A fundamentalist church folds locally

We learn of the collapse of Morris Community Church. It's hard to know what trend this reflects. Is it the general trend of churches being in decline? The Star Tribune has done some extensive features on this. However, people often cite an exception to the trend: the survival or even the strength of the more so-called fundamentalist strains. These people are so committed, it is argued, they can overcome the forces of apathy or agnosticism. Those latter forces have produced the "nones."
I heard the "nones" term for the first time on a "Book TV" (C-Span2) program several years ago. People in this category check the box for "none" on a survey about religious affiliation.
I was surprised that Morris Community Church acquired the old newspaper building. I wonder if the plumbing of that building could ever be rescued. Prior to the digital age, the paper used phototypesetting chemicals that were very, well, strong and just plain "icky." We had employees who, because they didn't know any better, disposed of exhausted activator and deactivator chemicals in the sink at the same time. Those chemicals had polar opposite purposes.
Jim Morrison can tell you about the time a plumber tried remedying a sink problem and applied a certain chemical in the sink, causing paper around the shop to start turning brown within minutes. We literally finished our layout process for the paper outside. There was a stink. Howard Moser later commented that our health might have been threatened by that episode. Stabilization processing was a true "analog" way of getting things done, a dirty process of the type that was common before the wizardry of digital-based processes.
 
Weighing another theory
If a fundamentalist-oriented church in our midst is floundering, what does it mean? We must allow for the possibility that it reflects a general decline of Morris. Nowhere is this theory better supported than with the elimination of Prairie Pioneer Days as we've known it. Is a parade even feasible in September? PPD might get re-structured as a glorified picnic, much the same as the "welcome" picnic we just had Monday (assuming the rain didn't wash it out). I wasn't at the picnic because I was at the funeral home picnic at Pomme de Terre City Park.
The welcome picnic at Eastside Park (or East Side Park?) was not promoted as a "welcome UMM" picnic as it should have been. Who else would we be welcoming at this time of year?
Is the picnic a reflection of the fact that Morris goes so limp in summer with people leaving town, going to "the lake" at every opportunity, as if Morris is sort of a last resort place for them to spend time? So, the picnic is a suggestion of some sort of (hoped-for) return to normalcy? Del Sarlette questions whether the September scheduling can really resuscitate PPD. He suggests that instead of going to "the lake" on weekends, people just start going to "the Cities."

Not putting best foot forward
The evangelical or fundamentalist crowd has been doing no favors for the Christian world. We are flummoxed, or ought to be, by the bond between the so-called evangelicals and Donald Trump. It continues to amaze. It has been cited as another influence toward the "nones" becoming more the norm in our society.
While the evangelicals remain very committed with eyes glazed over, they are a minority. I must be blunt here and scold the evangelicals, some of whom have been my personal friends. You are being used. Trump's foundation is not really faith, it's hard-right political conservatives, people who do not really have a philosophy at all, they just want deregulation and more tax cuts for the well-off. They talk big like there's some sort of virtuous philosophy behind what they support, conservative or whatever, but it's self-interest.
They are more than happy to tell the religious crowd "we're on your side," because those votes can then be chalked up. They don't really lose any sleep over whether abortion remains legal.
Evangelicals must have to twist themselves into knots justifying their Trump support. We have had two prime examples of the Trump crowd communicate in letters in our Morris paper recently. The second of these was so typical it seemed like parody. And, I would actually argue that it was questionable judgment for the paper to publish that letter, because of how race was invoked. Normally the Trump people are too delicate to be nakedly racial in how they argue. But this letter, as I recall its content, listed "whites" among the supposedly aggrieved parties in America that Trump speaks to.
So, white people are an aggrieved class. On what basis? White people are not literally "white," of course. Our society increasingly reflects the melting pot origins of this wonderful free nation. It is becoming archaic to even refer to people using racial classification. But here we see a letter to the editor from one of the lost souls being left behind in an inexorably changing nation.
Barack Obama represented everything that is good and virtuous. He projected class. These attributes sound the opposite of who, exactly? Trump's administration has supported so-called religious beliefs over civil liberties. Does Pastor Robert Jeffress speak for you? He claims to speak for "evangelicals."
I continue to be confused by how the media tosses around the term "evangelicals." It is a flaw of the media, a lazy flaw, to like easy classifications. We hear speculation on how the "evangelicals" will vote. Young people hear this and might start feeling some alienation from organized religion. Millennials tend to be quite receptive to progressive political views. There's another easy classification: "progressive." Don't we all want to progress?
 
The Catholic Church element
Christianity is in fact taking it on the chin in more than one way. While the Trump/evangelical marriage chafes on many a soul, we have the unspeakable scandal steadily getting worse involving the Catholic Church. We have known about that for some time like with the movie "Spotlight." But the recent headlines paint a far more scandalous picture. How can anyone stand idly by? There is no forgiveness for the transgressions now being revealed. There is no opportunity to allow for a fresh start by this church.
There is no chance for Catholics in our own community to "spin" in some way about how "we're sorry and will take action to remediate." We are past that. I have asked before: Does local government have the authority to prohibit any church that has a policy of celibacy for clergy? And of course we all know that is the crux of the problem.
The Star Tribune continues to explore the decline of churchgoing. I think we all trust science and secularism so much more than the mystical church. We trust science over prayer. Maybe schools should just start ignoring "church night" of Wednesday and go ahead and schedule the normal events. "Church night" increasingly seems anachronistic.
There are elements of spiritualism we can cling to. After all, we don't really know how we got here, do we? Maybe Native Americans are right when they simply talk about "the creator."
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com