Even the most devout faith will sooner or later falter and fail unless those who hold it are willing to bring it into public debate and to test it against experience in every area of life. If the Christian faith about the source and goal of human life is to be denied access to the public realm, where decisions are made on the great issues of the common life, then it cannot in the long run survive even as an option for a minority.

Christian faith is in decline in America. A 2022 Pew research report observes that in 1972, 90% of Americans identified as Christian with 5% identifying as “nones” or religiously unaffiliated. Today, those identifying as Christians dropped to 63% with nones increasing to 29%. More staggering is the fact that according to a 2021 Arizona Christian University, Cultural Research Center (CRC) report, 43% of Millennials (18 -36 yrs) are “Don’ts”—Don’t know, don’t care, or don’t believe that God exists. Projections show a continuing decline in those identifying as Christians, so that by 2070 Christianity will be a minority religion in America with only about 35% of people identifying as Christian.
There is a concurrent decline in theological orthodoxy. According to the same 2021 CRC report, belief in an all-knowing, all-powerful Creator God who rules the world fell from 86% in 1991 to 46% in 2021. Belief in the Bible as the accurate Word of God fell from 70% in 1990 to 41% in 2021. According to a 2020 CRC study, 75% of evangelicals (defined as those who identify as born again) believe that people are basically good, which logically leads to the conclusion that Christ’s death is not salvific.
We could trace the decline back to the Enlightenment with contributions by historical criticism, Marxism, and evolutionary theory. We could even trace it further back to Adam and Eve who first decided to trust their own desires over God’s Word. Today some might add to the reasons for decline: the church is not welcoming enough, the church abused or oppressed people by calling them to repent; church scandals turn people away; the church’s Bible, theology, and practice are labeled misogynist, bigoted, and patriarchal. The list could go on.
In 1966, Time Magazine published an article, “Is God Dead?” that highlighted liberal voices attacking Christian faith. The author observes, “If nothing else, the Christian atheists [it would seem ‘Christian atheist’ is an oxymoron] are waking the churches to the brutal reality that the basic premise of faith—the existence of a personal God, who created the world and sustains it with his love—is now subject to profound attack.” Today the attack on Christian faith continues by news media, entertainment, academia and jurisprudence, with their voices magnified by 24/7 cable outlets and social media. The media reported recently that the Chief Diversity Officer of Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Office of Diversity published a hierarchical list of oppressors, stating in the accompanying newsletter that members of these privileged groups have unearned advantages and favors, “at the expense of members of other groups.” Christians were listed sixth just after white people, able-bodied people, heterosexuals, cisgender people and males. Although she apologized for her list, the list is not unusual. It is a typical intersectionality list from the Critical Race Theory movement.
When the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act in 2013, which sought to preserve in law the biblical definition of marriage that existed for 2000 years, the majority of the Court labeled the Christian view as bigoted and harmful. Justice Antonin Scalia in his dissenting opinion wrote:
But the majority says that the supporters of this Act acted with malice—with the “purpose” (ante, at 25) “to disparage and to injure” same-sex couples. It says that the motivation for DOMA was to “demean,” ibid.; to “impose inequality,” ante, at 22; to “impose . . . a stigma,” ante, at 21; to deny people “equal dignity,” ibid.; to brand gay people as “unworthy,” ante, at 23; and to “humiliat[e]” their children, ibid. (emphasis added).”
Entertainment media also feels justified in attacking and ridiculing Christian faith. In the second season of the popular TV series West Wing, the President, played by Martin Sheen, ridiculed a talk show host, who was opposed to same-sex behavior based on Old Testament passages. Sheen confronts the host suggesting, “My chief of staff, Leo McGarry, insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly says he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself or is it okay to call the police? …Does the whole town really have to be together to stone my brother, John, for planting different crops side by side?”
According to analyst George Barna, who heads up the Christian Research Center, “The United States has become one of the largest and most important mission fields in the world.” Yet, he explained, “many of the approaches now relied upon by Christian ministries—and especially churches—may be inadequate to impact the new population that needs to be reached with God’s truths and principles.”
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For four hundred years while the Israelites endured slavery in Egypt, every time they walked past Joseph’s grave, they remembered the promise that one day they’d take those bones to the Promised Land. Joseph’s bones were a visible reminder of God’s promise to the Israelites. Our grave is a reminder to all who pass by that these bones will one day be raised. Every cemetery is a testimony. Every tombstone is a reminder. Every dead body is a promise waiting to be fulfilled.

The postmodern axiom that utilitarianism is the highest virtue has been part of the reason some faithful Christians are opting for cremation when they die. Cemeteries, after all, take up precious land. Others opt for cremation because it is usually less than half the cost of burial. And still others choose to be cremated because cemeteries are just too eerie. They would rather be spread over their favorite mountainside than reside in a macabre cemetery. One man put his father’s ashes in a finger hole of his bowling ball, so his dad would be with him when he bowled a perfect game.
Environmental enthusiasts affirm California recently joining Washington, Colorado, Oregon and Vermont in legalizing human composting. After all, according to one estimate, cremation releases an average of 534.6 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air per body, totaling 360,000 metric tons of greenhouse gasses a year just in the U.S.
In composting, the body is put in a container and covered with straw, wood chips and alfalfa that allows microbes to break down the body in about 30 days. After curing for another 2-6 weeks, the family can use the cubic yard of composted-loved one to fertilize their flower bed.
Composting denies that each individual is a special creation made in God’s own image and precious in God’s sight. Treating the body as nothing more than part of the material world, denies the uniqueness and worth of each individual. Composting is not a new idea although its widening acceptance is new.
In the 1958 movie Houseboat, widower Cary Grant teaches his son the meaning of death. Holding a pitcher of water while they sit on the side of his houseboat, Grant tells his son, “The pitcher has no use at all except as the container of something. In this case a container for water which you can think of as my life-force.” Pouring the water into the river, Grant explains, “The river is like the universe, you haven’t lost it [life-force/water]. It’s just that everything constantly changes. So perhaps when our life-force, our souls, leave our bodies they go back into God’s universe and the security of becoming part of all life again, all nature.” In other words, the human body is just matter that can be recycled into a tree or garden.
Radical Feminist Rosemary Radford Reuther in the 1980s describes what happens in death in more academic prose:
[O]ur existence ceases as individuated ego-organism and dissolves back into the cosmic matrix of matter/energy, from which new centers of the individuation arise. It is the matrix, rather than our individuated centers of being, that is ‘everlasting,’ that subsists underneath the coming to be and passing away of individuated beings and even planetary worlds.
I recently explained to my young grandson that in the past churches often had cemeteries located next to them. As people entered the church, they were reminded that life on this earth is short, thus forcing them to adjust their earthly priorities in light of the eternal. I asked my grandson what it would mean if the church had a swimming pool next door rather than a cemetery. He answered, “Life is short, enjoy it while you can.” Perhaps that’s another reason for composting. The dead are out of sight and we can get on with our fun.
Composting and even cremation destroy the individual. They deny the truth in the Apostles’ Creed, “I believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting”. They deny Scripture’s truth, “For he [God] chose us in him [Christ] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons….”
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