Commentary from USA Today this week posits that mainline megachurches might be the solution to declining mainline churches—or does it? Once you read past the lede, you’ll find the piece takes a closer look at the phenomenon and doesn’t buy the oft-touted explanation that all our mainline people have run away to more conservative havens. In fact, with all the attention raining down on mainline churches as a result of renewed focus on faith on the Democratic side of the political process, signs are pointing to hope for these churches.
But sociologists led by Michael Hout, at the University of California-Berkeley, have found that the problem for the mainliners is not that people are souring on their theology and ideology and defecting to conservative and evangelical churches. A primary reason for mainline decline is lower fertility rates among their predominately white, native-born members, researchers say. Unlike evangelicals, Mormons and Catholics, the low birth rate among mainliners has not been offset by streams of immigrants.
Culture has also played a role. As American Christians became more prosperous and educated, they tended in the past to join higher-status denominations such as the Presbyterians and Episcopalians. But researchers have found that this historic infusion of members has dried up as evangelicals have become a suburban, middle-class and even affluent demographic. Evangelicals are now remaining loyal to their churches.
Demographic trend lines notwithstanding, there are still a lot of Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, American (Northern) Baptists and other smaller churches — and mainline membership is at nearly 20% of the U.S. population. Yet evangelical megachurch pastors have stolen the theological show in recent years, perhaps because of the role they’ve played for the GOP in close presidential elections — and the fact that they have one they claim as their own in the White House.
Yet mainline Protestants’ moral capital remains undiminished. Their passionate commitment to social and economic justice; their long-standing support for racial and gender equality; and their opposition to what they see as unjust wars should give them standing in the national discourse. Just because they are unaccustomed to raising their voice doesn’t mean they should be ignored.
Read more, including significant commentary from the Rev. C. Welton Gaddy of the Interfaith Alliance, here.