Abstract
Christianity has been around for more than 2000 years. It has more than 2 billion followers around the world. This paper discusses the past and present state of Christianity, its moral values, ethics and principles; the possible challenges it faces in the 21st century and some remedies to overcome them; positive and negative impact of Christianity on the world from its inception; and recent trends of the megachurches. Christian ethics have given the world human rights, gender equality, quality education, reformation of primitive ideologies and family morals. Upon evaluation through different sources, it is reassured that Christianity is still on the rise with no reason to fall behind or be sidelined by other new religions. This trend might change if the churches do not adapt themselves to the changing crowd that attend the mass. The attendees have become multicultural and multiethnic. They now hail from various social strata and age groups. The church might have to adopt less churchy ways and a more corporate approach to attract worshippers without losing focus on core Christian values. One such move is the megachurch trend. Megachurches are multifunctional systems that not only aim at attracting a huge crowd for a Sunday mass, but also win over various category of worshippers through contemporary techniques and multicultural approach.
Christian value system and its portrayal in the 21st century
Christians form a third of the estimated population of the world (2.2 billion Christians out of the 7 billion people in the world). Of this 2.2 billion, about 37% live in the Americas, around 26% in Europe and the rest in Asia and Africa. A trend study has shown that Christianity is on the rise reflecting the positive impact of the religion in many human lives (Pew research center, 2011). Christ’s teachings obligate a Christian to be kind, perseverant and spread love. The basis of Christian moral value system or the ‘Christian ethics’ is derived from the Scriptures as passed down from Jesus and his apostles. Some of the pillars of this ethical value system is to have faith, be righteous, fulfill God’s will, seek the kingdom of God, being sincere and honest with God, being honest with fellow beings, being genuinely humble, having a merciful and forgiving heart, to love God and equally love one’s neighbor and have unflinching faith in Jesus Christ (Hanegraaff, 2009). Christian beliefs are drawn from the Old and New Testament. More specifically, the New Testament forms the basis of Christian thinking. The New Testament calls the God creator or both spiritual realms and materialistic world. It emphasizes the material necessities and careful utilization of resources (Helble, 2006).
Religious tolerance has improved considerably in the past few centuries. However, early Christian history has known to be quite violent with massacring of the Jews for over 2000 years (Flannery, 1985). The Church has had many foes over the centuries resulting in crusades and wars. The religion’s violent image was replaced with effective preaching and secularist ideas; yet Christianity has attracted some major criticism in the 21st century. For example, according to Sigmund Freud, having unflinching belief in God was being in a state of neurosis. Movies, novels and other popular media portray faithful Christians as maniacs, serial killers (Arthur Hailey’s Detective) and/or murderers (the movie Fraility). According to a group of psychiatrists, people deep into religion are in fact mentally healthier compared to those who believe in Christianity but do not practice the faith consistently (Larson DB, Sherrill, Lyons, Craigie, Thielman, Greenwold & Larson, 1992).
Challenges faced by Christianity in the 21st
Some of the major challenges faced by Christianity in the 21st are (Carson, 2008):
Need to evolve preaching methods
Secularism
Increasing secularist thoughts have dwindled church attendance and faith followers. The current generation excludes God and Christianity from their daily lives primarily due to their fast-paced lifestyle and remote interest in intense Christian principles. New convenient religions are on the rise that offer a more logic-based faith rather that spirituality-based one.
Self-centered Christianity
It has been researched that recent generation of people resist growing up. That is, they want to remain youthful at heart by refusing to act mature. When such a generation enters the church, they see the principles to their benefit and not as a way of redemption and soul-searching as intended originally.
Positive influences of Christianity on the world
Of the 55 people who drafted the United States’ constitution, 50 were orthodox Christians. If one finds that the American constitution is just and provides equality, it was because the men, who drafted it, derived the core values from their own religion. A good example to cite here would be The Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence talked of liberty, gender equality and pursuit of happiness. It stated that the God conferred human rights and that it should be protected in interest of the citizens. Some of the highly positive impacts of Christianity are as follows (D’Souza, 2007):
Gender equality
When the women around the world were continuing their traditional roles as homemakers and caretakers of their babies, new age Christian women were seeking jobs new to their gender. The ideas centering female infanticide became tabooed unthinkable human acts and no longer practiced. Widows could remarry or choose to stay single. They could hold properties from the previous marriage and not lose it upon remarriage. Christian principles emphasized on equality and were imperative in abolishing age-old ideas.
