Posted on 07/12/2014 10:29:45 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Must Evangelical churches change or downplay their position on homosexuality to attract millennials?
Millennials, generally defined as those ages 18 to mid-30s, are the most supportive of redefining marriage to include same-sex couples, many polls show. A recent Public Religion Research Institute poll had their support at 69 percent, the highest of any age group.
Even among self-described Evangelicals, the millennials showed the highest level of support at 43 percent (though the poll only included white Evangelicals), compared to 33 percent for generation X, 22 percent for Baby Boomers and 19 percent for those 68 and older. The poll also found that 70 percent of millennials "believe that religious groups are alienating young adults by being too judgmental about gay and lesbian issues."
Some Evangelicals have pointed to this and similar studies to argue that Evangelical churches need to end their opposition to same-sex marriage or they will die off.
The church's "obsessions with opposing gay marriage," Evangelical author Rachel Held Evans wrote in March for CNN as she pointed out the PRRI report, is one of the reasons "evangelicalism is losing a generation to the culture wars."
Other media outlets appear eager to report that Evangelicals will end their opposition to same-sex marriage and stop teaching that homosexuality is a sin. "Evangelicals Are Changing Their Minds on Gay Marriage: And the Bible isn't getting in their way," religion reporter Jim Hinch wrote Monday for Politico.
For evidence that Evangelicals are changing their minds on gay marriage, Hinch points to Pew Research polling showing that support for same-sex marriage among white Evangelical Protestants jumped 10 percentage points, from 13 to 23 percent, from 2001 to 2014.
(Excerpt) Read more at christianpost.com ...
Exactly.
Exactly. According to the logic of these folks, those denominations should by definition be bursting at the seams with members. Isn’t happening is it?
BOY, do they have a LOT of growing up to do.
It will be very painful for the TRULY spoiled. Where was their father to implant BACKBONE. My daddy did so with me.
It REALLY helped to a have a faith that taught what the parents were trying to inculcate.
The Catholic Church taught that sin was BAD, not a "repercussion of upbringing" or a "personal choice of what I decide is "right and wrong."
Catholic Church = moral absolutes
Pope Benedict had it right by saying that the greatest scourge of our century was MORAL RELATIVISM.
Bingo. The Panzer Pope nailed it.
Pope Benedict said that the greatest scourge of our century was MORAL RELATIVISM, or as you said, "evil is good."
The PANZER POPE nailed it.
Ironically, most of those “Christian” denominations that celebration abortion and homosexuality are suffering from an aging elderly white population, and they’re not getting any new members to replace the older ones that die off. Conservative traditional Christians are also leaving churches like the Episcopalians in droves. Worse, they can’t even get liberal members of churches who support traditional marriage (Catholics, Southern Baptists, etc.) to jump ship to a “tolerant” mainline protestant church.
No. In fact, they’d do a lot to further the survival of the flock by actively promoting traditional marriage AND having children.
Encouraging family formation creates a buffer against the political system.
Encouraging traditional family formation will offset the bad life outcomes that go up three to ten times in likelihood when there is a married father in the home. Everything from poverty to addiction to mental illness to crime are far more likely in broken homes, and all are most likely in unmarried homes. You can’t say “do what is best, be married as husband and wife” and support it if you also support homosexual unions.
Promoting traditional marriage has the additional benefit of increasing the number of likely members in 20 years. Two men married to each other are a PC photo op, but 95% won’t have kids, and those that do are bloody unlikely to fit into a traditional church in our culture.
We need a system akin to Christian arranged marriages, with all adults consenting, of course. Help many religious individuals find like minded mates, whereas many religious men are pushed out of church by the groups seeking to promote feminism and too many girls assume they are going to marry a minister.
A Sexual Revolution for Young Evangelicals? No.
Defying the secular culture, churchgoing Christians are sticking to Biblical teaching. ..
Regnerus surveyed 15,378 persons between the ages of 18 and 60, but he focuses in particular on respondents under 40. Significantly, Regnerus did the important work of differentiating between those who identify merely verbally with a particular religious tradition and those who actually attend church weekly.
While support for same-sex marriage characterized a solid majority of those identifying as atheists, agnostics, liberal Catholics, and liberal Protestants, only 11 percent of young Evangelicals actively expressed support for same-sex marriage.
Approximately 6 percent of religiously active Evangelicals expressed support for abortion rights, while over 70 percent of their non-believing peer group said they believed in abortion rights.
Evangelical Christians were also drastically less likely to believe that cohabitation is a good idea. While upward of 70 percent of those who claim no religious affiliation or those who are “spiritual but not religious” agree that cohabitation is acceptable, approximately 5 percent of Evangelicals agreed that cohabitation is acceptable. http://www.nationalreview.com/article/
DO NOT BEND! HOMOSEXUALITY IS WRONG!
Accepting the “gay” lifestyle and same sex marriage is dancing on the edge of going to Hell.
...I guess someone forgot to tell the seminaries that vital piece of information in the first postconciliar decade...
Any “millennials” beating down the door to join those “churches”
...plenty of these millennials are joining the mega churches, where worship consists of having song and fun, and ‘preaching’ is meant to be ‘interpretive’...
...by the way, all denominational churches, in addition to the ones you named, are suffering from this poaching...
A lot of megachurches (as well as televangelists) ARE denominational as well. For example, Saddleback Church is SBC, LifeChurch.TV is Evangelical Covenant, Church of the Resurrection is United Methodist, etc.
As for me, I fail to see the appeal of both megachurches and non-denominational Christianity. I wouldn't want a "pastor" who you can never see face to face because he ministers to 20,000 other people on Sunday, nor would I want generic "non-denominational" sermons whose only theology is that they "follow Jesus" but don't discuss specifics like the Holy Trinity or virgin birth.
Some non-denominational "MegaChurch" may have 20,000 members, but hardly beats a organized Christian church that has millions or billions of members.
Wife and I went to Sealy, Texas last night to a Steve Wariner concert. One of the best shows I’ve ever been to. He’s in Panama City, Florida tonight. If you can go, I suggest it. The tickets are only around ten bucks each.
Anyway, he was introducing his song LONELY WOMEN MAKE GOOD LOVERS when he made a very pro-marriage / anti-gay marriage statement though I don’t think he realized it. He said a man came up to him one time and asked him if he’d play ONLY WOMEN MAKE GOOD MOTHERS. That is about as anti-gay marriage as you can get!
BINGO!
Thank you...
What the heck? That question doesn't even make sense ... unless one believes there is no such thing as truth.
The question itself shows ignorance in what the Gospel is, what it does, whose Church it is, and how and by whom the Church grows.
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