Ask Me Anything: The Future of the Church

The Question: What might be the future of the church community as you see it? 

This is a great question and a complicated question. I’m just going to focus on the church in the United States because well that’s my context. Also, know this is just my opinion. I could be completely wrong.  

 I think that in the US, Mainline white Protestant denominations and Roman Catholicism will continue to decline. White Mainline Protestant denominations will continue to spilt, in fact, these splits will accelerate as the more conservative factions leave and create their own denominations 

The moderates in white Mainline Protestant denominations will try and stay the course, which will disgust both conservatives and progressives because well moderates aren’t known for taking a stand. The White Mainline Protestant denominational categories will eventually collapse.  

I believe the forms of White mainline Protestantism that will continue to exist will be those that are more radically progressive and they will not meet in church buildings but rather in homes and other “nontraditional” spaces.  

The conservative forms of Christianity will continue to grow domestically and internationally, but that they will become even more entwined with right-wing politics, which will eventually spell their demise. Though not for quite a bit. I think conservative Christianity will become significantly much more authoritarian and oppressive.

While there will be conservatives who are more moderate who will attempt to stop that authoritarian slide-they will be unable to do so and will have to face the choice of either becoming significantly more right-wing or leaving (or be driven out). I think this further enmeshment of conservative Christianity with radical right-wing politics will severely endanger American democracy, eventually leading to its partial or total collapse. 

This sounds depressing writing it down. But I still have hope. My hope mainly lies in nonwhite congregations, even those that tend to be more theologically conservative. (because in the US white supremacy and right-wing politics are tied. They will go after non-white conservatives simply because they are not white even if theologically, they align) 

 Many Black churches and denominations have a long history of advocating for justice and standing in contrast to the status quo. Latinx congregations have more of a mixed history. The anti-Blackness of many white Latinx congregations and the desire to benefit from white supremacy, has meant that some congregations have aligned themselves with right-wing politics. I believe some Latinx congregations will continue to do that, and it eventually will backfire on them. But I believe that those who have a history of social justice, especially afro Latinx congregations, will continue to advocate and fight for social justice, in the face of an authoritarian turn in the US.

I think the same will be true of other marginalized groups: the closer the proximity to whiteness the more they will attempt to align themselves with right-wing authoritarian Christianity. But eventually, that alliance will turn on them. Those further from whiteness will either remain silent (and face oppression) or push back against the unjust systems.