The Ravens on the Branch

Is U.S. Protestantism suffering from a surfeit of crapehangers ? The Rev. John Sutherland Bonnell, 68, of Manhattan's Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, believes so. Mounting the pulpit last week, he sounded off against the "handwringing, breast-beating and doleful prophecies about the future of Protestantism" from the very churchmen on whom its future depends.

Spiritual Advance. "All the ravens seem to be perched on a single branch. We hear about 'the post-Protestant era,' 'the end of Protestant influence in the nation,' 'the retreat of Protestantism,' and so forth." On the contrary, declared Presbyterian Bonnell, "Protestantism in America is on ' the verge of a heartening spiritual advance."

As indications of advance, he cited 1) the growing ecumenical movement ("We are closing our ranks"); 2) the increased activity of the laity ("In the Presbyterian Church we have approximately half a million men united for service"); 3) the liturgical revival ("Protestant ministers are now . . . introducing orderliness, dignity and beauty to their services"); 4) an upsurge in intellectual vigor ("We possess a galaxy of theologians"); 5) new approaches to evangelism ("social, intellectual, devotional and industrial").

From some of Protestantism's younger leaders, Dr. Bonnell's thesis evoked a raven chorus of dissent. Commented San Francisco's Episcopal Bishop James A. Pike: "The positive factors listed by Dr. Bonnell are valid, but as a group they don't add up to enough. They are happening, and without them we'd be further behind. But we are losing ground--we aren't even keeping up with population growth."

According to Christian Century Associate Editor Martin Marty, pastor of Chicago's suburban Lutheran Church of the Holy Spirit at Elk Grove Village: "Each of Dr. Bonnell's points can be demonstrated separately, but if the Protestant hope for a larger place in the sun is based on these indicators, it just isn't in the deck. For one thing, the population explosion goes against it; most of the children being born into the world are not and never will be Christian. The population's mobility goes against it; a mobile Protestant population can't sink profound religious roots. And the intellectual communication necessary to Protestantism is being drowned out by the bombardment of mass media--a sermon is lost in the other words of the week,"

Integers of Uncertainty. The Rev. Theodore Gill, president of Presbyterian San Francisco Theological Seminary, approves Dr. Bonnell's rebuke to the "gloomy guses, who seem to assume that our shakiness will shatter the church and that our failures will flunk God." But he notes that "Dr. Bonnell is ending a long and very distinguished parish ministry. He is positive and hopeful about where his generation comes out, and about the head start it has given to those who now carry on. To those now carrying on, however, Dr. Bonnell's impressive sum of achievements may look more like the scattered integers of uncertainty. The real trouble is that so many signs of the Church's hope are just the Church's hope. Even at our most impressive, we're the only ones impressed. Every year the world somehow manages to care less."

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