by Robert Graef

Newsweek’s cover read, “The decline and fall of Christian America.” The theme’s lead-line on page 34 said, “The end of Christian America.” If Newsweek’s editors’ intent was to literally scare the hell out of Americans, they missed their mark.

Many were offended, more were angry, especially at the provocative choice of words arranged to form a cross and deliberately timed coincide with Easter. That particular Newsweek cover would have been a better fit for National Inquirer. Provocative? Yes. An accurate introduction to the editorial essay inside? No.

Marysville and Arlington know something about Christianity. The phone directory lists 34 different Christian congregations for Marysville, 20 more for Arlington. That’s a lot of church activity for an area supposedly notorious for low church-attendance. It’s not as big as church leaders pray for. The world of faith has its ups and downs, largely because church leaders sometimes neglect to let their historically accurate messages relate to the times.

Anyone who got past Newsweek’s cover found the content of the essay on Christianity less inflammatory than its cover’s message. And less convincing. Though Southern Baptists are generally good people, the editor skewed his argument by drawing too much of his content from one particular Baptist leader, giving us the Baptist perspective. Nevertheless, the article pointed out some undeniable facts.

The percentage of people who identify themselves as Christian is falling.

Conservative Christians’ grip on government has weakened.

Voters are ranking social justice higher than conservative litmus tests.

A new expression of Christianity is emerging, one that gives up some of the rigor of traditional worship.

Think of Christianity as we do software editions. Call the traditional form Version 1.6. Only two centuries old, it takes events, dates and messages of the Bible literally. But to take it all literally, one can’t look beyond the words for meaning. Christian belief wasn’t always that way, especially in Bible times. What I call Version 2.0 encourages people to say, “I know what it says, but what does it mean?”

The voices that say Christianity is dead bemoan the erosion of that traditional and long-cherished style of worship and belief. While the “if not heaven, then hell” message and the memorable incident of being born again remain dear to many believers, a growing number view spirituality as more of a growth-process. Instead of God being out there or up there, they experience him/it/she within, among and around themselves. Their Christianity isn’t dead.

Anyone who thinks Christianity is dead in these parts hasn’t looked around. Marysville’s best pre-schools are offered by churches. They are so good that one primary school teacher claims she can spot the first-graders she inherits from church pre-schools. The children’s sense of purpose and behavior are tops. If Christianity had truly died, the rug would have been pulled out from under Marysville’s Christian institutions. They would have collapsed but they haven’t.

What would desperate people do without Marysville’s food bank? Staffed almost entirely by volunteers from Marysville’s churches, the Food Bank serves hundreds (thousands?) who would otherwise go hungry. No matter where you look, churches are the backbone of society’s safety-net. The Everett Gospel Mission, The Wilcox Farm Community Garden, Operation School Bell, St Joseph’s House that equips needy children for school, family counseling services, prison ministry, Alcoholics Anonymous, thrift shops — wherever charitable work is being done you’ll find Christian organizations and volunteers setting the pace. And you may find Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists and Hindus working alongside them.

Ask most Hospice staffers why they do what they do and you’ll get faith-based answers. The two biggest elder care centers in Snohomish County are run by Lutherans. Volunteers from Marysville’s churches drive patients to medical treatment, visit the sick, staff the food bank and hold themselves ready for whatever needs our community might have. (Apologies to the hundreds of volunteers from churches not mentioned.) Wherever there is a Christian congregation, you’ll find volunteers shoring up society’s needs. Is Christianity in America dead? No way.

It is partly this focus on service that sets the new crop of Christians apart from their ancestors. Whereas the earlier focus was on belief, the new focus is on living the life, doing to others as they would have others do unto them and doing their best to preserve the planet as it was created. Their Christianity is not dead.

What’s happening is a re-shaping of the message of the Church. Not changing it but re-shaping it without taking from it or dumbing it down. Not diluting but emphasizing its essence. While the basics remain unchanged, some of the ways church leaders view their domains are getting a long over-due tune-up and that is what the fracas is all about.

In fact, the new way of connecting with God may be better in tune with the Gospels’ writers. They were a poetic people who loved to express themselves in grand metaphors. No nuts-and-bolts precision for them. They’d say, “It was like . . . ,” and then they’d soar off into word-pictures that gave a cosmic view of whatever it was they were talking about.

There’s room for both old-school and new-school theologians, so long as one doesn’t go off the deep end claiming the other is driving Christianity into a grave. While the argument certainly fired up Newsweek’s editors, it doesn’t carry much weight here in Marysville where hundreds of people act out their faith daily by meeting others’ needs and keeping our town’s institutions alive and well.

Comments may be addressed to: rgraef@verizon.net.