"The Coming Evangelical Collapse"

Michael Spencer, the Internet Monk, has recently had an essay published in the current Christian Science Monitor - "The coming evangelical collapse." If the title grabbed your attention, just wait until you read the article itself.

I believe that we are on the verge- within 10 years- of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity; a collapse that will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world and that will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural environment in the West. I believe this evangelical collapse will happen with astonishing statistical speed; that within two generations of where we are now evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its current occupants, leaving in its wake nothing that can revitalize evangelicals to their former “glory.”

There has been much discussion about this essay, as expected, and from a variety of sources. It's rather fun to jump around and see who has been talking about it, what points they emphasize and/or criticize, and where the discussion goes. I mean, iMonk has everybody talking! See?

• American Power
• Andrew Sullivan
• Atheist Nexus
• Caffeinated Thoughts (Shane Vander Hart)
• Crunchy Con
• Jim West
• Joshua Claybourn
• League of Ordinary Gentlemen
• Macsmind
• Outside the Beltway
• Pharyngula (PZ Myers)
• Pyromaniacs (Phil Johnson)
• Reformation21
• Slice of Laodicea (Ingrid Schleuter)
• The Other McCain
• The Pocket Mardis

I honestly don't think you could find two more different blogs out there than Ingrid's and PZ's, and they're both talking about the same thing.

And, yes, iMonk does have something to say about the ARIS study.