Posted on 01/19/2012 7:18:48 AM PST by blam
How Will The Shocking Decline Of Christianity In America Affect The Future Of This Nation?
January 19,2012
Is Christianity in decline in America? When you examine the cold, hard numbers it is simply not possible to come to any other conclusion. Over the past few decades, the percentage of Christians in America has been steadily declining. This has especially been true among young people. As you will see later in this article, there has been a mass exodus of teens and young adults out of U.S. churches. In addition, what "Christianity" means to American Christians today is often far different from what "Christianity" meant to their parents and their grandparents.
Millions upon millions of Christians in the United States simply do not believe many of the fundamental principles of the Christian faith any longer. Without a doubt, America is becoming a less "Christian" nation. This has staggering implications for the future of this country. The United States was founded primarily by Christians that were seeking to escape religious persecution. For those early settlers, the Christian faith was the very center of their lives, and it deeply affected the laws that they made and the governmental structures that they established. So what is the future of America going to look like if we totally reject the principles that this nation was founded on?
Overall, Christianity is still the largest religion in the world by far. According to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, there are currently 2.2 billion Christians in the world. So Christianity is not in danger of disappearing any time soon. In fact, in some areas of the globe it is experiencing absolutely explosive growth.
But in the United States, things are different. Churches are shrinking, skepticism is growing and apathy about spiritual matters seems to be at an all-time high.
Before we examine the data, let me disclose that I am a Christian. I am not bashing Christians or the Christian faith at all in this article. In fact, I consider the decline of Christianity in America to be a very bad thing. Not everyone is going to agree with me on that, but hopefully this article will help spark a debate on the role of religion in America that everyone can learn something from.
Unfortunately, the reality is that most Americans spend very little time thinking about religion or spiritual matters these days.
Just consider the following quote from a recent USA Today article....
"The real dirty little secret of religiosity in America is that there are so many people for whom spiritual interest, thinking about ultimate questions, is minimal," says Mark Silk, professor of religion and public life at Trinity College" This is backed up by the numbers. For example, a survey taken last year by LifeWay Research found that 46 percent of all Americans never think about whether they will go to heaven or not.
To most Americans, faith is simply not a big deal. This is particularly true of our young people. Those under the age of 30 are leaving U.S. churches in droves. The following comes from a recent CNN article....
David Kinnaman, the 38-year-old president of the Barna Group, an evangelical research firm, is the latest to sound the alarm. In his new book, "You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church and Rethinking Faith," he says that 18- to 29-year-olds have fallen down a "black hole" of church attendance. There is a 43% drop in Christian church attendance between the teen and early adult years, he says. But it isn't just young people that are leaving American churches. The proportion of Americans that consider themselves to be Christians has been steadily declining for many years. Back in 1990, 86 percent of all Americans considered themselves to be Christian. By 2008, that number had dropped to 76 percent.
Meanwhile, the number of Americans that reject religion entirely has absolutely soared. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of Americans with "no religion" more than doubled between 1990 and 2008.
So what is going to happen if these trends continue?
Dave Olson, the director of church planting for the Evangelical Covenant Church, has made some really interesting projections regarding what is going to happen to church attendance in America if current trends continue.
According to Olson, only 18.7 percent of all Americans regularly attend church right now. If this number continues to decline at the current pace, Olson says that the percentage of Americans attending church in 2050 will be about half of what it is today.
Other research has produced similar results.
According to a study done by LifeWay Research, membership in Southern Baptist churches will fall nearly 50 percent by the year 2050 if current trends persist.
If you are a Christian, you should be quite alarmed by these numbers.
But what is happening to the faith of our young people should be even more alarming for Christians.
The American Religious Identification Survey by the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society & Culture at Trinity College is one of the most comprehensive studies on religion in America that has ever been done.
According to that study, 15 percent of all Americans say that they have "no religion".
That is up from 8 percent in 1990.
That is quite a change.
But the move away from religion is particularly pronounced among our young people.
One recent survey found that 25 percent of all Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 say that they have no religion.
Obviously the Christian faith is not winning the battle for the hearts and the minds of our young people. The cold, hard truth is that in America today, the younger you are, the less likely you are to consider yourself to be a Christian.
Large numbers of young Americans that went to church while they were growing up are now leaving U.S. churches entirely. A recent study by the Barna Group discovered that nearly 60 percent of all Christians between the ages of 15 and 29 are no long actively involved in any church.
But not only have they left the church, our young people have also abandoned just about all forms of Christian spirituality.
Just check out the results of one survey of young adults that was conducted by LifeWay Christian Resources....
•65% rarely or never pray with others, and 38% almost never pray by themselves either.
•65% rarely or never attend worship services of any kind.
•67% don't read the Bible or any other religious texts on a regular basis.
