Member-only story
Is Christianity Dead? Or Can It Be Resurrected?
Take solace, John Pavlovitz, from the story of a pre-Civil War Evangelical
Funeral for Christianity?
I often write about the spiritual core of the United States and its impact on the nation today and how, I believe, it will help carry us through our existential crises as it has in eras past.
Recently I was reading John Pavlovitz, a renowned writer, pastor, and activist from Wake Forest, North Carolina. He’s a “25-year veteran in the trenches of local church ministry, committed to equality, diversity, and justice — both inside and outside faith communities.”¹
In his recent article “Funeral for My Christianity,” he expresses his grief about the MAGA-Evangelical movement not so much hijacking Jesus but co-opting the religion built on his message and the word Christian. “Looking around at my country right now I can’t help but grieve at the passing of the faith I used to know.”
Since these times seem perilously close to those of the American Civil War — at least as divided as we appear to be — there is an apt parallel from that national experience that mirrors John Pavlovitz’s predicament. Maybe he, and others, can find solace and inspiration there.
Ahead of the Curve
In the 1830’s — long before the Lincolns of the world pushed back against slavery, before John Brown turned into a staunch abolitionist killing slaveowners, before Transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson or Theodore Parker railed against the immorality of owning Blacks as chattel, before Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote her spellbinding, truth-on-its-face Uncle Tom’s Cabin… there was Christian evangelist William Lloyd Garrison.
A journalist who wrote for several newspapers in his youth, Garrison adopted the fiery prose of Second Great Awakening preacher Charles Finney. But Garrison’s eloquence and passion came to be directed at ending slavery as opposed to ‘merely’ saving souls. He saw slavery as deeply immoral, contrary to the teachings of Jesus, and antithetical to…
