The FaithX Project

Strategic Missional Consulting

About Darren M. Slade, PhD

Darren Slade is a theological historian, systematician, and critical rationalist philosopher from Denver, Colorado. Specializing in historic-speculative theology, theoretical metaphysics, and the socio-political development of religious belief systems, Darren's academic publications include topics ranging from the philosophy of religion, ancient Near Eastern and Second-Temple hermeneutical practices, church and Islamic history, and the psychology of religion. Check out his other work here: darrenmslade.academia.edu.

FaithXperimental Spotlight: Car Care Clinic, Tulsa, OK

by Darren Slade

In our digital and physical travels around the U.S., we at FaithX like to keep our eyes open for examples of people, programs, communities, or ministries doing creative, innovative, and experimental things in the area of faith. When we find one, we like to shine a spotlight on them in a FaithXperimental blog post. Today, we focus on the Car Care Clinic of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

One of the biggest factors that contributes to perpetual inequality, poverty, and a risk of homelessness in the United States is a lack of self-sufficient transportation. In fact, immigrants, impoverished families, and people of color – especially African-Americans – are significantly more likely to suffer from car-lessness than non-poor families. Being without their own means of transportation tends to have a negative snowball effect on their overall economic circumstances (Klein & Smart, 2017). Having to rely exclusively on buses, subways, commuter trains, and other forms of public transportation means greater commute times and less scheduling flexibility. This, in turn, can have a severe impact on the ability to meet basic needs, like buying groceries, filling prescriptions, and going to the doctor, and may ultimately even result in loss of income or unemployment (cf. Hensley et al., 2018). 

It was an understanding of the potentially severe consequences that led members of the Tulsa Oklahoma community to gather together in 2002 to launch the  Car Care Clinic (CCC) of Tulsa, Oklahoma, a unique ministry dedicated to helping poorer families remain self-sufficient by providing free car repairs. 

We’ve all been carless at one time or another, due to some unexpected breakdown, accident, or random act of destruction (or sometimes just running out of gas). We’ve all experienced the frustration of being stranded without a car for hours or days while waiting for the mechanic or body shop to complete the repairs. And we’ve all gritted our teeth while waiting for the dreaded repair bill. 

Even for middle-class families, car repairs can pose a real financial pinch. A simple oil change can cost a proverbial “arm and leg.” And a major repair with most modern vehicles can end up costing hundreds of dollars, maybe even thousands. Most of us don’t have that kind of money lying around for out-of-pocket expenses. 

[Read more…]

Introducing a New Publication from Our Research Director!

Religious Homophily and Biblicism:
A Theory of Conservative Church Fragmentation

by Darren M. Slade

In his book, The Bible Made Impossible, Christian Smith proposes the hypothesis that religious homophily, a well-known psychological phenomenon, and biblicism may be the cause of church splits.

Our Research, Darren Slade, has just published a new article in the International Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Society that explores whether this hypothesis is a viable explanation for why certain conservative churches fragment.

From the article’s abstract:
“According to the most recent demographic datasets, the number of new Christian congregations throughout the world is outpacing the total number of new Christians, suggesting that institutional Christianity has become more proficient at internal division than it has at outward multiplication. Using the psychological phenomenon known as “homophily,” the purpose of this article is to provide a brief elaboration on the socio-psychological reasoning for why conflicts over biblical interpretation may be one of the dominant causes, among other factors, for conservative church splits and for why ‘biblicism’ may cause fragmentation among evangelicals more than their liberal Protestant counterparts. The article will first define and characterize theological conservatism, homophily, and biblicism before discussing the possible correlation between conflicts over biblical interpretation and church fragmentation. The article proposes that theological disagreements over exclusivist scriptural interpretations is a viable explanation for the destabilization of conservative congregations. Church splits among evangelicals are explainable partly because of the conservative tendency toward religious homophily and the need to establish rival congregations built around competing biblical interpretations.”

Check out a preview of the article by clicking here.

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The Great Religion Singularity: McLaren’s Reflections on Howard’s Research

by Darren M. Slade, PhD

If things continue unchanged and unchallenged, then the death of institutional Christianity is precisely what will happen. And believers won’t have to imagine it. They will be forced to live through it. 

