There will always be far fewer on the narrow road than there are on the wide road.
Big government replaces religion and the family as the central, stablizing fixture in society.
Let’s not follow the way of western Europe.
It’s because Christianity requires you to govern yourself. Atheism allows you to run hog wild and do whatever floats your boat. So whichj do you think a bunch of fat, lazy, decadent American slobs are going to choose?
some have been chosen by God to members of the elect and to heed the Gospel call and others have not.
It only takes a shift of a few percent to wreak havoc in a society, or conversely to stabilize and return it to relative health.
We lose the political wars because we first lost the spiritual ones. Win the spiritual war and the politics will follow. In fact, win the spiritual and the politics become ever so much less important.
Good analysis. Add to (1) however, that education is more and more in the hands of practical as well as theoretical atheists.
“The negative portrayal of Christianity in the culture by the media”
This is by far the biggest reason for the decline in religion. All studies show that the more likely someone is to be influenced by the media, the less likely they are to believe in spirituality, religion and traditional morality. The self-indulgent lifestyle celebrated by the media is not compatible with the values of traditional religion.
The Word of God, the Rock of Ages hasn’t changed with the times, but corrupt mankind sure has, only to become more and more rotten to the core with sin.
Somewhere along the way in the future I predict that many who have gone the route of non-monotheistic faith will have created such a void in their lives they’ll look for something to give them a sense of order (even if it’s Satanic), like islam.
I think that there are other reasons not addressed by the author.
1. Organizations used to respect Wednesday night as church night and Sunday morning as a time for church. Now they don’t.
2. Kid’s sports run 24/7 now. Tournaments and games during Sunday morning, Wednesday evening, etc.
3. TV dominates a too much of our life. In some sense, TV events have turned most weekends into holidays. Just ask the the advertising execs for cable channels.
4. If you are too busy to go to church, you are too busy. Period. No exceptions.
I don’t know the answer to these. Chruches can offer a great deal in terms of sports leagues that can help bring more people into the church.
I will say that most of the mainline churches that I have attended had become feminized and were a bit uncomfortable for guys and the attendance reflected that. My current church is male friendly. We hunt, we shoot, we fish, we go duck hunting, and we hold competitive barbecues frequently.
A breath of fresh air.
Let’s see ... decades of MSM and liberals trashing the Christian faith and removing it from any public venue, and fewer people identify with it? How did that happen? </sarcasm>
While I was raised Lutheran-Presbyterian, I’ve been an atheist for over a decade.
Why? Because I finished the fourth grade. Taken literally, Christianity is a collection of preposterous stories and hocus pocus. Ethically, Christianity teaches effeminate, sacrificial self-loathing— I’d rather have a beer with Christopher Hitchens than Andrew Sullivan.
6. Public schools.
7. The media.
The bible says there will be a “falling away” before the Lord returns so this is actually good news.
The interesting thing here is the RISE in the number of Catholics and “generic” Christians and the DROP in the number of “mainstream” Protestants.
I think THAT is the REAL statistical factor which his analysis ignores.
The fact of the matter is “mainstream” Protestants, far more than the Catholic CHurch or generic Christians, have fallen victim to socialist humanism - adopting homosexuality and abortion as norms, along with the kind of dogmatic pacifism which would have amazed their antecedents.
Christians need a church like the Catholic Church or fundamentalist Protestant Churchs which draw a clear line of distinction between morality an dimmorality and defend and support traditional American values.
The Methodists, Presbyterians and Episcopalians - at least their leadership - no longer due so, and their congregations are voting with their feet and their tithes.
In the meatime, the viper of Islam lies in wait to bite the heels of future generations.
Upside down heathens just walk away from loans. Heathens with money will do anything to get more, lots more.
By the way, when's Madoff going to jail?
I think a lot of people just see themselves as being their own authority even if they have a basic belief in God and are not militant atheists. That’s why there is an increase in kind of loosey-goosey feel good about yourself therapeutic churches, wicca, etc. because they are not strongly authoritarian (strong dos and don’ts in the belief system.
Being raised Roman Catholic, I am far from exemplary in its practice, but I do see (I wish I were ignorant, it’s so blissful)the connection between our Judeo-Christian heritage and the classical liberal foundations this country and Western civilization in general was built on.
Liberal democracy did not happen under the auspices of an Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, or animist civilization—but under a Christian one. Opponents can go scream and cry about the religious wars that followed the Reformation or the Inquisition or even the Crusades, but that doesn’t take anything away from the progress that was made—the intellectual jump that was required to develop a classical liberal democracy. Western thought from the ancient Greeks to the scholastics to the philosphers from DeCartes onward provided the trampoline upon which to make that jump.
I don’t see that trampoline being provided in an Islamic or Buddhist millieu.