Living traditions

I read the Wall Street Journal not daily but frequently, and while I appreciate the breadth of the coverage and the quality of the writing, I often find something to fuss with on the editorial pages. In the case of Russell D. Moore's article "Where have all the Presbyterians gone? Nondenominational churches are the fastest growing in the country," it seemed again as if the paper's editors, particularly the one who created the headline, are gleeful about the travails of mainline Protestant churches. And it appears that someone has decided that Presbyterianism can stand for what is wrong in mainline churches, especially with their propensity to adopt progressive political views—in opposition to the Journal's.

Despite the headline, Moore, dean of the Southern Baptist Theological Semi­nary in Louisville, Kentucky, never mentions Presbyterians except in a list of denominations with which fewer and fewer American Christians identify. "Are we witnessing the death of America's denominations?" Moore asks, and he points out that "more and more Christians choose a church not on the basis of its denomination" but on the basis of practical matters such as the nursery and the music. This is not new information. Every sociologist of religion I know relates that shift to our individualistic, consumer culture.

In The Jesus Way, Eugene Peterson says that "the great American innovation in congregation is to turn it into a consumer enterprise. It didn't take long for some of our brothers and sisters to develop consumer congregations . . . [that convey] the gospel in consumer terms: entertainment, satisfaction, excitement, adventure, problem solving, whatever." But as Peterson concludes, "This is not the way God brings us into conformity with the life of Jesus."