Mainline Decline

The world is often a nasty place, with more states than we care to imagine marked by authoritarianism, brutality, and reckless disregard for human rights. The Presbyterian Church USA recently decided over the summer that among all of the states on this earth, the one most deserving a moral rebuke isIsrael.

That is correct, Israel. Israel is not a country that prohibits freedom of religionthough there are many that donor even a country that restricts public participation in governanceof which there are more still. No, the only country in the world that is worthy of divestment is a functioning democracy that affords rights to all of its citizens, regardless of race or religioneven while besieged from within and without.

When the Vatican wrongly left Israel off a list of countries that had recently suffered at the hands of terrorists, it was front-page news, and more than a few accusations of anti-Semitism were leveled. Major news outlets brought up the always touchy subject of Christianitys long-troubled relationship with Judaism, and demands were made for an official apology from the Vatican. Why, then, was this divestment attemptwhich Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center correctly labeled as functionally anti-Semiticbarely even covered?

Perhaps because it is not really even news in the strict sense of the word; mainline protestantism has for a long time drifted increasingly into greater engagement with liberal politics. Christianity does not follow one side of the political spectrum or one political party because Christianity bears witness to truth: the truth of Gods revelation, of Gods love, and the truth that Christ suffered, died, was buried, and rose again on the third day in payment for our sins. These are truths wholly independent of political issues, and they are the central concerns of any serious Christian believer. Although they long ago foreswore the Popes authority, the leaders of the Churches who constantly enmesh themselves in politics would do well to hear the late John Paul IIs exhortation to not be under the illusion that we are serving the Gospel through an exaggerated interest in the wide field of temporal politics.

Christianity should not become too closely enmeshed in narrow political issues for theological reasonsthe idea of rendering to Caesar what is hisbut for practical reasons as well. History has shown that Christian denominations too closely attached to politics have not fared well. Witness the decrepit churches of Europe and Russia, which were, for ages, welded to the hip of various rulers and ruling parties, and also the fast-emptying mainline protestant churches in America. Are there any more politically aware denominations than the Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, or Unitarians? There are not, but there are also no denominations more in danger of ceasing to exist. Churches that once held the sway of large percentages of the American population are now smaller than several non-Christian faiths, there is no end in sight to their membership collapse, and many are near schism because of unsolvable, usually partisan, arguments among their adherents.

Although reading the Bible seems to be pass, in this case it seems to me that rendering unto Caesar and instead taking up the cross is the best route. This would entail a great deal more effort than belittling Israel, where the region as a wholeespecially the West Bankis woefully inhospitable to the followers of Christ. It might seem crazy or a little too orthodox, but actually bearing witness to Christs teachings and bringing them to new people might be a better way of offering Christian Witnessthe phrase the Presbyterian Church used to describe its campaignthan conducting a political hatchet job. Until the mainline denominations recognize that Christianitys power lies over mans soul and not over his politics, they will continue their march into inconsequence.

Mark A. Adomanis 07, a Crimson editorial editor, is a government concentrator in Eliot House.