Fewer “cultural Christians” also means a smaller population of Americans whose first instinct will be to defend their church from secularism in the cultural and political field. Like counterfeit bills, the presence of fake-Christians is a sign that the real thing is considered valuable. Cafeteria Catholics are proof that the Church is still serving something people feel the need to sample. The lack of semi-Christians might not be a moment of clarity, but a sign that our churches are boring, offering self-help pablum, rather than salvation.
At bottom, there may be some confessional reasons why Moore likes the more stark contrast between an honest “none” and a convinced Christian. Evangelical Protestantism converts people with bold proclamations, and invites them to a clear decision. For Catholics like me, divine grace catches sinners with G.K. Chesterton’s fictive detective, “an unseen hook and an invisible line which is long enough to let him wander to the ends of the world and still to bring him back with a twitch upon the thread.”
The only good news in the reported plunge for Christians is that it alerts us to the sorry state of our churches. It’s not just the rise of “honesty” among atheists, but a rise in the number of people who Christianity isn’t reaching at all. It should be seen less as an opportunity for growth than a sign of decay and dissolution.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member