"America's Post-Christian Culture"

[InChrist]

Christianity is in decline because because most people, including Christians are biblically illiterate making them prone to believe every teaching or idea that comes along, besides the fact that the scriptures indicate a falling away from the faith before the tribulation and return of Christ.

 

[David T]

Your cherry picked examples represent nothing but themselves.

LOL...what we aren't carrying on a reasoned conversation the last I checked.

 

[Father Heathen]

LOL...what we aren't carrying on a reasoned conversation the last I checked.

I guess I had unrealistic expectations.

 

[Phantasman]

Man is becoming desensitized. Bits and bots are the new masters of the next generation. Reaction is more accepted than pro-action.

 

[David T]

I guess I had unrealistic expectations.

You are worried about a road reflector as you are standing in the middle of the road. I am all about the mack truck bearing down.

. 2.9 7.5 billion in my life time 200, 000 per day increase 80 million a year increase. And you "believe" what? I am somehow concerned about religion? Lol...now that's funny. My avatar is so religious. Actually closer to a devil actually. Those uneducated grandma's sitting around reading ancient poetry wow what a menace. Hahaha.

 

[Father Heathen]

You are worried about a road reflector as you are standing in the middle of the road. I am all about the mack truck bearing down.

. 2.9 7.5 billion in my life time 200, 000 per day increase 80 million a year increase. And you "believe" what? I am somehow concerned about religion? Lol...now that's funny. My avatar is so religious. Actually closer to a devil actually. Those uneducated grandma's sitting around reading ancient poetry wow what a menace. Hahaha.

The only thing that I could ascertain from this otherwise incoherent post was that someone got their jimmies rustled.

 

[Faithofchristian]

Anyone who's even moderately culturally savy is aware of Christianity's decline. People have been leaving it in striking numbers, all the while there's been an upsurge in those who profess atheism, agnosticism, or simply don't claim any belief at all.

"In the seven years between 2007 and 2014 the percentage of Christians in America fell by 8 percentage points to 70%. (Protestants comprise 46.5% , Catholics, 20.8%, and Muslims make up 1.0%)

About 5 million fewer Americans now identify as Christian compared to when the study was conducted in 2007.

It was discovered that this trend occurred in all regions of the US and among all ages and demographics.

In the South, those not-affiliated with religion - or as the researchers call them, "nones" - rose to 19% of the population, while in the Northeast they climbed to 25%.
source

​

And the salient point here is that the loss among Christians is exchanged for the increase among the unaffiliated.

My question: WHY?

What has White Mainline Christianity been doing wrong that it's losing members at such an alarming rate?

.

​

To answer your question, what has christianity been doing wrong, that it's losing members at such an alarming rate?

You do have good and valid question.


When you have people teaching a class's and pastors,preachers, that can not answer people's questions and you attend week after week, to hear the same O same O things that you heard all before.

What do you think is going to happen?

This is just for example, how many Christians do you know of, that can explain to you about where and why the dinosaurs came to be extinct ?

This is just prime example that Christians have no idea what their bible does teach and confirm's.

All christians are taught is that everything started with Adam and Eve, But yet the dinosaurs bones stands there, saying, otherwise.
But yet Christians have no clue how the dinosaurs bones fit into their Bible's ?

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

What has White Mainline Christianity been doing wrong that it's losing members at such an alarming rate?

You've seen this recently, but I'll repost it here:

Multiple factors have conspired to reduce the appeal of religion.

Factors not of the American Christian church's own doing include the following:

• Science has revealed a clockwork universe that can organize itself and run without the involvement of gods. We have no need for Apollo to pull the sun through the sky with his chariot, or for Thor to account for lightning bolts and what sounds like a war of the gods when the skies bellow with thunder. Nor do we need Jehovah to account for the "kinds." The church seems to consider this a threat given the energy it expends trying to get creationism / intelligent design into the public schools, and Christian kids out of science classes (voucher schools, home schooling).

• Removal of state led prayer and Bible instruction in public schools is also apparently a bugbear in the church's estimation given its tireless efforts to get back into the them. The church needs access to children, and many parents aren't promoting Christianity or taking their children to church.

• The advent of the Internet has made it pretty near impossible to keep young people from reading the thoughts of unbelievers. Despite efforts to prevent their exposure to secular culture including home schooling, these young people can get information about evolution and atheism that isn't coming from creationists and the detractors of atheists even if they are forbidden to have a computer at home.

• As the ranks of the irreligious rose for whatever reason, atheism became socially acceptable. It's not as hard to be an atheist any more. Many respected celebrities such as George Carlin, Bill Maher, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and Sam Harris are vocal atheists lending further respectability to the choice.

