Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, or Reformed- it doesn't matter. In 2024, wherever you look in Protestantism it is some variation of the same sad story. Apart from some micro or regional denominational iterations or independent congregations carrying on their respective traditions alone, all the nationwide, legacy denominations are fried or nearly fried, doctrinally and morally speaking. It goes without saying that this is true of the Mainline churches, and has been for decades. I am not primarily thinking of them, but more specifically have their "conservative" cousins in mind- the ones that likely exist because of some previous split with an apostatizing Mainline denomination and that were founded with the explicit intention of conserving the historic teachings and practices of their respective traditions.
I am prompted to make these observations after the latest betrayal of the faith by the bishops of ACNA, which unanimously selected a pro-women’s ordination and race woke archbishop last weekend, despite a significant internal division about the WO issue, and woke batshittery in general, throughout the communion. One observer commented:
“ACNA is unserious about the orthodox faith and traditional Anglicanism. Conservative resurgence is on a ventilator now. But maybe it always was. There are no ACNA based bishops. Knock it off.”
You could swap out ACNA/Anglicanism/bishops with almost any other denomination/tradition/top officers and the statement would be just as true. This is happening everywhere in conservative Protestantism. The Left advances within them inexorably, the conservative wing of leadership talks a big game about standing firm or taking it back, said leadership caves or fights incompetently, the faithful laity and less influential leaders are betrayed. At best, the orthodox might have a good year or two at synod, GA, or whatever, and the lurch seems to be stopped temporarily. But it always resumes because the troublemakers are never rebuked, discipline, or purged. They continue to plot and caucus and manipulate the levers of soft and hard power while the cucked conservatives refuse to sully their hands with such ungentlemanly tactics and box out the few based people in their ranks who would.
Yes, faithful minorities within each denomination hang on no matter how bad it goes. Yes, these churches are not all equally far gone. But the elite apparatus in them all is riddled with regimevangelicals and pretend conservatives that won't really fight them, and the necessary resources and manpower to reverse the leftward momentum has already been eroded away. They are all of them living on borrowed time. The days of the major “evangelical” bodies in every Protestant stream are numbered. The orthodox parties within them will eventually be brought to heel and made to accept the current heresy, convincing themselves that it was a principled compromise and they will not allow any further drift next time, so that they can sleep at night. Those with more integrity will be driven out by disciplinary action or compelled to withdraw by conscience or disgust as dialogue becomes diktat and orthodox doctrine moves from the standard to just one option in a “big tent” to being proscribed altogether. And then these “conservative,” “confessional,” “traditional,” “Bible-believing” denominations will go full Mainline, joining the family of Regime-approved state denominations before their eventual demographic death.
Is this the end of Protestantism? No, I don’t think so. I believe the future of Protestantism is going to be orthodox believers of various traditions informally partnering and standing together against a hostile culture and a hostile set of state churches. Many congregations have already departed from these failed denominations. Some are going it alone for now. Others have found or formed new networks and alliances. I do not believe independency is any kind of ideal for church polity, but it seems to be an understandable necessity for many congregations in this time. Why join a legacy denomination when every option you have is currently sinking?
As these legacy denominations tank, more congregations will be fleeing from them. Some will likely stay in but ignore everything from denominational HQ until they get tossed. There are many possible ways things can play out for faithful Protestants in the coming years. It is quite likely that based churches will begin to support one another locally, even though they are from different traditions and could never have a full union with each other in a traditional denomination. If the economy and infrastructure of the nation continue to crumble, and if the nation begins to balkanize, local association will become much more important. The Anglicans and Baptists in the same county, fighting the same enemies are going to be natural allies more than Anglicans on opposite coasts in totally different contexts that cannot even really have much physical connection anyway.
Consider marriage, for example. Limiting the spousal choices for our children to one congregation quickly results in a shallow gene pool. In days past our kids could look to the other nearby churches of the same tradition for options. But if all the other churches in that tradition are now pozzed, the nearest options in said tradition that are still solid might be states away. Economics, and more importantly, family rootedness and sense of place, might require marrying into the other based church from a different tradition. Paris may not be worth a mass, but is your family worth the Prayer Book instead of the Directory for Worship?
Where it goes from there, I can't guess. Maybe new, faithful national denominations of each stripe will eventually emerge to replace their failed predecessors. Maybe a new set of hybrid denominational traditions will be born of the camaraderie that forms in the trenches. Maybe this is the truly ecumenical moment, in which necessity forces pan-Protestant catholicity upon us, and makes us regard our traditional distinctives with the proper weight.
But what is clear is that the situation now is more extreme than we usually allow ourselves to think and we need to get into the right frame of mind about who our friends and enemies are. As a Reformed guy in a currently independent Reformed congregation I recognize the major Reformed denominations, as a whole, must be regarded as hostile, even as individual people and congregations in them are friendlies. And the people and congregations of rival Protestant streams that hold fast to the common faith of our fathers (and that includes morality as much as theology!) are also friends fighting their own set of hostiles. I have your back, insofar as I can help you. I hope you'll have mine.
We also need to get over the immature aspects of our denominational rivalries. We can still debate which of us has the superior understanding of sacraments, polity, finer points of election, and such. But we have to stop boasting about 'my tradition being the most faithful' because they've all crapped the bed right now. No time for that kind of vanity anymore. We don't have the luxury of arrogance. All of our confessions and polities - all of them - failed to keep the snakes and wolves out. Because no matter how biblical they are, none of them work without a prior loyalty to God and a commitment to holiness. We can stop trying to blame the onrush of liberalism on each other. We all succumbed to the same lies and false promises of modernity. We all failed to cultivate the same essential virtues. So let us be done with the pettiness that has existed between our tribes. May one of the blessings hidden in the curse of trashworld be an awakened appreciation of just how much orthodox Protestants have in common and how rich is our collective inheritance.
So let us each renew our commitments to our King and forge anew bonds of friendship with all who have not bowed the knee to Baal. And then let us fight for the Church - not just this or that passing denomination - the Church, wherever God has placed us within it. God shook his Church at the Reformation and things that seemed impossible happened. Horrible evils took place and glorious triumphs occurred. We are being shaken again. Where all the pieces will land cannot be seen. But our duties should be clear. Hold fast to the truth, love the brethren.
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A brief note for those sincerely committed to winning back the denominations: You probably think I overly pessimistic. You think you can save your church. I appreciate you and I pray for your success. I want you to win. Take your stands and be willing to go out fighting. It’s a noble work. But I ask of you two things: First, understand that regimevangelicals have mastered screwing over the orthodox through back alley caucusing, emotional blackmail, and denominational procedure, all with a big polished grin and warm handshake for the people they betray. You can't beat that while reciprocating their courtesy and warmth and committing to winning a street fight by Marquess of Queensbury rules. Get savage or get out. Be mean, break the BCO rules abused to sideline you, threaten to split the thing apart if they don't yield to you. Charge their guys with heresy non-stop. Lawfare is on the table. The liberals deserve no quarter. It’s not even dishonest to do these things at this point. It's probably already too late for even this to be enough, but if you won't even try that you aren't serious. Second, when you have drawn your red line, mean it. If you make your last stand, and it fails, go. Don’t keep redrawing it a few feet further back every year. You don’t get multiple last stands. Everyone can see that you aren’t serious if you keep renegotiating your ultimatums. This is the road to being just another cucked pretend conservative.