TrueBlue

Back in November, I published a cover piece in the Yale Alumni Magazine entitled “The New Evangelists” about Yale Divinity School graduates over the past few decades. In it I referred to my argument, which I’ve made a number of places, both in print and in talks I’ve given to church folks, that liberal Protestantism is making something of a comeback after several decades of conservative evangelical and fundamentalist ascendancy. In fact, the magazine put the words “Liberal Protestant Revival” on the cover as well.

You should have seen the letters pages the next issue! Conservatives and evangelicals protested, while the liberals—whose praises I had sung—took a pass. I’ve talked to liberal Protestant friends about this, and they all say the same thing, while giving me a slightly pitying look. What makes liberals in religion any different from liberals in politics? Conservatives tend to be organized, and to organize themselves, while what do liberals do? Pretend they are still in charge of the universe, even though they—we—haven’t been for a generation. The complacency I described in the article during the 1970s and 1980s? It seems to still have a good bit of power.

I had dinner the other night with a friend, a denominational official who is a really smart cookie. He wondered whether I was still thinking about writing a book on the whole idea of a liberal revival. I told him I was losing confidence that there really is such a thing, and told him my little story. He asked me what might have happened if I’d written such a piece about an evangelical seminary. We only had to ask the question to know the answer: letters of praise would have poured into the magazine and my in-box. Copies would have been flying around the country.  In short, I would have had instant advocates, and new friends.  That’s what we call organization.   Guess who has it–and who doesn’t?