Ronald J. Sider laments the current state of affairs in American evagelicalism:
. . . the pollsters started conducting scientific polls of the general population. In spite of the renewal movement's proud claims to miraculous transformation, the polls showed that members of the movement divorced their spouses just as often as their secular neighbors. They beat their wives as often as their neighbors. They were almost as materialistic and even more racist than their pagan friends. The hard-core skeptics smiled in cynical amusement at this blatant hypocrisy. The general population was puzzled and disgusted. Many of the renewal movement's leaders simply stepped up the tempo of their now enormously successful, highly sophisticated promotional programs. Others wept.This, alas, is roughly the situation of Western or at least American evangelicalism today.
Scandalous behavior is rapidly destroying American Christianity. By their daily activity, most "Christians" regularly commit treason. With their mouths they claim that Jesus is Lord, but with their actions they demonstrate allegiance to money, sex, and self-fulfillment.
Sider makes clear that he's a believer, by the way. That is, he's not one of these sneering blue state elites who are said look down on the people whom he describes.
Too often, I should add, political commentators incorporate right-wing talking points into their commentray as if they were obvious facts. Consequently, I'm somewhat skeptical of claims that large numbers of blue state elites, whoever they are, spend much time feeling contempt for evangelicals.
According to Sider, the problem is an enormous one:
Whether the issue is divorce, materialism, sexual promiscuity, racism, physical abuse in marriage, or neglect of a biblical worldview, the polling data point to widespread, blatant disobedience of clear biblical moral demands on the part of people who allegedly are evangelical, born-again Christians. The statistics are devastating.
The rest of the article is filled with fascinating facts and figures.
As for Sider's claims, well, I suppose that the facts and figures speak for themselves. Hypocrisy is always a problem. Furthermore, since Christianity makes very high moral demands of believers, it's hardly surprising that large number of them fall short in the ways that Sider describes.
A little less self-righteous triumphalism would certainly go a long way with non-believers inclined to be grimly amused by what Sider discusses, myself included.
