Posted on 05/26/2017 6:29:51 AM PDT by C19fan
The number of college students with no religious affiliation has tripled in the last 30 years, from 10 percent in 1986 to 31 percent in 2016, according to data from the CIRP Freshman Survey. Over the same period, the number who attended religious services dropped from 85 percent to 69 percent. These trends provide a shapshot of the current generation of young adults; they also provide a preview of rapid secularization in the U.S. over the next 30 years.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.scientificamerican.com ...
More addicted and less successful than any other generation. They will be short-lived.
I was at a seminar a year ago that compared the attributes of the various generations. One thing stood out:
They said boomers are religious and millennials are spiritual.
I had to ask what the difference was and, in essence, the former belongs to “organized religion”.
And I have to say, living in the bible belt where “everybody” goes to church and playing in a southern gospel band for a couple of years, I’ll take spiritual over religious any day.
I was a bit surprised that even 69 percent attend church often enough to be counted. There are lots of reasons for this.
At the end of the day, it is important for our Republic and for each individual, that the trend end sooner, rather than later.
I was a bit surprised that even 69 percent attend church often enough to be counted. There are lots of reasons for this.
At the end of the day, it is important for our Republic and for each individual, that the trend end sooner, rather than later.
Sorry. It wasn’t important enough to say twice!
Six mainline Protestant churches have closed within three miles of my home over the past two years. Likely a couple of Catholic churches will join them in the near future. This does not come as a surprise.
Except the muzzies, who bow 5 times a day and blow themselves up to kill infidels.
Something will fill the void.
Like Bobby sang, “You gotta serve somebody.”
Religious>Spiritual.
I live in Asheville where there are spiritual wiccans and Episcopalians celebrating sexual perversion and people worshipping trees. You can keep your anti-Christian spiritualists.
You can keep your anti-Christian spiritualists.
My point was not made very well.
I mean that the churches where I live are filled to the brim with people who go because it is what they do down here. But a significant number could not tell you the difference between the old and new testaments, nor why they are “saved”, nor what they are saved from.
Meanwhile, there is a significant number of Christians that have had it with organized religion. We still go to church but most of the real ‘spiritual growth’ comes from reading His word, prayer, and discussion among ourselves.
Church here is more of a cultural thing. It is often religion without the spirituality. That is all I was trying to say.
I separate Christianity from man-made religion.
Al;l that being said, you are right about spirituality being all over the board, but so is religion. We have Christian, Mormon, Catholic, Islam, Buddhism, etc.
Jesus is my savior. That’s all that matters.
And look what is happening to those countries in Europe. They are being taken over by muslims, except Poland.
My church is losing ten people per day via the obituary column.
Yet my fellow Catholic FReepers seem to be consumed with combing through thousands of pages of Canon Law written in Latin, trying to find some sort of gotcha loophole that can be used to impeach Pope Francis.
They’re as delusional as the Jill Stein recount people (and frankly missing some much bigger points).
Jesus is my savior. That’s all that matters.
Your statement is what the bible calls “milk”. The thief on the cross really didn’t have time for much else, but most of the rest of us are on a journey of discovery.
And if a person can not say what, specifically is the cause of Jesus being their savior, are they actually saved? That is really where I’m going with my statement. You would not believe how many faithful church goers where I live, when asked why they believe they are saved, can not really answer.
To be clear, I’m not saying they are not “saved”. I don’t know. It is between them and God. The only people I KNOW are not saved are those that actually SAY they are not saved.
“Yet my fellow Catholic FReepers seem to be consumed with combing through thousands of pages of Canon Law written in Latin, trying to find some sort of gotcha loophole that can be used to impeach Pope Francis.”
If they’d ditch the whole pope thing, and follow the Bible that says there’s no mediator between God and men except Jesus, they wouldn’t have to waste their time looking for loopholes in men’s law. Putting more faith in men than in God can’t end well.
In Columbus Ohio there are 100 houses with 10 kids in each house who belong to xenos home Church. Totally under the radar but is Alive and Kicking and thriving. They’re picking up a lot of the marginal kids in society and really making a difference
This is along the lines of what I saw in my Southern Gospel band. For over two years I played with them in a few dozen local churches, typically with attendance of 50 or less. What is painfully obvious is the lack of children and young adults.
In some of them, you are hard pressed to find a person under 50.
That being said, my wife and I finally gave up on the small churches as our church home because we had just had it with the dogmatism (I’m talking about the actual dictionary definition of the word here). We decided to try out the local “Christian” church, which is a very nice building and a pretty large congregation.
The first thing I noticed that was refreshing was that the pastor knows more than I do about the bible. This was sorely lacking in the other churches with lay pastors that would give me “deer in the headlights” looks when I asked probing questions.
The second thing I noticed was the plethora of children and young people, and the vitality of the youth programs.
But the most important thing was the quality of the message in the preaching as well as the sunday school classes. Well, that and the incredible friendliness (not just politeness) of the people there.
On a side note, they have the service dialed in. The music is wonderful without taking over the service. They take Psalm 33:3 very seriously.
I actually had a person, in justifying the preaching style of small church pastors, tell me that they are better because they don’t prepare and just let the Lord “give them utterance” when they preach. Dead serious.
If that is true, I want nothing to do with “their lord”, because he tends to ramble about irrelevant stuff a lot. And scream. And say, “can I get an amen” because everyone seems to be not following him. Which many of them are not.
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