– Brian McLaren, Author/Speaker/Activist

Editor’s Note: This article is a review of Brian McLaren’s “Conditions for the Great Religion Singularity,” which in turn is a review of Ken Howard’s research paper, “The Religion Singularity: A Demographic Crisis Destabilizing and Transforming Institutional Christianity.” We almost titled this blog post, “The Church’s Frightmare,” given the coincidence (if you believe in such things) that it would post on Halloween and the fact that the death of institutional Christianity can be a scary thing for we who are its adherents to consider. Indeed, after reading the original article, one clergy colleague quipped, “I’m so glad I’m retiring this year: this is just depressing and scary.”

You’ve heard of the “Great Schism.”

You’ve heard of the “Great Awakening.”

You’ve heard of the “Great Emergence.”

The Institutional Christianity now has entered a new era of
dramatic destabilization and deinstitutionalization…

THE GREAT RELIGION SINGULARITY

Can you imagine the death of Christianity? Can you imagine a world without the Christian Church? For many anthropologists, the death of Christianity is merely an eventuality like it has been for most human religions throughout time.1

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New Study Finds Majority of Christians Do Not Have Meaningful Contact with Atheists, Muslims, or LGBTQ+ Community

An Interview with Dr. Stephen Merino, 
Assistant Professor of Sociology at Colorado Mesa University

By Darren M. Slade, PhD

As Director of Research for the FaithX Project, Darren Slade contributes regular posts the FaithXperimental blog curating recent research relevant to the future of faith and faith-based communities as they are published.

In a recently published sociological article entitled, “Religious Involvement and Bridging Social Ties,” Dr. Stephen Merino sought to investigate whether religious involvement in church ministry, beyond the typical Sunday worship service, was a meaningful predictor for creating “social capital” (i.e. social resources, relationships, shared values and norms, and a sense of trust and reciprocity) between church-going Christians and marginalized groups in society. He also explored whether this involvement resulted in Christians having a connection to different people groups, such as members of the LGBTQ+ community, people on welfare, people of color, Muslims, and atheists. 

What Dr. Merino found was that the majority of white Christians surveyed do not participate in civic engagement or other ministries outside of attending Sunday worship services. Furthermore, Dr. Merino found that the majority of church-going Christians do not have regular or meaningful contact with these marginalized groups, which has significant social and political implications for how Christians cooperate with and tolerate those who are different from themselves. 

This blog post conducts an interview with Dr. Merino about his findings and asks him to explore the implications of his study beyond what was written in his article. The interview concludes with this question: “As a result of your study, is it fair to say that on average, the majority of Christians do not have meaningful contact with atheists, Muslims, or members of the LGBTQ+ community on a regular basis?” Dr. Merino’s response: “I think that’s fairly safe to say. It’s probably also likely that evangelical Christians have the least contact with members of these groups.”

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FaithXperimental Spotlight: Justice Revival, Washington, DC

by Allyson McKinney Timm, Executive Director

“A Justice Ministry Whose Time Has Come”

A few years ago, Megan, a millennial fresh out of college, was clear on her calling—she wanted to join a Christian human rights organization. Megan had grown up in the Church, studied theology, led mission trips. But when she went searching, there wasn’t such a group to be found. She discovered worthwhile ministries tackling crucial justice issues from hunger to human trafficking, but none focused on human rights as such.

Fast forward to 2019: Megan, now a skilled professional, joins a team meeting one morning to meet a new nonprofit client. She is unexpectedly moved because she finally hears someone articulate her deep conviction about the vital need for a Christian ministry specializing in human rights. That person is Allyson McKinney Timm, founder of Justice Revival based out of Washington, DC.

Justice Revival describes itself as “a diverse, inclusive community of Christian faith, dedicated to serving as a voice for human rights in the United States.” Its vision is a vibrant, transformative movement in which Christian faith leaders call on U.S. lawmakers to fulfill their moral and legal duty to respect and protect the human rights of all people, not just a particular class of citizenry.

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