Education
Everything that Christianity stands for comes from the written word, that is, the Bible. Thus, to spread the written word of God, Christians had to make sure their target population knew how to read the Bible. Thus, Christians spread literacy, thereby becoming pioneers in education.
Family life
Fidelity in marriage was applicable to both men and women. Premarital-sex was considered sin, thereby encouraging couples to marry and maintain a family. Before Christianity gained popularity, coitus among same gender and with children was not morally wrong. Today, pedophilic actions are punishable crime. Though homosexuality is not a crime, it is still unpopular among staunch Christians.
Human rights
Slavery was a common practice in 16th and 17th century. Christian activists such as William Wilberforce and Christian ministers of American abolition society were the driving force behind abolishing slavery. Some Christians bought slaves just to set them free. Slave trade was abolished from England in 1808. Slavery was abolished from all Europe in 1831. Both of these were driven by Christian ministers. Another primitive idea that was eradicated using Christian principles was cannibalism. Though Christianity replaced indigenous religion in this process, the result was refinement of primitive thoughts and traditions. (D’Souza, 2007)
Negative influences of Christianity on the world
Although Christian principles have reformed the world, there are many cases where Christian values have impeded better outcomes and curbed freedom of choice. Contraception is a woman’s right. However, catholic hospitals fail to encourage and provide a woman her basic right. An Irish Catholic hospital denied abortion to an Indian woman citing their anti-abortion laws are reasons. The woman, who carried a dying fetus that required immediate termination, died of multiple organ failure 3.5 days after admission to the hospital (McDonald, 2013).
Conversion was a notorious act followed by Christian preachers in the past. People following other religions were offered a way into the faith through conversion by promising better lifestyle and education. This resulted in diminishment of indigenous religions. Staunch practitioners of other religions were offended by such acts and resulted in ancient religious wars such as The Children’s Crusade of 1212, The Inquisitions (1233-1834), The Thirty Year’s war, etc. (Martin, 2006).
Recent trends in Christianity
Past decade has seen a tremendous increase in the number of Megachurches. Megachurches are those churches that have an attendance of 2000 people or more during a weekend mass. On an average, a small church will see an attendance of 200 people on a regular weekend. Only Protestant churches have been identified as megachurches. Though many Catholic churches have nearly the same amount of attendance as a megachurch, there are various criteria a church has to fulfill to be recognized as a megachurch. The number of attendees is not the only criterion. The presence of charismatic ministers, people gathering across parish borders and people travelling large distance to attend the mass define a mega church. There were 350 mega churches in 1990 in the US. Today the figure is a staggering 1600 megachurches, predominantly in the Southern states. Countries such as Brazil and Korea too have many megachurches with even larger attendance.
Protestant megachurches attract Christians from various sub-sect such as Pentecostal, Methodist, Lutheran, Evangelic, etc. Most megachurches do not belong a particular denomination. They, apart from sermons, also conduct charity functions for raising funds for educational and other aid ministries. The preaching is intense and the commitment exceptionally fervent.
Features of a megachurch
Traditional churches keep their services to preaching Christian principles in the traditional way and providing spiritual assistance. Megachurches, on the other hand, have charismatic ministers who charm their listeners through emoting and modulating through their sermons. They make sure the worshippers connect with them and vice versa. Megachurches are known for being a little corporate and opening many ‘branches’ in multiple locations. Their style of worship is definitely not traditional. It is more contemporary to suit diverse age groups and ethnic groups. They tend to involve a great deal in community service through their outreach programs and charities. Their incomes are far greater compared to other small churches put together. The incomes are expended mainly to provide salaries to the staff, for opening new buildings and for charities. A study shows that megachurches have grown 50% in the past 5 years with no signs of decline (Thumma & Bird, 2008).
Conclusion
In this post-modern era when everything is fast-paced and evolving, churches cannot remain dormant. To spread Christian principles and maintain ethics, churches need to be more people and youth friendly. To do this the church has to transform its ways, become more lively, exciting, and cater for the multicultural crowd that now resides in the US.
References
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McDonald, H. (2013, April 10). Irish doctor 'constrained by abortion law', Indian woman's inquest hears. The Guardian.
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http://www.pewforum.org/uploadedFiles/Topics/Religious_Affiliation/Christian/Christianity-fullreport-web.pdf
Thumma, S., & Bird, W. (2008). Changes in American megachurches: Tracing eight years of growth and innovation in the nation’s largest-attendance congregations. Leadership Network.
