These “mainline” churches present a worldview in which they don’t see their beliefs as necessary for salvation or even the best system out there.
So why wouldn’t they lose people? Would you go to a church that you weren’t sure had the truth? Not me.
They’ve made themselves over into liberal dogooder clubs - of course they are diminishing.
Here is another reason...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4pr_E5Nbuc
That youtube video was spooky. That’s not a Christian ceremony, that’s some pagan/occult filth. Obviously that church has gone rotten and I’d get out of it if I was involved in any way.
I could only watch up to about 2:31 of this quasi-liturgical train wreck before the mental gag reflex kicked in and I fumbled for the kill switch. Does a Christian symbol of any sort ever turn up in this thing? Or would that have been too Christocentric and disrespectful of otherly-transcendent religious diversities?
Processions like this seem to be composed of basically two sorts of people: those who have no self-respect, and those who have way, way too much. Well, and that bewildered-looking little boy who was probably drafted into this thing by a cripplingly hip parent or other care-giver.
The Broadway production of The Lion King is going to have a lot to answer for before the Throne of God!
* A prayer, not an oath.