I was always against applying modernist ideas to the Church. We live in a disenchanted world. Reformation, Copernicus and Darwin dealt a blow to the authority of the Church. Church is now in competition with modernist and often anti-clerical ideas. I don’t understand why embrace the discourse of movements that never had much love for the Church. Many spiritual seekers are looking for tradition in Church? They are looking for something arcane and ancient. It does not do the Church any good to accept modernist ideas like vernacularization (mass in living instead of liturgical languages), female clergy, or tolerance of sexual minorities.
In many Western countries, evangelical churches who persevere in a historical teaching on issues such as family, marriage, the protection of the unborn, and the rights of freedom of conscience, speech and religion; do not have a good press.
In contrast, Protestant denominations that defend ‘inclusion and plurality’ with LGBT priests and the blessing of same-sex unions are presented as a faith that has understood the social reality well.
Contemporary mainstream ideology in the West is borderline hostile to traditional Christian values.
Among many mainline Protestant circles, it is argued that Christianity needs to attract people with an open-minded approach to the Bible that reinterprets certain texts accommodating them to the trends and thinking of the social majority. In the past, the Bible and the ‘sola fide and sola scriptura’ may have said one thing about human identity, but today the say another.
The reality, nevertheless, is that the church attendance and membership in theologically liberal churches that support the LGBT agenda is not growing, quite the opposite.
Tempering with scripture is basically diluting your faith. Because your creed is completely dependent on the teachings passed on to you by your forefathers.
The Church of Sweden accepts homosexual marriage since 2009, and appointed the first openly lesbian bishop in Stockholm that same year. In the last months, they have moved towards pro-transgender positions.
These are data from recent years.
2005: 6,967,000 members (77% of the population)
2010: 6,590,000 (70%)
2015: 6,225,000 (63%)
2018: 5,899,000 (58%)
2020: 5,729,000 (55%)
Church of Sweden has female openly lesbian bishops.
These are the figures of membership of the Church of Scotland, in a country of 5.5 million people.
2000: 607,000 members
2006: 504,000
2013: 398,000
2017: 336,000
2018: 325,000
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Already in 2005, the UCC declared itself in favour of same-sex marriage. They celebrate gay marriages and they are expected to vote a ban on any therapy or pastoral accompaniment that implies the modification of a person’s attraction to the same sex.
Is this denomination filling the pews? Not really, according to their statistics.
1995: 6,145 churches, 1,472,000 members
2005: 5,633 churches, 1,230,000 members
2015: 5,032 churches, 915,000 members
2019: 4,852 churches, 802,000 members
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Has the theologically liberal approach of the Episcopal Church helped increase its membership? No. In fact, the denomination has lost one third of its members in only 20 years.
2000: 2,329,000 members
2005: 2,205,000
2015: 1,779,000
2019: 1,638,000
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Thousands of conservative Lutherans left the Church to join other congregations. Others stayed with a critical approach. Nonethless, ELCA’s membership has diminished. Ten years after the decision on LGBT matters and a continuous radicalisation of positions, the ELCA has lost one third of its members.
1988: 5,288,000 members
2000: 5,126,000
2007: 4,709,000
2011: 4,059,000
2019: 3,265,000
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It is the largest Presbyterian church in the US, born in 1983 with the merging of two large denominations. In 2012, it approved the ordination of homosexual priests and in 2014 the PCUSA redefined marriage as a union of “two people” (instead of “a man and a woman”).
One decade later, they have lost one third of their members.
1984: 3,100,000 members
2000: 2,525,000 members
2005: 2,316,000 members and 10,959 congregations
2010: 2,016,000 members and 10,560 congregations
2016: 1,483,000 members and 9,451 congregations
2020: 1,245,000 members and 8,925 congregations
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It is obvious that may [many] causes could be included in the analysis of the complex evolution of dying churches, but statistical evidence shows that embracing dominant ideologies in society such as the LGBT agenda is certainly not filling the churches with new believers.
Insomniac Resurrected 