The abandonment of biblical truth in churches since the 1960s has not only led to a hemorrhaging of members but also increasing numbers of youth who have become alienated from the faith. Because these churches are no longer salt and light in their communities, they have become increasingly irrelevant. By conforming to the culture, rather than transforming it, they are rapidly disappearing from the culture completely.

In his book, All Failing Faiths, Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III writes, “In the end, when all else had been leveled, the 1960s went after God.[1]

Unfortunately, those words are true – as our nation has become increasingly confused spiritually as the Left took over America’s churches in the 1960s.

While the march toward liberalism immolating mainline Protestant churches started back in the progressive era, much of it, like with our universities, was hatched in the relatively silent liberal takeover of seminaries in the 1950s while America was perhaps at its churchgoing peak.

In the 1960s, nearly every mainline Protestant denomination, but particularly, the Church of Christ (Congregationalist), Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Episcopalian churches, discarded belief in the fundamental tenets of the Bible such as biblical inerrancy and that it is only through faith in Jesus Christ that one can obtain eternal life.

In addition, these churches rejected sexual purity, and male-female complementarianism, and embraced radical sexual liberation and the progressive ethos. In addition, these churches started to attack America and its role in the world.

While the 1950s are still looked upon as the height of American spirituality, there were definite storm clouds on the horizon. Yes, record numbers of Americans were going to church, and many still espoused, even if they didn’t necessarily adhere to, an established moral code. The mainline religion of the 1950s was socially acceptable, did not require sacrifice, and in many instances, was more therapeutic than challenging. For many, church attendance was simply a box to be checked off each week. In many ways, American spirituality was a mile wide but an inch deep.

Thus, churches focusing more on preaching platitudes than on genuine and authentic faith and discipleship, were ripe for takeover by radical leftists seeking spiritual cover and approval for their secular agendas. By trying to be relevant they became irrelevant instead—and in the process enabled the acceleration of moral and cultural decay while losing fans quicker than a 100-loss baseball team.

Because of the mainline denomination’s embrace of liberalism in the 1960s, there is no longer a clear and consistent message of Christ from our churches. Instead, America increasingly hears a confused and muddled voice when it comes to matters of faith.

This has also resulted in the weakening of Christian witness and in providing cover for the full societal implementation of the progressive sexual agenda—including abortion, the redefinition of marriage, gender identity, and leftist economic theory—through organized religion.

And without that clear voice, Americans tuned religion out. The mainline Protestant congregations have now become increasingly irrelevant, living off endowments and with aging populations who attend more out of tradition than a vibrant, growing faith, slowly dying off and leaving nothing but empty pews and decaying buildings. In fact, increasing numbers of mainline churches are closing their doors at an alarming rate.

The biggest decline has been in the denominations that discarded biblical truth in the 1960s. At their peak in 1965, mainline Protestant churches counted 31 million members out of a U.S. population of fewer than 200 million.[2] But then the great decline started and remains unabated to this day. Ten years later, nearly a third of Americans were still affiliated with mainline denominations. But now, just one in ten Americans are.

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