• As the culture evolves and more options not involving religion become available for young people, religion begins to seem less relevant. There are competing ways to spend a Sunday morning than in a church

But in my opinion, the major factor damaging the church and contributing to the decline of religion in the US in particular is its public face there. This is the part that the church is "doing wrong"

• In recent memory, we have seen countless televangelist scandals, the Catholic priest pedophilia and cover-up scandals, bigots like Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, Christian cults like those of Jim Jones and David Koresh, Westboro Baptist Church, Chick-fil-A, Hobby Lobby, the duck dynasty guy, the Oregon wedding cake couple, Kim Davis, the Duggar and Palin families and their public hypocrisies, the Target boycott snit, and years of abortion clinic terrorism including physician assassinations, arsons, bombings, and the Planned Parenthood smears culminating in Christian zealot Robert Lewis Dear shooting up a clinic.

• Then you have the persecution complex and the sense of Christian privilege - the idea that all invocations should be Christian prayers and only Christian prayers, or that saying "Happy Holidays" or putting up atheistic billboards at Christmas time contradicting Christian billboards is an affront to Christians or a War on Christmas, and if they don't get this special treatment, they cry that their religious liberties are being trampled upon. Possibly very off-putting to a lot of people.

• The church's mean-spiritedness regarding homosexuals in American society is probably also very off-putting to a lot of people. Christian homophobia is pure bigotry, by which I mean an irrational, hateful and destructive attitude toward every member of a law abiding category of people. I suspect that many people were offended by the church's unwillingness to allow loving, committed same sex couple to enjoy the dignity and protections that married heterosexual couples enjoy on the basis of ancient ideas without merit.

• People are also likely pretty unimpressed with the idea of a god that would torture people for eternity for not bowing to it. I'm presuming on that one based on the frequency of Christians now saying that damnation is just separation from God or eternal slumber.

• Then there's the blatant disregard for the cherished American principle of church-state separation. The church is clearly trying to gain access to the government, especially the Supreme Court, in an effort to impose its values on the American people using the power of the state to do so.

• And they just keep showing us that they have no answers, and that their morality is highly suspect. Recently, Christian voters overwhelmingly supported a presidential candidate who is morally challenged, then a Senate candidate . We have evidence that he is a fraud (Trump university), a cheat (stiffs employees and contractors), a liar (do I need to give examples?), a bully, vengeful, and a sexual predator. Yet 81% of white evangelicals were willing to overlook that, as well as credible charges of pedophilia in Roy Moore.

This latter set of factors is reflected in the entertainment media's tacit assumptions about religion, which are almost all negative now. How often do you see religion or clergy functioning as a positive force in a novel or movie? I saw some of a mini series called The Young Pope recently. He was corrupt and hypocritical. A series like that might have caused a public outcry 50 years ago - maybe even 25. Today, it's a tacit assumption that the church is corrupt, and this is repeated over and again. In sitcoms, the family preacher or priest is often depicted as silly or irrelevant, not the wise counselor of the past.

This then becomes a factor in and of itself.

That's a lot of conditions working in concert to push religion off the stage.

 

[Brickjectivity]

You've seen this recently, but I'll repost it here:

Multiple factors have conspired to reduce the appeal of religion.

Factors not of the American Christian church's own doing include the following:

• Science has revealed a clockwork universe that can organize itself and run without the involvement of gods. We have no need for Apollo to pull the sun through the sky with his chariot, or for Thor to account for lightning bolts and what sounds like a war of the gods when the skies bellow with thunder. Nor do we need Jehovah to account for the "kinds." The church seems to consider this a threat given the energy it expends trying to get creationism / intelligent design into the public schools, and Christian kids out of science classes (voucher schools, home schooling).

• Removal of state led prayer and Bible instruction in public schools is also apparently a bugbear in the church's estimation given its tireless efforts to get back into the them. The church needs access to children, and many parents aren't promoting Christianity or taking their children to church.

• The advent of the Internet has made it pretty near impossible to keep young people from reading the thoughts of unbelievers. Despite efforts to prevent their exposure to secular culture including home schooling, these young people can get information about evolution and atheism that isn't coming from creationists and the detractors of atheists even if they are forbidden to have a computer at home.

• As the ranks of the irreligious rose for whatever reason, atheism became socially acceptable. It's not as hard to be an atheist any more. Many respected celebrities such as George Carlin, Bill Maher, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and Sam Harris are vocal atheists lending further respectability to the choice.

• As the culture evolves and more options not involving religion become available for young people, religion begins to seem less relevant. There are competing ways to spend a Sunday morning than in a church

But in my opinion, the major factor damaging the church and contributing to the decline of religion in the US in particular is its public face there. This is the part that the church is "doing wrong"

• In recent memory, we have seen countless televangelist scandals, the Catholic priest pedophilia and cover-up scandals, bigots like Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, Christian cults like those of Jim Jones and David Koresh, Westboro Baptist Church, Chick-fil-A, Hobby Lobby, the duck dynasty guy, the Oregon wedding cake couple, Kim Davis, the Duggar and Palin families and their public hypocrisies, the Target boycott snit, and years of abortion clinic terrorism including physician assassinations, arsons, bombings, and the Planned Parenthood smears culminating in Christian zealot Robert Lewis Dear shooting up a clinic.

