Get ready, Alex.
“No other religion in the United States has lost more members to other faiths”
On the other hand, my AG Church numbers are swelling, and will have more than doubled in a year by next month at the current rate. The Catholic church in the next town?
Not so much.
They should be clear. People have left the Catholic Church as an institution. Not the faith. I am one of them.
As the largest denomination, to stay “even” Catholics would lose the largest numbers to other faiths, gain the largest numbers of new immigrants, and also gain the largest overall number of converts . . . It’s all statistics, slice them any way you want, but . . .
My prayer is that all Catholics and all Christians would read the Bible more, grow deeper and deeper relationships with Christ, evangelize the non-Christians more, and get their faithful to realize that voting for the government supporters of abortionists is sinful.
Not to put a damper on the Catholics being the biggest loser, but numbers do not mean anything but popularity. Athanasius and Isaiah are proof that just because the crowd is getting its ears tickled somewhere that it is proof of TRUTH.
God always works through a remnant, and can make Sons of God from stones.
This is an odd spin. Catholicism, being the largest Church in the US, has more members to lose.
Considering Catholic hostility to divorce and remarriage, it's little surprise that lots of people jump ship in a culture with a huge divorce rate. Anybody bragging about all the ex-Catholics in their church should also report the number of these ex-Catholics who are on their second or third marriage.
I say this not out of denial of very real problems, it's just that all factors need to be noted.
No surprise. It’s difficult to be a real Catholic.
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of interest.
If Catholicism was the “in thing”, or cool, or popular, I’d be worried.
Sure... You tell me the church that's survived 2,000 years, and I'll tell you the church that will survive 2,000 more.
Not to worry. Barack Obama will fix their souls. /sarc
OHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooo
Alex . . . OBVIOUSLY that CANNOT BE!!!!
I mean . . . with all the Baptists becoming RC priests . . . and all the Lutherans becoming Maryolaters . . .
the statistics MUST be wrong!
/sar
I hope you have your Hazmat suit on.
There seems to be a new crop of fiercely hostile RC reps ready to foam, throw dust in the air, parade about in sackcloth and ashes; froth; rush about in circles and the like. I hope your post doesn’t cause catatonic fits.
Ahhhh well, The Fourth of July is coming. Good fireworks practice . . .
It would be interesting to see what the percentages are in terms of what the RC reps are turning into.
Approximately 94% of Christian homeschoolers remain in the faith after graduation from high school.
Approximately 90% of children sent to government schools will NOT remain in the faith! BUT...What is even **worse** is that those who do claim to be Christian are **NOT** Christian in their beliefs!
So?...Although my family and I are not Catholic I am **very** glad that we homeschooled! All of our children are active in our faith. They married in the faith. The only one who is not yet married only dates women active in our faith. My children are raising our grandchildren in the faith. My husband and I and all of our children and grandchildren living in various states throughout the nation will attend church today unless truly sick.
The choice is simple. Do you play Russian Roulette with your children’s souls or not? Homeschoolers are playing their best hand.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The following is from Dr. Bruce Shortt’s resolution to the Southern Baptist Convention 2002:
So, just what is the fruit of educating our children in public schools? Does that fruit show that those who make the “salt and light” argument are right? What is the fruit of their interpretation of “salt and light” theology? Consider a few of the consequences of our disobedience in the education of our children:
In 2002 the SBC’s Council on Family Life reported that roughly 88% of our children leave the church within 2 years after graduating from high school. It is reported by LifeWay’s Zan Tyler that Josh McDowell Ministries pegs the number who leave at 92%.3
Barna Research points out that while 86% of teens claim to be Christian and many are involved in church activities, the teens’ professions of Christianity and church attendance are deceiving. When the actual beliefs of our teens were surveyed, Barna research found, for example, that 60% believe salvation can be earned through good works, 53% (including 40% of evangelical teens) believe that Jesus sinned while he was on earth, only 1/3 said they were absolutely committed to Christianity, and only 9% of born again teens believe that there is any such thing as absolute moral truth. Should it be surprising, then, that Barna also finds that, based on survey data, only 4% of teens are actually evangelical Christians?
Based on many years of worldview testing of evangelical teens, the Nehemiah Institute has found that at most only about 15% of evangelical teens attending public schools clearly reject moral relativism and believe that absolute moral truth exists.
