​In my last blog post, I quoted from Jim Wallis’ essay, “Jesus has Survived all us Christians,” and expressed my pleasure that he would look inside the Church rather than outside as he pondered why so many Americans are turning away from Christianity. Today’s Just Quote is taken from the same essay.


“It's always amazing to me how — somehow, apparently, mysteriously, and even miraculously — Jesus has survived all of us Christians.
 
“And yet, it’s undeniable that the election of Donald Trump and the presidency that has followed — and the Christian response to all of it — have revealed how disconnected many American Christians have become from Jesus. In particular, the uncritical support Trump enjoys from many white evangelicals in the religious right, and the Faustian bargain they have made for power, are turning many Americans (and others) away from Christianity altogether” (sojo.net).
 
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As I contemplated these quotes, and the essay in totality, it occurred to me that Brother Wallis could be channeling the Book of Mormon editor, Mormon: “Alma saw the wickedness of the church, and he saw also that the example of the church began to lead those who were unbelievers on from one piece of iniquity to another, thus bringing on the destruction of the people” (Alma 4.11).

​We hear much about the decline of Christianity and the growth of agnosticism and atheism in America.  Both trends can be found among the people formerly known as Mormons. I read the following today about these trends.
 
“Recent data shows us that while we’ve long known that institutional Christianity is in decline in the United States — especially among younger generations — the bottom is starting to fall out of evangelicalism, with people identifying with “no religion” surpassing evangelicals and Catholics for the first time earlier this year as the most common answer on a religious self-identification survey of Americans. Just this week, an article on FiveThirtyEight explained that more and more research is explicitly concluding that increasing numbers of Americans are “falling away from religion because they see it as so wrapped up with Republican politics” (Jim Wallis, “Jesus has Survived all of us Christians,”sojo.net).
 
I don’t know what role the obscene alliance “Christians” have formed with the Republican political party plays in American Christianity’s decline. No doubt, the reasons behind the decline are more complex than this. But I do find refreshing the willingness to look for possible reasons for the decline inside rather than outside the Church. 
 
Too often the explanation for the decline is simplistic and self-righteous, intent, one suspects, on absolving the Church of any responsibility for the decline or obligation to change, to reform/restore itself. But true disciples of Christ and institutions that claim to represent him should follow the example of Christ’s very first disciples.
 
On the final night of Jesus’ mortal ministry, he lamented,
 
“Verily I say unto you, One of you which eateth with me shall betray me” (Mark 14.18).
 
This lament was followed by multiple additional laments: this time those of Jesus’ most trusted disciples.
 
“And they began to be sorrowful, and to say unto him one by one, ‘Is it I?’ and another said, ‘Is it I?’” 
 
It is just such honest self-interrogation, I suggest, rather than dishonest self-righteous censorship, that the American Church must conduct if it is to remain relevant and worthy of trust when it claims to speak of and for God.
 
“Lord, is it I.”