As far as statistics go, I am presuming you are considering those who claim to be part of a community, but are probably not active within it. When one considers the ENTIRE community, I would agree with your idea - that the Church reflects the secular society. I believe that if one polls those who are active and actually try to implement a conservative communities' approach to walking in Chirst, I find the statistics are more favorable. Recall Mt 7:21 - "not all who say 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven but those who do the will of my Father in heaven". Merely participating in a worship service to feel good about yourself does not make one the "salt of the earth". This is a problem in all Christian communities - perhaps for different reasons.
Unfortunately, the secular press, in their effort to get condonement of their disgusting and immoral sensibilities, likes to point to the fact that many within the Church simply are saying 'Lord, Lord'. The Church seems to have two separate realms - those who follow Christ through their daily walk, and the rest...All we can do is pray that these people will be conform to God's ways and pick up their crosses and follow Him.
We go to church and hear the things we want to hear, not the things that makes us squirm in our seats. No talk of hell. No talk of repentance. No talk of how we fall far short of God.
That is generally true. Most people, because they don't take God very seriously (as shown by their actions, not their mouths) will not want to hear such speeches. However, I am lucky to have an orthodox priest at our parish, and he has no problem bringing up the evil of contraception or abortion when the readings can be taken in that direction. So it is a matter of the individual pastor/priest to put his money where his mouth is. I believe we are beginning to see more orthodox men who take their faith seriously coming out of the seminaries. Of course, I can only speak for Catholics, in a limited sense.
Again, everyone is a product of their cultures, so it is difficult to go against the "flow". I think many pastors are worried about losing parishoners, so many construct sermons that appeal to the hearers - that is how things work in our society - place the blame elsewhere, pump up the self-esteem, tolerate everything, and don't worry about anything, as long as we don't "harm" someone else. The Early Church had to fight many of these battles, as well. It would be interesting to see how they combated them. I believe part of it is based on your theme - more counter-cultural preaching would do wonders. Sure, some would likely be offended. But from my experience of my own orthodox priest, I find the ones who complain aren't really walking the walk anyways.
I suppose it is the nature of the beast that man wants to place himself as the judge of what is right and what is wrong.
Regards
Once again I think those are excellent points. When I speak of the Church/church I speak of it in general terms. While I believe we both would admit there are many tares out there, the "true" Church has never degraded. Whether it is increasing or decreasing is a matter of speculation based upon flawed statistics since only God knows the heart. I should remind myself that when Elijah felt that he was all alone in the world God reminded him that there were still 7,000 who were in reserve.