Too many Canadians are not that connected to a living and demanding God.

 

The process of de-evangelization is to pull us away from the faith-commitment to living solely as a strong individual. I follow only my “own” values and commitments. We are very much into a time where the individual is the top of the human pyramid. We can live quite comfortably without the bother of a ritualized religion.