If this does not get turned around, churches all over America will be closing their doors. When the survey above first came out, the president of LifeWay Christian Resources stated that "the Millennial generation will see churches closing as quickly as GM dealerships."
But it is not just church that our young people are rejecting.
The reality is that they are also rejecting the fundamental principles of the Christian faith.
One survey conducted by the Barna Group found that less than 1 percent of all Americans between the ages of 18 and 23 hold a Biblical worldview.
The Barna Group asked participants in the survey if they agreed with the following six statements....
1) Believing that absolute moral truth exists.
2) Believing that the Bible is completely accurate in all of the principles it teaches.
3) Believing that Satan is considered to be a real being or force, not merely symbolic.
4) Believing that a person cannot earn their way into Heaven by trying to be good or by doing good works.
5) Believing that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth.
6) Believing that God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world who still rules the universe today.
Less than 1 percent of the participants agreed with all of those statements.
That is staggering.
But it is not just young adults that are rejecting the fundamentals of the Christian faith.
Even large numbers of "evangelical Christians" are rejecting the fundamental principles of the Christian faith.
For example, one survey found that 52 percent of all Americans Christians believe that "at least some non-Christian faiths can lead to eternal life".
Another survey found that 29 percent of all American Christians claim to have been in contact with the dead, 23 percent believe in astrology and 22 percent believe in reincarnation.
Without a doubt, the religious landscape of America is changing.
Over the past several decades, church attendance has been steadily declining, the percentage of Americans that consider themselves to be Christians has been going down, and the number of people that hold traditional Christian beliefs has been dropping like a rock.
So what does all of this mean for the future of America?
Nothing new under the sun. As we have turned our backs to God, so he will turn His face from us, and we will pay the consequences.
It’s more than the schools. It’s the culture. TV, movies, and the internet. Hang around on a site where kids are, and eventually someone will be mocked for believing in their imaginary friend.
Like it or not, the Catholics are kind of a standard bearer for Christianity. And the whole clergy pedophilia and cover up did very serious damage to all of Christianity.
Read Romans 1:18-32 for a picture of what a nation under the wrath of God looks like...
yep, that’s us.
In 2009, After a 13 year absence, I returned to the Catholic Faith.
I have discovered a HUGE lurch to the left among the priests along with many of the lay people.
I believe this ‘going over to the dark side’ has driven many away from Christian Churches.
JMO..
First, I agree that the concept of consolidated public education is merely a front for State Indoctrination. Public schools are only valid so long as the school reflects the moral values of the community. The moment, the state or the federal government add their greasy touch, we have indoctrination not education.
Second, The embrace that our Churches have shown for the progressive movement has turned into a kiss of death for many.
Finally, these declining numbers may not reflect a rejection of Christianity, but a failure to teach Christian Principals in the home.
Many have and will find their way to Christian belief, but I am unsure that it will be brought to them by the currently organized churches as many seem to have become like government, institutions onto their own aggrandizement.
As Christianity (which is the bedrock foundation for the mral principles that undergird our Declaration of Indepndence and Constitution) declines...America declines.
If Christianity is rendered to the sidelines and becomes moot...then America as a free, God-fearing, God-recognizing (as the founders made clear “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal and endowed by their CREATOR with certain unalienable rights...”) and prosperous nation will end.
Plain and simple as that.
America at the Crossroads of History
http://www.jeffhead.com/crossroads.htm
I totally agree. I fail to see how conservatives can justify exposing their children to the biggest, most well-funded, most powerful Liberal oppresion and endoctrination machine in the world.
Conservatives could do more for the longterm future of this country, in particular to defund the Leftist agenda at the personal level, by taking their kids out of government schools en masse this year than by anything that could happen in the presidential election.
A society that celebrates television shows that feature cursing toddlers (”Modern Family”) is no longer one that honors or espouses the tenets of Christianity.
The ‘Church of the Itching Ear’ has taken over...
In the sixties America’s yutes turned against God, too.
The radicalism that elected Obama will die when the lies and soullessness of social radicals are politically exposed and slayed - once again. That includes the amoral, atheist libertarians who have captured the hearts and minds of America’s young for a short season in the name of “logic” that is easily exposed as not logical at all in light of the reality of human nature and natural law.
Then I joined the Worship committee. Big mistake. I had a concept of what Christian behavior was supposed to be from more than 25 years of example. What I witnessed in that committee was shattering. It opened my eyes to the sin that lives in the bosom of that Christian church.
It was downhill from there. I tried different churches, but when I looked behind the scenes I saw the same unchristian activity. That's when I stopped going to church completely -- I couldn't stand the hypocrisy.
