(OPINION) RT News – Saccharine services and an unwillingness to address tough issues are driving people away from the church in the US. Christians should get real about what’s happening. Jonathan Steingard, the singer in the popular Christian band Hawk Nelson, recently declared that he no longer believes in God.
“After growing up in a Christian home, being a pastor’s kid, playing and singing in a Christian band, and having the word ‘Christian’ in front of most of the things in my life – I am now finding that I no longer believe in God,” he said. For someone like me, who is a believer, it hurts to read that.
Every person who believes in God understands what it’s like to have a crisis of faith. It is an incredibly painful experience to go through. But it’s also something I can identify with. My father is a pastor as well, and I grew up in the church.
There used to be a joke that I was born in a pew. I’ve always been an Evangelical, except for a period in my teenage years. So I understand when Steingard mentions things that make him uncomfortable such as prayer feeling “like a performance art” and phrases such as “Holy Spirit come fill this place.” A lot of issues with the Evangelical Church surround the fact that it’s often less of a worship service and more of a stage show. READ MORE
