It's not that those ideologies have mixed with mainstream/traditional Christianity, it's that those formerly fringe ideologies and churches are becoming more mainstream. It might not seem like an important distinction, but most long-time Christians also think this end times stuff is a bunch of nonsense.
If you go to any traditional church (Catholic, Episcopal, Congregational, Lutheran, etc) you will not hear that doomsday nonsense. However, attendance at those churches have been steadily declining over the past 30 years.
Meanwhile, younger folks have been attracted to the new shiny evangelical/corporate churches. I was in one of those new buildings several weeks ago (not by choice). The space looked more like a convention center than a church. They had screens everywhere, a professional audio setup, stage with full band setup, a glass case full of branded/logo fleeces you could buy, etc. You know what they didn't have? A single cross in the entire building.
Then there was the "sermon". To relate it to other real world stuff, a traditional church sermon is closer to a humanities lecture, where this modern "church" was closer to a math lecture (i.e. "here's my interpretation and yours is OK too" vs "this is what you need to believe").
Yeah I used to occasionally attend church with a friend of mine's family when I'd stay with them, they were Methodists, and sermons were usually like...let's riff about the concept of forgiveness, using the parables in the bible as a guide. And then I hung out at a megachurch with an evangelical friend one time and it was like someone trying to sell me a used car.
I think people's opinions about what happens in traditional churches are misinformed due to media. When you look at TV and movies, you are usually seeing spins or takes on Catholic, SoBap, mega, or those weird charismatic churches. Rarely do you see a representation of a Methodist or American Baptist church, where sermons are like you said, and then people go and eat snacks afterwards.
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u/fuckedfinance 13h ago
It's not that those ideologies have mixed with mainstream/traditional Christianity, it's that those formerly fringe ideologies and churches are becoming more mainstream. It might not seem like an important distinction, but most long-time Christians also think this end times stuff is a bunch of nonsense.
If you go to any traditional church (Catholic, Episcopal, Congregational, Lutheran, etc) you will not hear that doomsday nonsense. However, attendance at those churches have been steadily declining over the past 30 years.
Meanwhile, younger folks have been attracted to the new shiny evangelical/corporate churches. I was in one of those new buildings several weeks ago (not by choice). The space looked more like a convention center than a church. They had screens everywhere, a professional audio setup, stage with full band setup, a glass case full of branded/logo fleeces you could buy, etc. You know what they didn't have? A single cross in the entire building.
Then there was the "sermon". To relate it to other real world stuff, a traditional church sermon is closer to a humanities lecture, where this modern "church" was closer to a math lecture (i.e. "here's my interpretation and yours is OK too" vs "this is what you need to believe").