Today, I'm a Member of the Church of the Bathroom Mirror: if you don't like the person you see every morning, then you change that person for the better. The central principle of the Church lies in the Golden Rule.
Earlier today, I saw the results of a poll that asked "What created the Universe, God or the Big Bang?" I was amused that my answer was not an option: "The Big Bang was the tool used by the Great Architect to build this place." As for the Bible, I've been spending so much of my life with a technical translator that I recognize that the original Word of God has been corrupted by mistakes, if not by outright manipulation, to compound the misunderstanding caused by the drift and evolution of the meaning of words.
Why do Christians look outwards to the actions of their neighbors when their own actions go against the teachings of Jesus? Or perhaps you forget Matthew 7:5? "You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye."
What you said is correct. Also homo victimhood and “rights” has captured the heads full of mush for a season. The main enemy of that pervert movement is Christians.
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
This was started at the time of Voltaire-—and culminated in Europe with the Postmodernists “God is Dead”. Marxism and Darwinism-—where they converge—God is killed. You can not hold two opposing ideas in your mind.
You can not tell children “sodomy is good” and there is a God. Can’t do it—God and the Bible go. Can’t have “Gay Pride” and belief in the Bible. The bible goes. Gone! Sexual fun is more alluring. Sins of the Flesh are the most seductive when you expose it to young immature children. They gain power away from the adults around them and they are selfish by nature.
French Revolution epitomized godlessness—no Christianity. Germany in the Weimar Republic-—they ridiculed and mocked Christianity. By 1919 their media was putting out vulgar, homoerotica and homosexual boy scout troups were formed with no outcry from most parents. Boys were having sex orgies in the woods (sodomy) nd that was ok. Christianity was weakened and destroyed——only a few like Bonhoeffer spoke out and they were hanged.
John Dewey-—kicked out Moral Absolutes and God from public schools by the 30’s. Prior to that QUOTES of the Bible were memorized by children. God and Our Lord and Jesus were IN THE CURRICULA.
Why? We had Fabian Socialists that came into the US in 1880’s and invaded all our elite universities and the Cultural Marxists set out to march through and control all our institutions-—destroy them one by one. Get control of education first...and the media. By 1930 they had control of both and Foundations (Ford, Rockefeller, Carnegie) and publishing houses——IDEAS WERE TOTALLY CONTROLLED. (With very little truth getting through in small towns. AP’s were controlled by Leftists).
McCarthy was vilified by the Press (lied about) and he basically drank himself to death-—his reputation was totally destroyed—this WWII hero and godfather of RFK kids—his career was destroyed—Why—because he told the truth about the mass infiltration of Communists in our State Dept. and policy making areas. Can’t expose the infiltration and wake up America. So he was silenced and the takeover continued not only STOPPED but now people were conditioned to think that if someone dare claim “communist”—they would be vilified, labeled and destroyed. (like what happens with homosexuality now—DARE say it is evil-—and wham! You’re vilified and gone). Total control of ideas allowed in the public square for kids to eat up.
Curricula—was centralized. Ideas transmitted to your children controlled by psychologists (BF Skinner) and the Prussian school system-—set up for Mass indoctrination and Brainwashing (they use humiliation and drugs for those who think outside the box). It’s subtle-—don’t get me wrong-—Strands are targeted at those “smart” kids who don’t think correctly-—(sodomy is good) and they are forced psychologically to think sodomy is good and there is no God). You can not think both-—cognitive dissonance which is what KGB designed and targeted in US schools in the 30’s-—used to destroy cognitive function of children and for brainwashing.
DESTROY DOE and public school textbooks.
Legal system was destroyed by the Communists—right from Stalin’s constitution—Separation of Church and State——Comes from Marx. “Non profit status, also-—control information”.
They kicked out Natural Law Theory as our Foundation of Law.....so that we can leave Logic and Reason (Foundation of Just Law) and have irrational laws-—like “homosexual marriage”, women have to work outside the home when they have small babies-—to create emotionally damaged children (Lenin)....they destroyed marriage by destroying the contract of marriage (Lenin did that too).
This has been a 100 year plan—conspiracy, yes. It did NOT happen overnight but we could stop it if everyone took control of their own children and grandchildren. Their formative years are crucial-—Lenin understood that—it is why he put women to work and took all the babies and established day cares—to form the worldview of the next generation....and that he did. He created in one generation little immoral hedonist marxists believing in no God.
It is already affecting America. Just look around, read the papers, watch TV, watch movies, listen to the conversations and on an on. America is today’s Sodom and Gomorrah.
We really need a revival in America. Christ followers, we need to be bringing shalom to the world—showing our neighbors there is no need for government to take the place of a loving community of believers.
I am striving to be a better neighbor when I see someone in need. Changing hearts and minds is key to being the people God wants us to be.
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