Posted on 10/16/2012 7:19:54 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
This is clearly the implication of the media reports following the latest Pew Research, "Nones on the Rise," which shows a "steep decline" in the number of Americans who self-identify as Protestant, coupled with a "significant jump" in the number of those who now claim "no religion." The secular devotees in the media seem hardly able to constrain their delight over the prospect that Christianity is disappearing in America.
Trying to spin this in such a way that the Christian faith appears culturally vital in the U.S. is a little like putting lipstick on a pig; but concluding that Christianity is losing and secularism is winning isn't quite accurate either.
The Pew study asked 2973 adults nationwide: "What is your present religion, if any? Are you Protestant, Roman Catholic, Mormon, Orthodox such as Greek or Russian Orthodox, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, agnostic, something else, or nothing in particular?" The number of Americans who identified themselves as Protestant was 48 percent, down from 53 percent in 2007. (In 1960, two-thirds of American adults identified themselves as Protestant.) Catholics showed only a modest 1 percent drop, while Orthodox (Christian) and Mormons remained steady and those claiming "other faith" experienced a 2 percent increase.
As to the other side-the religiously unaffiliated or so-called "Nones"-the picture is not quite as clear as the headlines suggest. First, the study's category of "religiously unaffiliated" has in fact risen from 15.3 percent of U.S. adults in 2007 to 19.6 percent in 2012. This, when coupled with the apparent drop in the number of self-described Protestants, seems to suggest that apostasy is to blame. However, after carefully examining the research, I think the issue being identified has little to do with apostasy and more to do with religious ignorance and theological assimilation.
For starters and despite the media's inference, the Nones are not necessarily atheist. In fact, only 2.4 percent of Americans identify themselves as atheists (another 3.3 percent claim to be agnostic). The largest category (13.9 percent) of the religiously unaffiliated are those who say they are "nothing in particular." However, the report also makes clear that those in the nothing-in-particular category are by no means irreligious.
In fact, two-thirds of the unaffiliated say they believe in God and 55 percent describe themselves either as a "religious person" or as "spiritual but not religious." Other Pew Research surveys found that 76 percent of Americans say that prayer is "an important part of their daily life," a figure unchanged for the last twenty-five years.
The 2012 Pew study also points out that "The number of Americans who currently say religion is very important in their lives (58%) is little changed since 2007 (61%) and remains far higher than in Britain (17%), France (13%), Germany (21%) or Spain (22%)." Clearly, this growing category of those claiming "nothing in particular" when it comes to religion does not signal the triumph of secularism.
So what's really going on here? As I said earlier, I think the issue being identified may be more closely related to the religious ignorance of some Christians and the assimilation of popular pagan ideas into Christianity.
Because the question only presents the Christian religion in terms of its three main traditions-Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant-I think there are a significant number of Protestant Christians who wouldn't know (or choose) to identify themselves as such. For one, many conservative Christians would be uncomfortable with the term Protestant because they associate being Protestant with liberal mainline denominations. In other words, they're Protestant, they just don't know it. I see similar confusion among some Protestant congregations who actually reject the use of the Apostles' Creed because it includes the word catholic when referring to the universal church.
To put it simply, too many of our brothers and sisters lack the basic knowledge of church history to properly understand many of the critical terms relative to their own faith and practice.
Theological assimilation, however, may be the larger problem. Those who claim "nothing in particular" when it comes to religion seem to be rejecting historic orthodox Christianity and its accompanying authority structures for a religion of their own design. The vast majority of these-as I pointed out earlier-say they believe in God, pray each day, and claim religion is "very important" to them. Thus they largely remain "religious." However, one must ask: In what God do they believe, what religion are they practicing, and to whom are they praying if they don't identify with any religion?
What I believe this report reveals is the growing assimilation of pagan (new-age and deistic) ideas, sprinkled with therapeutic self-interest, finally mingled with a childhood Christian tradition. The result is a highly personalized and therapeutic form of Christian faith and practice, i.e., culturalized Christianity. This is especially true among those under thirty, whose theology sociologist Christian Smith described as "moralistic, therapeutic, deism." It is among this demographic the church is suffering its highest levels of defection.
While it may make us feel better to think that the church is losing ground due to assault by outside forces; it is likely that apathy and heresy are bigger threats to Christianity in America than secularism. We have got to do a better job of transmitting the faith from one generation to the next by once again offering a Christ-centered (rather than "me-centered") faith that is theologically robust, socially relevant, and culturally engaged if we want to arrest this trend.
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S. Michael Craven is the President of Battle for TRUTH. Michael is also the author of Uncompromised Faith: Overcoming Our Culturalized Christianity (Navpress). Battle for TRUTH is committed to the reformation and renewal of the church through serious research, writing, speaking, and teaching. For more information on Battle for TRUTH, visit: www.battlefortruth.org. Michael lives in the Dallas area.
Just like Charlie Sheen.
The main stream media is the enemy of the American people and the enemy of Christianity.
In the mid 90’ my daughter went on a mission trip to Scotland.
I was surprised. She said that only 10% of the citizens claimed Christianity as their belief.
That’s where we are headed here.
