Exodus: Why Americans Are Fleeing Liberal Churches for Conservativechristianity

As someone formally trained in the sociology of religion, I take issue with those who criticize this book because it is not "scholarly" enough. For those who want to read how Darwin, Marx, Freud and (especially) Rousseau have undermined Orthodox Christianity in North America and Europe, they can read another book. This book is not a scholarly treatise but a jeremiad, driving home a compelling central thesis: mainline denominations, in their thirst to make social relevancy the highest good have, paradoxically, ceased to be relevant at all.

It is no surprise to anyone following demographic trends within the Church from the last quarter century or more that mainline Protestantism is in severe trouble. Having abandoned the Gospel for liberal social activism, the mainline denominations have seen membership rolls (and giving) decline precipitously while conservative churches have grown dramatically. Like the fictional emperor with his new clothes, the leaders of these decaying communions often wear their grespectabilityh proudly without realizing the world sees through the charade and laughs. It is as if they had eaten of the forbidden fruit and still did not know they were naked. In Exodus, his study of the phenomena of reallignment within the Church, Dave Shiflett tries to get to the heart of why the mainline churches, following a trend they thought would keep them grelevanth, instead find themselves at the wrong end of a huge demographic shift within American Christianity. Much of the strength of the book is that Shiflett, an admittedly nominal Presbyterian, has no axe to grind in this battle. He simply wants to find out why some people have decided to leave mainline churches and why others have stayed. While the statistics speak volumes, his interviews give us a look inside the hearts and minds of people on both sides of the issue. Shiflett begins his exposition with the epitome of the church gone wrong: the Episcopal Church. Once a body so conservative it was called gthe Republican Party at prayerh, the American branch of the Anglican Communion has veered away from its historic teachings and embraced the revisionist vision for the Christian faith. Shiflett takes a hard look at how the theological direction of the Episcopal Church has left it a shell of its former self both in terms of membership and in influence. Not content to take one side of things, he visits those who have left as well as those who embrace the new gospel of inclusivism. Those who follow this path at the local level are presented as caring individuals who are terribly misguided as to the direction the church needs to take to survive. Shiflett does not treat revisionist leaders like Bishop John Shelby Spong quite so well. Deriding them as gcelebrity hereticsh who endorse an ginfantile version of Godh, they stand accused of reducing the omnipotent God of the Christian faith to what he describes as gWD-30 - a wee deity who is 30% of what God should be. This gGod liteh is a pathetic concoction that garners neither loyalty nor love and seems more likely to inspire pity than awe. This is illustrated by comparing the blandness of the statements of beliefs by Spong and other revisionists with the inspired and majestic prose of the Nicene Creed of the orthodox Christian faith. Shifflett then turns his attention to those churches that still follow orthodox principles within their own traditions. Examining in turn Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, the Southern Baptists, and the Evangelical movement, he sho

Shiflett offers a compelling glimpse of what is happening to liberal mainline Protestant churches in the U.S. as they follow the trail that much of the European Protestant church seems to also have followed. Becoming too accepting of the culture, the Church loses is definition with respect to the culture. Moving away from the fundamentals of the Christian teaching as written in the Bible toward a more postmodern, "culturally acceptable" message may feel good, but has the effect of making the Church just another source of good philosophy. There are plenty of these already, and this is just not compelling enough. The Christian message that seems to stick, according to the evidence presented by Shiflett and according to this reader, is the life-changing message of the gospel. Jesus associated with the world not to be of the world but to change the world, by changing each Christian from the inside-out in a very positive way. Churches that lose that message - and seek to be of this world - seem to lose members and vitality. This was easily the best book I've read so far this year, I have given 3 copies as gifts, including one to a pastor at our church. Highly recommended reading!!!

It seems obvious that those who are made personally uncomfortable by "EXODUS" grade it poorly. This must mean that the book accomplishes something big: it causes a "Mad, Glad, or Sad" reaction, and that is a good thing. If you are looking for a set of facts and figures from which to draw your own conclusions about the state of American Christianity, go elsewhere. That's not what this book is about, though the author makes proper sparing use of such survey results. What I find appealing is that it describes issues and actions of some of America's major Christian denominations, and what results from their theory and practice. Another dynamic is at work here that may explain the pointed reactions to the book. Either deliberately or as a side-effect, the author uncovers a good bit of the American psyche and spirit. I found myself on many of the pages, and in some cases did not like what I found. What I dislike about the book is an implication that the church on the whole is growing or keeping pace in America. It is neither.

The author wrote a book about the very real flight from mainline protestant churches to churches that still stand for something. Everyone hasn't left. Episcopalians, for instance, will put up with any degradation of the Faith in order to continue to reap the social benefits of being an Episcopalian. My favorite illustration of Episcopal pew-theology is from a friend talking about her rector: "I just wish ++++ would stop talking about Jesus so much and talk about God once in a while." (!) The author is up front. He says he is an occasional Presbyterian, and by the end of his study has not changed. What verifies his stance for me and makes the book special is that he is reporting what THEY, his interviewees, say and think, not what HE thinks. Sure, most of it is old stuff. The repudiation of the Nicene Creed by mainliners is, by now, old stuff. Shiflett is describing a very serious turn in the life of our culture and our civilization for those who have ears to hear. He is only reporting. He doesn't ask you to heed.