Quiet virtue, false virtue

Churches in America are like our universities: If you threw out all the people who are unprepared or uninterested, you could make do with a lot fewer buildings. Some people get saved in spite of churches, and a good many draw closer to God because of them, but the sad reality remains: Some churches run out of members and die.

It's hard for we vain humans-or this vain man, at least-to let go of organizations to which we've attached ourselves. That's why I was impressed to read about Union Avenue Methodist Church, in Memphis, Tenn., whose congregation agreed to merge with another congregation, sell their building (which is in need of repairs), and donate some of the money to the poor and needy.

Like many American churches, Union Avenue Methodist has seen a decline in membership. Fewer Americans are members of a church than were a decade ago, and many of these are members not of denominational churches, but of big seeker-friendly churches. A small downtown church finds it hard to survive.

We could quibble about why this is. And we often do. I have friends ranging from the home church folks to the high church folks, all of them able to proof-text their positions with a few relevant Scriptures. Whatever the reason for a church's demise, it interests me to see what people do in response. I don't know much about the circumstances at United Avenue Methodist, but they certainly seem to have giving hearts, which is a sign of a good church.

Perhaps not surprisingly, local preservationists are seeking to block the church's would-be purchaser, CVS, from demolishing the church in order to build a drug store. In other words, under the guise of opposing corporate greed, they are attempting to confiscate private wealth in order to enjoy a sentimentalized neighborhood vision, all while keeping money from the poor and lower-cost medicine from the sick.

Thus are God and Mammon contrasted on a city block-the willingness to give without fanfare, and an equal willingness to steal while trumpeting one's own virtue.