from THE NEW DEM DISPATCH, March 22, 2006
Political commentary & analysis from the DLC
[http://www.DLC.org ]
Understanding Megachurches
One of the most notable features of the contemporary cultural landscape is the rise and rapid growth of so-called "megachurches" -- large new congregations, generally Protestant, typically located in fast-growing suburbs, and offering a vast menu of social, educational, recreational, and social-services activities.
To some urban progressives, megachurches represent not only an alien phenomenon, but a large, threatening citadel of conservative
cultural and political views.
The DLC and Third Way cosponsored a forum on Capitol Hill last week on "The Rise of the Megachurches," the third in a series of "values forums" aimed especially at congressional staff.
Panelists included two megachurch pastors -- Leslie Braxton of New Beginnings Christian Fellowship in Seattle, Washington, and former
Congressman Floyd Flake from New York -- along with Washington Monthly Editor Amy Sullivan, a much-published commentator on religion and politics, and Catholic historian Michael Sean Winters.
Rev. Braxton summarized the basic appeal of megachurches as reflecting contemporary lifestyles:
"The megachurch is really a sociological phenomenon.... You have sprawling metropolitan areas and a destination culture in which highly transient, highly mobile people go where their needs are met. So they shop for churches. If you got what I want, I'm going to be there; there's no allegiance to AME, Catholic, Baptist or any other denomination... [People attending megachurches] couldn't quote you the tenets of their denomination; they don't know and don't care. They like that sermon, that choir, those programs for the children, this mental health program, those economic empowerment initiatives, right on down the line.
Michael Sean Winters echoed this assessment of megachurches as
community centers in areas with little sense of community:
I was going to a youth group at one of these megachurches one
night, in a new development where the roads all look alike, and
I got a little lost. I stopped and asked directions from two
people who were out jogging and neither of them knew where the
street was. It turns out it was just two blocks away. Many
people in new suburbs not only don't know their neighbors; they
don't know their own neighborhood.... Loudon County, Virginia,
had 6,000 new homes built last year. One year, 6,000 new
families, with no roots in their neighborhood. So they're
going to find a supermarket the first week because you got to
feed the kids. But soon they're going to find a church, because
they need sports teams for the kids, they need child care, they
have all sorts of voids that megachurches are filling.
The political opportunity represented by megachurch congregations --
often in areas that vote heavily Republican at present -- was
another major topic at the forum. Rev. Flake noted the same
practical attitude exhibited when people choose megachurches affects
their political behavior:
Their concern is now based on this idea: "Whichever party can
do it best, that's the party I'm going to dance with.... The
Democratic Party has to come to the realization that this is a
valuable, fertile opportunity. Many Democrats have
characterized megachurches as "belonging to the Republicans,"
when it fact they belong to God.
Moreover, as Amy Sullivan explained, many megachurches, and
conservative evangelical Protestants generally, are exhibiting new
and significant interest in social and political concerns long
identified with Democrats:
Rich Warren has just launched a global initiative to help
alleviate poverty. The National Association of Evangelicals has
recently been pushing for "creation care," the idea that God
didn't just give us the earth to do whatever we wanted with it,
that it's a [religious duty] to reduce pollution and emissions
and regulate businesses that have been polluting.
But Democrats also need to understand the sources of the
conservative appeal to megachurch members, as Rev. Braxton
emphasized:
What a lot of the traditional churches and politicians don't
understand is that most of the constituency out there is the
product of the divorce culture and the post-Watergate culture --
people who have been disappointed and alienated by authority.
People are looking for someone to bring definition to their
lives.... Conservatives are guilty of a very oversimplified
message. But it works for people who are trying to find out
what time it is. If you grew up bouncing back and forth, a
month at daddy's house, a month at mom's house, and you've been
all over the map, you're receptive to a clear message of right
and wrong.
In the end, even the most secular-minded Democrats have an
obligation to understand and respect the world-view of believers,
and that's a threshold that much be crossed before political appeals
can be heard. As Michael Sean Winters concluded:
If the people we want to represent understand the dynamics and
the drama of their own lives in religious terms, and we can't
understand that, then we don't deserve to be their elected
leaders.
The "Rise of the Megachurces" event offered no easy formulas for
political success among megachurch attendees, but did cast an
interesting new light on a phenomenon that's part of the daily life
of many Americans, and increasingly part of the civic and political
life of the country's fastest-growing communities.
