Posted on 07/15/2017 12:32:17 PM PDT by ForYourChildren
It may come as no surprise that the influence of Christianity in the United States is waning. Rates of church attendance, religious affiliation, belief in God, prayer and Bible-reading have all been dropping for decades. By consequence, the role of religion in public life has been slowly diminishing, and the church no longer functions with the cultural authority it held in times past. These are unique days for the church in America as it learns what it means to flourish in a new “Post-Christian” era.
Barna has developed a metric to measure the changing religious landscape of American culture. We call this the “post-Christian” metric. To qualify as “post-Christian,” individuals must meet nine or more of our 16 criteria (listed below), which identify a lack of Christian identity, belief and practice. These factors include whether individuals identify as atheist, have never made a commitment to Jesus, have not attended church in the last year or have not read the Bible in the last week.
These kinds of questions—compared to ticking the “Christian” box in a census—get beyond how people loosely identify themselves (affiliation) and to the core of what people actually believe and how they behave as a result of their belief (practice). These indicators give a much more accurate picture of belief and unbelief in America.
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(Excerpt) Read more at barna.com ...
To qualify as “post-Christian,” individuals had to meet nine or more of the following factors . “Highly post-Christian” individuals meet 13 or more of the factors (out of these 16 criteria).
- Do not believe in God
- Identify as atheist or agnostic
- Disagree that faith is important in their lives
- Have not prayed to God (in the last week)
- Have never made a commitment to Jesus
- Disagree the Bible is accurate
- Have not donated money to a church (in the last year)
- Have not attended a Christian church (in the last 6 months)
- Agree that Jesus committed sins
- Do not feel a responsibility to “share their faith”
- Have not read the Bible (in the last week)
- Have not volunteered at church (in the last week)
- Have not attended Sunday school (in the last week)
- Have not attended religious small group (in the last week)
- Bible engagement scale: low (have not read the Bible in the past week and disagree strongly or somewhat that the Bible is accurate)
- Not Born Again
Ever notice it’s the same chart for Democrat voters? They worship government.
Bump
To Read Later
And where are most of the country’s problems centered? There’s always lots of talk about California and the West Coast, but when you look at this picture, it seems to me the focus should be on “offing” New England and New York.
Yep would be interesting to set up Venn diagrams to track various issues.
Some such tracking would outrage the liberals, however. If we were to track the ongoing shootings in Chicago with black neighborhoods, for example, we would see a major connection. But to talk of such a connection would offend the sensibilities of liberals, so we aren’t allowed to talk about that.
It would be interesting to see how other social issues compare, since we’re talking about religion here. For example, is there a correlation between lack of religion and committing violent crime? How many murders in prison are devout Christians; how many were devout Christians at the time they committed the crime??
ON the other hand how many of the criminals are non-religious??
Law enforcement people tell us that there is a correlation between lack of fathers involvement in children’s lives, and the criminal element. But because the liberals tell us that this is somehow offensive to single mothers,to suggest that the lack of a father hurts children, we aren’t allowed to talk about that either.
Probably the red state - blue state map with election results shows the same statistics. The poor people of these cities who answered the survey don’t have a clue. Sad.
Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. James 4:14
…16For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise. 17After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. 18Therefore encourage one another with these words.… I Thessalonians 4:17
27Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. Hebrews 9:27-28
That is a lot of reading in one week...
It’s hard for me to believe that Seattle is only #9, and that Portland, Oregon, is way down at #45.
Love for the Lord cannot be measured by attendance at Church.
Living a life governed by the Ten Commandments honors Him.
Behaving as a Christian toward others honors Christ.
Checklist (I checked all that apply to me):
- Do not believe in God
- Identify as atheist or agnostic
- Disagree that faith is important in their lives
- Have not prayed to God (in the last week)
- Have never made a commitment to Jesus
- Disagree the Bible is accurate
- Have not donated money to a church (in the last year) [x]
- Have not attended a Christian church (in the last 6 months) [x]
- Agree that Jesus committed sins
- Do not feel a responsibility to “share their faith”
- Have not read the Bible (in the last week) [x]
- Have not volunteered at church (in the last week) [x]
- Have not attended Sunday school (in the last week) [x]
- Have not attended religious small group (in the last week) [x]
- Bible engagement scale: low (have not read the Bible in the past week and disagree strongly or somewhat that the Bible is accurate)
- Not Born Again
Only score 6 so I am NOT post-Christian. I am post-church, which is a subset :)
If you are not attending church you are missing out on praise and worship to God and fellowship with fellow Christians. If you are not tithing you are robbing God. Good luck at the White Throne of Judgement.
No surprises, except for, maybe, Buffalo.
Soviet Red Hampshire #2 on the ‘godless’ list? Not the slightest bit surprised...not at all.
I think what the question means, is has the person read anything in the The Bible, any Bible verses, in the last week, not as to whether they have read the entire Bible cover to cover in the last week.
I got stuck on the begats myself, just Tuesday....
To be expected. Christians should not expect to be in the mainstream. If we are it indicates that we may be compromising with a secular worldview. As the social Christians fade away the numbers will drop even further. But God still preserves His people.
“To be expected. Christians should not expect to be in the mainstream.”
Just curious, based on your statement above, Was there a Christian western civilization in Europe? Was early America a Christian nation?
So, if western civilizaton was Christian, and/or, early America a Christian nation, then does that not imply that Christians were in the mainstream?
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