Bottum then offers a statistical analysis wedded to his historical review.  The collapse of the Protestant mainline has been swift, steady, and self-inflicted.  These denominations embraced theological liberalism and adopted accommodationism as a cultural posture.  Bottum estimates that less than 8 percent of Americans are now members of "the central churches of the Protestant Mainline."

Accordingly:

Episcopalian, Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran—the name hardly matters anymore. It’s true that if you dig through the conservative manifestos and broadsides of the past thirty years, you find one distressed cry after another, each bemoaning the particular path by which this or that denomination lost its intellectual and doctrinal distinctiveness.

In the course of his article, Bottum offers a sophisticated and compelling sociological and theological understanding of what happened to the churches of the Protestant Mainline as they lost their members and forfeited their influence.  He offers a lament that the American experiment is now robbed of a central support.

"We all have to worry about it, now," Bottum reflects.  "Without the political theory that depended on the existence of the Protestant Mainline, what does it mean to support the nation? What does it mean to criticize it? The American experiment has always needed what Alexis de ­Tocqueville called the undivided current, and now that current has finally run dry."

What can replace it?  Bottum suggests that neither Catholicism (with its "vast intellectual resources") nor Evangelicalism (unable to offer "a widely accepted moral rhetoric") can replace what America's Protestant identity once provided.

His argument is convincing and his analysis is well documented.  Furthermore, his concern for the nation's social cohesiveness is admirable.  Joseph Bottum is clearly on the right track with his "political theory of the Protestant Mainline."

Nevertheless, understanding a "theological theory" of liberal Protestantism's collapse is an even greater concern.  The health of the church is a far greater concern than the health of the nation.  The primary injury caused by mainline Protestant decline is not social but spiritual.  These denominations once fueled the great missionary movement that carried the Gospel to the ends of the earth.  Now, liberal Protestantism sees conversionist missions as an embarrassment.  Committed to a radical doctrinal relativism, these denominations have served as poster children for virtually every theological fad and liberal proposal imaginable.  Now, many of these denominations are involved in court fights to keep churches from leaving.  The stream has indeed run dry.

The "Death of Protestant America" Joseph Bottum describes must serve as a warning to Evangelicals.  There can be no doubt where theological revisionism and accommodationism will lead.  Why, then, would some argue that Evangelicalism should follow essentially the same path?  Can they not see that the liberal Protestant river has run dry?

In addition to being one of Salem’s nationally syndicated radio talk show hosts, R. Albert Mohler, Jr. is the president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky and recognized as one of America’s leading theologians and cultural commentators. Contact Dr. Mohler at mail@albertmohler.com.