• Then you have the persecution complex and the sense of Christian privilege - the idea that all invocations should be Christian prayers and only Christian prayers, or that saying "Happy Holidays" or putting up atheistic billboards at Christmas time contradicting Christian billboards is an affront to Christians or a War on Christmas, and if they don't get this special treatment, they cry that their religious liberties are being trampled upon. Possibly very off-putting to a lot of people.

• The church's mean-spiritedness regarding homosexuals in American society is probably also very off-putting to a lot of people. Christian homophobia is pure bigotry, by which I mean an irrational, hateful and destructive attitude toward every member of a law abiding category of people. I suspect that many people were offended by the church's unwillingness to allow loving, committed same sex couple to enjoy the dignity and protections that married heterosexual couples enjoy on the basis of ancient ideas without merit.

• People are also likely pretty unimpressed with the idea of a god that would torture people for eternity for not bowing to it. I'm presuming on that one based on the frequency of Christians now saying that damnation is just separation from God or eternal slumber.

• Then there's the blatant disregard for the cherished American principle of church-state separation. The church is clearly trying to gain access to the government, especially the Supreme Court, in an effort to impose its values on the American people using the power of the state to do so.

• And they just keep showing us that they have no answers, and that their morality is highly suspect. Recently, Christian voters overwhelmingly supported a presidential candidate who is morally challenged, then a Senate candidate . We have evidence that he is a fraud (Trump university), a cheat (stiffs employees and contractors), a liar (do I need to give examples?), a bully, vengeful, and a sexual predator. Yet 81% of white evangelicals were willing to overlook that, as well as credible charges of pedophilia in Roy Moore.

This latter set of factors is reflected in the entertainment media's tacit assumptions about religion, which are almost all negative now. How often do you see religion or clergy functioning as a positive force in a novel or movie? I saw some of a mini series called The Young Pope recently. He was corrupt and hypocritical. A series like that might have caused a public outcry 50 years ago - maybe even 25. Today, it's a tacit assumption that the church is corrupt, and this is repeated over and again. In sitcoms, the family preacher or priest is often depicted as silly or irrelevant, not the wise counselor of the past.

This then becomes a factor in and of itself.

That's a lot of conditions working in concert to push religion off the stage.

Don't get too excited. Religion isn't being pushed off stage. Its being rewritten, or updated, or repaired or prepared for the future. Also the evangelicals are not decreasing in numbers, the very group that you denounce for sponsoring Trump. That is, one group which you say is the cause of the decrease is the group that is not decreasing in numbers.

I have noticed this personally about evangelicals that they have become slightly more catholic over the last twenty years, more flexible, and their churches have spread all over the world. They're not just a USA denomination anymore. Everywhere you go you can find them, microphones and synthesizers piping. They're in Africa, South America, Asia, Australia...etc. They're everywhere.

I agree with @Faithofchristian that Christians need to figure out how dinosaurs fit with the Bible, and I think that gradually all will. Just as Christians all believe bacteria exist and that the Earth goes around the sun that is what will happen. The RC will adjust. The Liberal churches will stolidly march on and reap the benefits of their meritorious choice to become progressive. The cults will soften and morph or fizzle out. The evangelical churches will notice any innovation and steal it and incorporate it, just as they have been doing with Rock'n roll music, with hypnosis, with stage lighting and sound and personal greeters, and soon they will also be pro evolution, nicer to gays, more pleasant about Halloween and so forth. Its what happens.

 

[Stevicus]

You've seen this recently, but I'll repost it here:

Multiple factors have conspired to reduce the appeal of religion.

Factors not of the American Christian church's own doing include the following:

• Science has revealed a clockwork universe that can organize itself and run without the involvement of gods. We have no need for Apollo to pull the sun through the sky with his chariot, or for Thor to account for lightning bolts and what sounds like a war of the gods when the skies bellow with thunder. Nor do we need Jehovah to account for the "kinds." The church seems to consider this a threat given the energy it expends trying to get creationism / intelligent design into the public schools, and Christian kids out of science classes (voucher schools, home schooling).

• Removal of state led prayer and Bible instruction in public schools is also apparently a bugbear in the church's estimation given its tireless efforts to get back into the them. The church needs access to children, and many parents aren't promoting Christianity or taking their children to church.

• The advent of the Internet has made it pretty near impossible to keep young people from reading the thoughts of unbelievers. Despite efforts to prevent their exposure to secular culture including home schooling, these young people can get information about evolution and atheism that isn't coming from creationists and the detractors of atheists even if they are forbidden to have a computer at home.

