Is Liberal Christianity Actually The Future?

From The New York Times-

One of the more interesting responses to my column on liberal Christianity came from the Huffington Post’s Diana Butler Bass, whose new book, “Christianity After Religion,” considers many of the same trends I take up in “Bad Religion” but sees a spiritual awakening (or at least the possibility of one) where I see decline and disarray. Here is Bass, putting the waning of liberal churches in what she considers the proper context:

"Forty years later, in 2012, liberal churches are not the only ones declining. It is true that progressive religious bodies started to decline in the 1960s. However, conservative denominations are now experiencing the same. For example, the Southern Baptist Convention, one of America’s most conservative churches, has for a dozen years struggled with membership loss and overall erosion in programming, staffing, and budgets. Many smaller conservative denominations, such as the Missouri Synod Lutherans, are under pressure by loss. The Roman Catholic Church, a body that has moved in markedly conservative directions and of which Mr. Douthat is a member, is straining as members leave in droves. By 2008, one in ten Americans considered him- or herself a former Roman Catholic. On the surface, Catholic membership numbers seem steady. But this is a function of Catholic immigration from Latin America. If one factors out immigrants, American Catholicism matches the membership decline of any liberal Protestant denomination. Decline is not exclusive to the Episcopal Church, nor to liberal denominations–it is a reality facing the whole of American Christianity."

More here-

http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/25/is-liberal-christianity-actually-the-future/