Charting their own course right onto the rocks.
"And every one that heareth these my words, and doth them not,
shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand,
and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew,
and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof."
- Matthew 7:26-27
The collapse of Protestantism in Minnesota. (<-- Star Tribune article)
At one time in this nation's history, Minnesota was a protestant as the ocean is wet. Just like Scandinavia was a powerhouse of Lutheranism so was Minnesota. But there's an inherent problem in making faith a matter of personal interpretation, the practice doesn't end with your interpretation. Martin Luther in an act of supreme pride pulled out the cornerstone of Christianity and declared that Pope, apostolic successor to Peter, personally appointed 1st leader of the church Christ founded wasn't the arbiter of Christian doctrine. Even since then the foundation of protestant faith has continued to crumble and vanish.
Now after celebrating the 500th anniversary of his heresy many of the churches founded in his tradition are not only shrinking, they are disappearing. Many of those still active are more senior centers than church communities. Their youth having now adopted a new doctrine of "spiritual, not religious" or having reinterpreted the faith down to the point of irrelevance in their lives.
The woman in the video notes that people shouldn't complain about the noise of children in church. In doing so she very likely unknowingly references something that I believe accelerated many protestant churches from slow decay to outright collapse. I wonder if in these last moments, as the few left watch their churches shutter forever if they realize their mistake. If they recognize the now the glaring truth that their generation, with their own hands and will, chose this dark future by supporting abortion and birth control. I wonder if any look around in quiet horror realizing that their pews are empty and their churches are silent because they killed their children. They got everything they wanted. The extra money, the freedom, the time spent on their own wants and desires. Now the bill has come due and the devil is a merciless collector.
Such are the wages of sin.