Posted on 10/09/2012 3:25:25 PM PDT by Paladins Prayer
According to a recent study, religion is dying in America. And its a trend that has grave implications for our politics, culture, and the fate of our civilization. Ben Fearnow of CBS News reports on the story, writing:
...The study also posits some theories for this burgeoning irreligiosity, which, writes Fearnow, run the gamut from a backlash against the entanglement of religion and politics to a global relationship between economic development and secularization. Now, I dont know if that gamut includes the obvious, but these two theories miss the mark.
Question: Do we wonder why Pakistan is spawning jihadists when we know that 10,000 madrassahs (Muslim schools) pepper its lands? In the same vein, American schools, along with the media and popular culture, instill secular dogma (I discuss one dimension of this here), and faith and her institutions are continuously discredited via specious documentaries and biased news reportage. Put simply, our culture preaches a secular-fundamentalist message. So is it any wonder that Americans are thus influenced? But more about the cause in a moment.
Having said this, some traditionalists will note that theres also good news. As the study indicates, not all the unaffiliated are atheists; in fact, 68 percent claim to believe in God and 21 percent pray every day. The question is, To whom?
Im not just being snide. The unaffiliateds behavior reflects the now common position, Im spiritual, but not religious, and this is in fact a claim 37 percent of them make. Yet while it sounds enlightened and cool to modern ears to profess spirituality, its a meaningless statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at thenewamerican.com ...
Our Catholic church in Miami overflows on Sundays and is always very active.
Hollywood and the public school system is wining the moral battle for our young people.
“Merely having an open mind is nothing; the object of opening a mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.”
G.K. Chesterton
Baptist ping
Total church membership reported in the 2012 Yearbook is 145,691,446 members, down 1.15 percent over 2011.
1. The Catholic Church 68,202,492, [ranked 1 in 2011] , down 0.44 percent.
2. Southern Baptist Convention 16,136,044, [ranked 2 in 2011] , down 0.15 percent.
3. The United Methodist Church 7,679,850, [ranked 3 in 2011] , down 1.22 percent.
4. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 6,157,238, [ranked 4 in 2011] , up 1.62 percent.
5. The Church of God in Christ 5,499,875, [ranked 5 in 2011] , no update reported.
6. National Baptist Convention , U.S.A. , Inc. 5,197,512, [ranked 6 in 2011] , up 3.95 percent.
7. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 4,274,855, [ranked 7 in 2011] , down 5.90 percent.
8. National Baptist Convention of America , Inc. 3,500,000, [ranked 8 in 2011] , no update reported.
9. Assemblies of God 3,030,944, [ranked 9 in 2011] , up 3.99 percent.
10. Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 2,675,873, [ranked 10 in 2011] , down 3.42 percent.
11. African Methodist Episcopal Church 2,500,000, [ranked 11 in 2011] , no update reported.
12. National Missionary Baptist Convention of America 2,500,000, [ranked 11 in 2011] , no update reported.
13. The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) 2,278,586, [ranked 13 in 2011] , down 1.45 percent.
14. The Episcopal Church 1,951,907, [ranked 14 in 2011] , down 2.71 percent.
15. Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc. 1,800,000, ranked 15 [ranked 17 in 2011] , up 20 percent.
16. Churches of Christ 1,639,495, [ranked 15 in 2011] , no update reported.
17. Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America 1,500,000 , [ranked 16 in 2011] , no update reported.
18. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church 1,400,000, [ranked 18 in 2011] , no update reported.
19. American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A. 1,308,054, [ranked 19 in 2011] , down 0.19 percent.
20. Jehovahs Witnesses 1,184,249, [ranked 20 in 2011] , up 1.85 percent.
21. Church of God ( Cleveland , Tennessee ) 1,074,047, [ranked 22 in 2011] , down 0.21 percent.
22. Christian Churches and Churches of Christ 1,071,616, [ranked 23 in 2011] , no update reported.
23. Seventh-day Adventist Church 1,060,386, [ranked 24 in 2011] , up 1.61 percent.
24. United Church of Christ 1,058,423, [ranked 21 in 2011], down 2.02 percent.
25. Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc. 1,010,000, [ranked 25 in 2011 ], no update reported.
Total membership in top 25 churches: 145,691,446, down 1.15 percent.
What does the writer mean by affiliation? I know Christians who are no longer members of a church because of that church's position on homosexuality.
I did not read the entire CBS report, but it is possible to not be a member of a denomination and still believe in the Lord, Bible etc.
I would like to know how many have left “the church” but not Christ?
If true, America will die along with it.
Those of us who believe knew it was coming....just seems to be happening at light speed.
bmflr
We’ve seen from Europe’s example that “Secular Humanism” does not vill the void as Christianity is shoved aside. It just holds the door open for Islam.
Does this include declining Zer0 worship?
If one studies human deities over the ages one would see a transition, evolution as it were, from many gods (polytheism) to one g(G)od (monotheism). It is not surprising that nonotheism would be the next step. As an agnostic I still have strong feelings on the subject, probably from my religious upbringing (including many years as an altar boy when the Mass was still said in Latin). After assembling all of the evidence, I still don’t know...but I’ll keep looking. I promise to never burden this, a conservative political site, with my religious angst.
Thank you mgist. Puts things in perspective.
Maybe because our public schools teach that evolution is their GOD; and there is no other. (A fool has said in his heart, there is no God...
Yes and the churches are doing so much to combat it own decline. No moral compass, moral equivalency, political correctness, pedophilia just to name a few.
Don’t buy it. Since I’ve been seeing this message consistently in the MSM, I doubt it. Pew works for the FEDS. They lie, wishfull thinking.
A discussion I had with a teenager a couple of years ago illustrated this mindset well. After he espoused some relativistic sentiments, I pointed out that if everything is relative, he couldnt rightly say that racism or sexism was wrong. He actually agreed, saying (Im paraphrasing), It sometimes scares me that theres no Truth, and sometimes I wish there was, but thats just the way it is. He ended the conversation shortly thereafter, before I could marshal further arguments. And the real tragedy is that this wasnt done out of anger but ennui. But how culpable was he for his indifference? He had been taught that there are no treasures to be found, no answers only preferences. Thus, searching for them made no more sense than laboring long and hard to discover whether chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry is the best flavor. A quick taste tells you all you need to know because its whatever works for you, man. So from his relativistic perspective, his intellectual incuriosity was entirely logical.
I do see a generation ripe for conversion to Islam, probably one of the more insidious threats buried in this report.
The endless battering of any mention of Western religions in public schools, the mocking of Christmas and Christianity, the open contempt for any sort of conversation about morality and values, and the outright denial of observations of any kind, except for Islamic rituals, is fast setting the pace.
Public school officials seem paralyzed when it comes to setting the same limits on Islam, or even witchcraft, that they routinely place on Judeo-Christian traditions. It is OK to set aside prayer rooms and declare school holidays for Islamic students, but the non-Islamic have no such amenities granted to them.
Where there is a vacuum, something shall rush in to fill it.
Now that you mention that, the author links to an article on evolution that he wrote. I’m glad I read it because it really is phenomenal.
And unless we reverse this cultural decline, tomorrow is something we may not want to see.
Tough times are the only thing that will get us to turn to God.
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