MAINLINE DECLINE, PART 2. Dr Phil Ryken

This is the second installment in a series of occasional selections from Dave Shiflett's Exodus: Why Americans Are Fleeing Liberal Churches for Conservative Christianity. To prove his thesis, Mr. Shiflett must first prove that Americans are, in fact, fleeing liberal churches, and also explain why. He thinks it has something to do with the fact that liberal churches have bought into a secular agenda:"Bishop John Shelby Spong's vigorous rejection of traditional Christian belief has set cash registers to ringing throughout the world He is hardly alone. But he and other progressive clerics have found themselves increasingly lonely over the past several decades. To again employ economic terms, they have lost market share. Their sermons may be brilliant, and to their minds highly relevant, as they take up the most contentious subjects of the day: war and peace, homosexuality, economic justice, the importance of recycling. Yet they have made a profound miscalculation. Most people don't go to church to learn the minister's opinions on whatever happens to be in the headlines. They can get similar opinions sitting on their sofas watching television, quite possibly presented by someone much better-looking."