The Church of England - A Glimpse at Christianity's Future in America?

Survey after survey show that younger Americans - especially those under age 30 - are leaving organized religion, principally Christianity, in droves.  A large part of this exodus is the result of (i) the extreme anti-modernity/anti-science position of many denominations and (ii) the hypocrisy and homophobia of most Christian denominations (even within the ELCA every issue of the Lutheran has some Neanderthal ranting against the ELCA's acceptance of gays).  As bad as thing are now, it is likely that the exodus of the younger generations will only accelerate as the numbers of the "Nones" increase exponentially.  If one wants a  glimpse of where Christianity may be in America in the future, a look at the Church of England and its reactionary morality may be most informative.  Here are excerpts from a piece in Religion Dispatches:

At last. The Church of England’s General Synod has voted to allow women bishops. A disastrous failure to do so in 2012 preceded Rowan Williams’s departure as Archbishop, and led to huge public and political pressure to secure the “Yes” vote this time. It’s taken so long to get here (women were first ordained priests in 1994), and created such bad feeling, that the “victory” feels a bit hollow. The whole tale reveals a lot about the Church of England’s problems, and the position of religion in a liberal society.

The CofE remains the largest religious constituency in Britain, with a third of the population still calling themselves Anglican. But whether we look at church attendance, adherence, or baptism and funerals, decline is sharp. For those aged over-60 Anglican is the majority identity; for each younger generation it’s increasingly a minority identity. Only about five percent of young people now call themselves Anglican.

There are many reasons for this, but one is a church hierarchy which has fallen out of step with the moral convictions of its members. Since the 1980s the latter have been getting more liberal on moral matters, and more committed to freedom and equality, while the former have been travelling in the opposite direction. 

My surveys of Anglican beliefs and values show just how much the “values gap” between leaders and people has widened with every generation. Only 1% of Anglican churchgoers now say they rely on their religious leaders when seeking guidance and making decisions. When it comes to the two most controversial contemporary moral debates—on same-sex marriage and assisted dying—a majority of Anglicans are now in favour, whereas their leaders are united in opposition.

A similar gap has long been evident between the Church’s official teachings and its members’ views about women clergy. A mere 11% of Anglicans and 8% of the general population say that they approve of their church’s policies on women.

[C]hurch leaders have stalled on the ordination of women because of their deference to two small but vocal minority parties within the CofE: Anglo-Catholics at one end of the ecclesiological spectrum, and the conservative evangelicals at the other. Together they represent less than 15% of Anglicans.

When I ask young people who have a negative attitude to the CofE why they hold that opinion the most common reason is that the Church is sexist and homophobic.

There’s a popular argument that illiberal forms of religion do better than liberal forms, even in liberal societies. I don’t believe it’s that clear-cut. It’s true that religious authorities have taken a “post-liberal” turn since the 1970s, but the growing rise of “no religion,” first in Europe and then the USA, is in part a reaction against this. The idea that your average Anglican in Britain yearns for “stricter” religion is demonstrably false. They would, however, have preferred a church which was more responsive to their moral convictions, and better able to accommodate the diversity of their views.

To date, the Catholic Church in America and the Southern Baptist Convention to name just two denominations seemingly are Hell bent to follow the Church of England's downward spiral.  Becoming denominations of the elderly and experiencing growth only in backward, uneducated regions of the world such as Africa don't hold out promises of long term denominational survival.