The results from the largest survey of teen religious attitudes and beliefs, the National Survey of Youth and Religion, have been written up in Soul Searching by the lead researcher, Dr. Christian Smith, a sociologist at the University of North Carolina. Dr. Smith points out that most teens profess whatever religion their parents claim, which, of course, means that the overwhelming majority of teens claim to be Christian. Nevertheless, the research also shows that, whatever they may claim to be, the overwhelming majority of “Christian” teens is absolutely incapable of articulating anything resembling the fundamental tenets of Christianity. According to Dr. Smith: “Many teenagers know abundant details about the lives of favorite musicians and television stars or about what it takes to get into a good college, but most turn out to be not very clear on who Moses and Jesus were.” For example, when asked what God is like, one typical teenager responded: “Um…Good. Powerful.” When asked if there was anything else, she responded: “Tall.” The book uses many examples like these from the study’s teen interviews to illustrate why they concluded that teens are unable to articulate even a simple account of Christianity or whatever else they may profess to believe. In fact, the researchers conclude that the actual “faith” of the vast majority of teens is something that Dr. Smith characterizes as “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.” This is a creed that conceives of God as something of a “cosmic butler” who exists to get people out of problems and who has, perhaps, one commandment: “Be nice.” The researchers also found that many parents of the teens appear to hold to a similar faith, even though they may profess Christianity. Further, in the appendix to Soul Searching, Dr. Smith points out that his research shows churches and pastors barely register in terms of the forces that shape and influence the beliefs and values of children.
In light of the foregoing, perhaps it isn’t surprising that Dr. Thom Rainer has estimated that nearly 50% of the members of SBC churches may not be Christians. Obviously, our multigenerational lack of faithfulness in the education of children has created a multigenerational problem in our churches.
While multiple sources point to a catastrophic situation with respect to Christian children in general, what do we find when we examine Christian children who are receiving a Christian education either through Christian schools or homeschooling?
The Nehemiah Institute’s worldview testing shows that students in Christian schools reject moral relativism at a rate 500% higher than Christian children attending public schools. The same worldview surveys also show that children receiving a Christian education do better on worldview issues overall than their public school counterparts, with outstanding results typically coming from Christian schools that incorporate worldview materials in their curriculum and homeschooled children.
Children attending Christian schools or who are homeschooled demonstrate on average significantly higher levels of academic achievement than their public school counterparts.
In a recent academic study, homeschooled children were found to be significantly less likely than conventionally schooled children to watch MTV; use drugs; lie to a parent, teacher, or other older person; attempt suicide; drink enough alcohol to be legally drunk; or gamble. Homeschoolers were also significantly less likely to describe themselves as too busy, stressed out, angry with life, confused, or always tired.
Research by Dr. Brian Ray, founder of NHERI, found that 94% of all homeschooled children retained their faith into adulthood.
Bookmarked.
"Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god" -- Psalm 16:4
THIS is one of many problems: Executive Director of Cultural Diversity. In other Words, Jerome, You are not a Christian you are a Liberal. And just as the left was not concerned with keeping "religion" in its place but keeping Christianity out of the public square, multiculturalists are NOT concerned with promoting ANY culture but merely in attacking American culture at every turn. There are simply too many ironies in Mr. Deck's vocation and words to list them exhaustively.
The Church’s teachings are not out of place with the times, Deck said, but there is a shortage of priests and lay ministers to spread the word, and effectively link parishoners to the Gospel.
The Church's teachings are universal and meant for all time. In season or out of season.
“It’s our mission to evangelize and we are failing that,” said Deck, explaining that the term ‘evangelize’ includes the “conversion of the human heart and the promotion of social justice.”
Social justice too often means people believe that evil is someone ELSE's problem. True disciples of Christ realize that evil is OUR problem. Chastity is just as important as almsgiving.
The Catholic Church also struggles to reach out specifically to the needs of minority communities, such as blacks, Asians and Hispanics, said Deck, who has spent his career in the Hispanic ministry. And the assimilation of immigrants into the Church and also American culture is a tricky balance, he said.
That is too bad. Christ did not target certain people to evangelize or heal, he was notoriously NOT class-conscious either, much to the chagrin of the various and sundry liberation theologists who love to prattle on about social justice but Never about moral justice. Christ did NOT come into the world to make it safe for democracy or free the slaves or establish an egalitarian Utopia; He came to bring the dead to life.
They are, finally, waking up to the fact that they can most certainly do without the organization of relegion.
They can keep their spirituality. The most certainly don't need the church imposed restrictions and silly manmade rules brought to them by the Italian curia.
Thanksfully, they are finally realizing this.
Pope Benedict himself has spoken of the Catholic Church becoming leaner, smaller and more fervent. This piece in the New York Times, for instance, discusses the subject. There are numerous other articles out there which discuss the same issue.
So there's good news and bad news for the usual suspects on this forum. The good news is that there will likely be many more articles in the future reporting dwindling numbers of Catholics, which should occasion high fives all around.
And the bad news?
Well, it's all happened before and it's not the end of the Catholic Church. Just a purification.
Sorry, folks.