Duke Robinson charges churches with “running on the fumes of tradition, sentimentality, and detachment from the real world.” If they’re to be “healthy and authentic, churches must major in truth-telling,” he contends. In this book, he tells progressivechristianity.org, “I call for an urgent and radical transformation of the way churches think and talk.”
Until church leaders are willing to address the issues that threaten us—climate change, to name one—and speak truth to power, “churches will continue to suffer cognitive dissonance, unconsciously destroy themselves, and fail to make positive impacts on the world.” Sure, churches “may say something about ‘loving your neighbour’. But it is the rarest song sung, prayer offered, or sermon spoken, that directly inspires church-goers to confront racial, economic, or environmental injustices people are suffering today.”
In The Self-destruction of America’s Churches, the author addresses—this according to progressivechristianity.org—”the significance of words for creating worlds, the central God problem, Jesus’ agapeic love, the significance of truth, and the important, ever-dangerous evangelicalism.” Before retiring to write, Robinson served for 28 years as pastor of progressive Montclair Presbyterian church in Oakland, California. He was adjunct professor at San Francisco Theological Seminary, from which he earned his doctorate.
The Self-destruction of America’s Churches
By Duke Robinson
Big Hat Press, 2020