This shouldn’t surprise anyone. Way too many churches became simply cheerleaders for government social spending in the 60s and 70s and others turned into weekly “feel good” sessions that simply tell you how much God loves you. Any sense of obligation went out the window. The religion becomes meaningless and when it does, why should anyone want to go to that type of church?
The atheists communists, abetted by the elite power brokers, have been infiltrating our media, schools and governmental institutions from before FDR. We as a people have been either oblivious or ridiculed when we pointed to the facts.
Pray for our nation.
Before we get too carried away with this, consider:
My choices (but how many other people share them?)
No poll has ever reported me as a Christian.
No poll has ever reported me as a Republican
No poll has ever reported me as a gun owner.
BECAUSE NO POLL HAS EVER GOTTEN ANYMORE OUT OF ME THAN, “NONE OF YOUR FREAKING BUSINESS, GOODBY” followed by either me walking away or the phone being hung up.
I am sick to death of living in “poll world” and I am not playing the game.
I agree. Also, there seems to be an inevitable trend for very well-off societies to turn more secular. And, the Catholic Church in the US didn't do itself any favors by attempting to minimize institutional damage by denying the priest pedophile scandals.
That's what drove me out of the Catholic faith in the late '70s. It was becoming a hotbed of leftist dogma, especially with the surge in "liberation theology" in Latin American countries. I wanted no part of it.
I think a lot of is because people no longer pay attention to their own mortality (and by extension the after life). I’ve even had some twenty somethings tell me, in all sincerity, that they won’t die because by the time they get old, “Science will have figured out a way to stick your brain in a computer so something.” If you honestly don’t think you are ever going to die, then by extension you are not going to be worried about what comes after.
This poll doesn’t surprise me. While the majoriity of my friends and family believe in God, I wouldn’t describe a single one of them as Christian. Deist would be more accurate.
You should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Jude 3.
However, "the faith" that was once delivered to the saints is based on the perfect and complete work of Jesus Christ on the cross, purchasing our COMPLETE redemption by His blood, no longer needing works or sacrifice (in the Jewish context, the regular sacrifice of bulls and goats; in the Gentile context, works that help make or keep us righteous) because much more than Adam's sin which brought all death, Jesus Christ's ONE SACRIFICE redeems all from sin, past, present , and future, so that whoever believes on Jesus Christ is saved and "perfected forever" (Hebrews 10:14).
This is the power of the grace of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not mixed the law, which we have died to, or condemnation, which we are not longer under, or fear of "losing our righteousness" which is impossible because it is a gift of God (Romans 5:17) we being now the righteousness of God in Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21) or because of sin, which we have died to and free from (Romans 6:2,7,18).
THIS is the faith that was once delivered to the saints - the GOSPEL of the grace of Jesus Christ UNMIXED with any requirements of the law or works. It's a gospel not of DO but of DONE. "IT IS FINISHED!"
The church must (and is beginning to) embrace the true gospel of God's grace in Jesus Christ in these last days, for is will bring many into the wholeness and righteousness of God by faith. The is the gospel that is the POWER of God unto salvation, wholeness, and blessing. Hallelujah.
On the other side of the coin, the Bible prophesies that those that "don't need" His free gift of grace will move away from the faith (1 Timothy 4:1).
So then because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth. Because you say, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and do not know that you art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked (Rev 3:16-17).
The Apostle Paul warned us this would happen so there is no reason to be surprised. Actually I think the poll probably under states things as many who call themselves Christian are just CINOs in the uber-liberal social justice higher critical pseudo-Christian “church”. The only shocking thing is that some should find this shocking. It is up to the remaining regenerate, bible believing Christian elect to preserve the faith by passing it on to their children and witnessing to the world so those remaining who have been chosen for salvation may be saved. If you understand what I am saying then YOU are part of that remnant and have a grave responsibility - be a true and faithful servant.
The Apostle Paul warned us this would happen so there is no reason to be surprised. Actually I think the poll probably under states things as many who call themselves Christian are just CINOs in the uber-liberal social justice higher critical pseudo-Christian “church”. The only shocking thing is that some should find this shocking. It is up to the remaining regenerate, bible believing Christian elect to preserve the faith by passing it on to their children and witnessing to the world so those remaining who have been chosen for salvation may be saved. If you understand what I am saying then YOU are part of that remnant and have a grave responsibility - be a true and faithful servant.
The Catholic Church is the one and only church that has stood steadfastly against
abortion
euthanasia
same-sex marriage
embryonic stem-cell research
contraception
and stood for the truth. Serving others as Christ has served us. (Remember the foot washing at the last supper? That was the most repugnant task in those days, yet Christ served the apostles by doing it.)
I’m so sorry you do not want to serve others.
“Love one another as I have loved you.” John 14:34-35
America's current troubles come directly from our turning our backs on faith in Jesus Christ. Just believing in God is not enough. The demons believe in God and tremble.
Faith is the evidence of things unseen. We must act on our faith or it is dead. Take a look at our government, our judicial system, our popular culture. See any real faith there?
Without the moral bedrock provided by faith in Jesus Christ, we will sink further into the kind of moral degradation from which there is no escape. Anyone who thinks that The Constitution can save us is placing their faith in a human construction that John Adams said "was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
His description of a "moral and religious people" no longer applies to us.
I don’t beleive this. A lot of Christians have departed from organized religion. They are still Christians but do not belong to organized religion.
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