Scripture and the Church

Baltimore: A City's Decay as a Metaphor of the Church

By Dr. Paul M. Elliott
The tragic transformation of a major American city is a strong metaphor for what has happened in evangelical Christianity over the same six decades.

From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Part one of a series

March 2023 - In recent years the city of Baltimore has become a symbol of societal decay. But the tragic transformation of this major American city is also a strong metaphor for what has happened in evangelical Christianity over the same six decades.

I was born in Baltimore in the early 1950s, and have lived within an hour's driving distance of the city center most of my life. I have seen the vast changes that have taken place in over six decades.

A City's Decay as a Metaphor of the Church

Baltimore, like many other western hemisphere cities, is not what it once was. Crime and poverty have skyrocketed, the quality of education has plummeted, and businesses have deserted the city in droves, despite billions of dollars of government expenditure. Baltimore has the highest murder rate of any American city. Government, law enforcement, public education, and public services are undeniably in shambles. Two of its most recent mayors have resigned as the result of ethical scandals. One served a federal prison sentence for her crimes. The present mayor and city council seem powerless to stop the decay. The city's present population is half what it was when I was born.

To understand the decline of Baltimore and so many other cities we must understand what unregenerated man refuses to see: the root cause is unrestrained sin. Human depravity is at the heart of the tragic transformation of the city from one of America's major centers of industrial productivity into a metropolis largely focused on amusement, entertainment, drug addiction, and other forms of personal gratification - and ridden with corruption. This tragic transformation is a strong metaphor for what has happened in evangelical Christianity over the same six decades.

Baltimore Then: A Thriving Hub of Useful Productivity

Baltimore in my early years was a thriving manufacturing center supplying the burgeoning post-war needs of America and the world. Its extensive harbors and their tributaries were home to a formidable array of productive enterprises.

The world's largest carbon steel mill, the world's largest stainless steel sheet and plate producer, and large aluminum plants were among Baltimore's varied enterprises that employed tens of thousands.

Many of the world's largest ocean-going ships, including freighters, oil tankers, and ore carriers, were built and repaired in Baltimore's harbors.

Automobiles, aircraft, trucks, cable and equipment for the world's growing electrical grids and telephone systems, and a wide array of packaged foods, were manufactured in Baltimore.

Vast railroad yards carried raw materials to Baltimore's industries, and their products to the rest of America. Baltimore's ship terminals carried a truly dazzling array of locally manufactured products to the rest of the world.

Baltimore Now: A Center of Unproductive Amusements

Today, the vast majority of those productive enterprises are gone. In their place are facilities devoted to amusement, entertainment, and other forms of personal gratification.

Standing where productive enterprises once stood are gambling casinos, night clubs, and other large entertainment complexes, many of which cater to Baltimore's growing homosexual population. Two major sports stadiums stand side by side on the former site of a large railroad terminal that served hundreds of long-departed manufacturing enterprises.

In several places along the harbor's edge high-rise condominiums, with price tags in the millions and complex security systems to guard against thieves, stand where productive industries once thrived.

Where one of the largest ship repair facilities in America once stood, an armada of pleasure boats now float at their moorings. A ship terminal for pleasure cruises occupies what was once the site of a thriving manufacturing facility. Baltimore's ocean freight terminals export products that are mostly made in other parts of the country.

The great debate in Baltimore's upcoming mayoral election is not how to bring back productive businesses, but how to maintain and expand the entertainment economy and reduce the crime that is taking a toll on its patronage.

This Is What the Church Has Also Become

Why am I describing all of this? What does it have to do with the church? I submit to you that much of what is called the conservative church - "evangelical", "fundamentalist", "Bible-believing", "Reformed", use whatever label you wish - has undergone the same kind of tragic transformation in the spiritual realm that cities like Baltimore have undergone in a more physical sense. Churches that were once centers of spiritual productivity, proclaiming the need for the evidences of the fruits of the Spirit to shine forth in the lives of a truly regenerated people and seeking to equip them to thus live, are now places largely devoted to spiritual amusement, entertainment, and other forms of personal gratification, with little true regard for God and His holiness.

I choose the term "spiritual amusement" very deliberately, given the origins of the word "amusement" - to "divert from serious business; to tickle the fancy" - "to divert the attention; to beguile, to delude." In churches' quest for spiritual amusement, the term "church" - and indeed, the term "Christianity" - have been un-Biblically redefined. Many seem not to even notice; among most of those who do, minds in a state of spiritual delusion consider it a healthy change.

The Holy Spirit's description of the perilous conditions of the last days applies quite tragically to many present-day churches:

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

How and why is this true? What are the evidences? What must be done? We shall address these questions as we continue.

 

Next: The Church Unplugged

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