In “The Churching of America” Rodney Stark makes this point: churches in the “free marketplace of religion” balance between two tensions – fundamentalism and moderation. The cycle is simple: newly-formed churches tend to be much more fundamentalist or extreme in their views, having split off from another church in an effort to “get back” to some form of doctrinal orthodoxy that is important to them. But as they attract members and grow larger, they tend toward moderation. Eventually when the church becomes “too moderate” or “too middle of the road” then the cycle will repeat again. We’ve seen this a number of times in many different churches. Now the Anglican church is experiencing this crisis. The latest is with Five Anglican Bishops to Become Catholics.
Stark suggests that denominational competition and a “free marketplace” is the best thing for churches. We might desire unity but in reality a monopoly leads to so much moderation that few people are excited about church. With denominational competition one can find a church that one is really excited about—a great community to be involved in.
But who else loses when Christianity becomes competitive and capitalized?
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