• As the ranks of the irreligious rose for whatever reason, atheism became socially acceptable. It's not as hard to be an atheist any more. Many respected celebrities such as George Carlin, Bill Maher, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and Sam Harris are vocal atheists lending further respectability to the choice.

• As the culture evolves and more options not involving religion become available for young people, religion begins to seem less relevant. There are competing ways to spend a Sunday morning than in a church

But in my opinion, the major factor damaging the church and contributing to the decline of religion in the US in particular is its public face there. This is the part that the church is "doing wrong"

• In recent memory, we have seen countless televangelist scandals, the Catholic priest pedophilia and cover-up scandals, bigots like Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, Christian cults like those of Jim Jones and David Koresh, Westboro Baptist Church, Chick-fil-A, Hobby Lobby, the duck dynasty guy, the Oregon wedding cake couple, Kim Davis, the Duggar and Palin families and their public hypocrisies, the Target boycott snit, and years of abortion clinic terrorism including physician assassinations, arsons, bombings, and the Planned Parenthood smears culminating in Christian zealot Robert Lewis Dear shooting up a clinic.

• Then you have the persecution complex and the sense of Christian privilege - the idea that all invocations should be Christian prayers and only Christian prayers, or that saying "Happy Holidays" or putting up atheistic billboards at Christmas time contradicting Christian billboards is an affront to Christians or a War on Christmas, and if they don't get this special treatment, they cry that their religious liberties are being trampled upon. Possibly very off-putting to a lot of people.

• The church's mean-spiritedness regarding homosexuals in American society is probably also very off-putting to a lot of people. Christian homophobia is pure bigotry, by which I mean an irrational, hateful and destructive attitude toward every member of a law abiding category of people. I suspect that many people were offended by the church's unwillingness to allow loving, committed same sex couple to enjoy the dignity and protections that married heterosexual couples enjoy on the basis of ancient ideas without merit.

• People are also likely pretty unimpressed with the idea of a god that would torture people for eternity for not bowing to it. I'm presuming on that one based on the frequency of Christians now saying that damnation is just separation from God or eternal slumber.

• Then there's the blatant disregard for the cherished American principle of church-state separation. The church is clearly trying to gain access to the government, especially the Supreme Court, in an effort to impose its values on the American people using the power of the state to do so.

• And they just keep showing us that they have no answers, and that their morality is highly suspect. Recently, Christian voters overwhelmingly supported a presidential candidate who is morally challenged, then a Senate candidate . We have evidence that he is a fraud (Trump university), a cheat (stiffs employees and contractors), a liar (do I need to give examples?), a bully, vengeful, and a sexual predator. Yet 81% of white evangelicals were willing to overlook that, as well as credible charges of pedophilia in Roy Moore.

This latter set of factors is reflected in the entertainment media's tacit assumptions about religion, which are almost all negative now. How often do you see religion or clergy functioning as a positive force in a novel or movie? I saw some of a mini series called The Young Pope recently. He was corrupt and hypocritical. A series like that might have caused a public outcry 50 years ago - maybe even 25. Today, it's a tacit assumption that the church is corrupt, and this is repeated over and again. In sitcoms, the family preacher or priest is often depicted as silly or irrelevant, not the wise counselor of the past.

This then becomes a factor in and of itself.

That's a lot of conditions working in concert to push religion off the stage.

These are all excellent points and seem to reflect changing attitudes and cultural shifts, not just in terms of religion, but in other areas as well. I've been reading about similar declines in membership in clubs and service organizations, such as the Rotary Club, the Masons, Lions Club, Moose Lodge, Kiwanis and other such organizations like that. People just don't want to join, or if they do join, they don't stay members for very long.

The reasons may be varied, but some of it might also have to do with the population being more mobile these days. A lot of people have to work long hours or have long commutes, so they may not have as much spare time as they used to. There are more distractions, more things to compete with people's time. A lot of people move and/or relocate, so they don't have enough to put down roots (which is the downside of the growing lack of affordable housing).

A lot of these organizations, just as with churches, also require money and constantly ask for donations - and money has been tight and in shorter supply these past decades (unlike the economic boom during the post-war decades when membership was higher). Why should people spend their hard-earned money to be a member of a church or some other organization? What's the point? Some service organizations do charitable work, but if people want to give their money to charity, there are plenty out there which don't require anyone to join, attend meetings, or live by a set of rules or by-laws.

Also, many more people are non-conformists and individualists than what was encouraged back in the day. People don't want to walk in lockstep with some church or other organization which makes demands and requires people to go along with a set of beliefs they may not entirely agree with.

Time is also a factor, since religions and other such organizations demand people's time. Again, a lot of people work long hours, they come home, they're tired, they have to cook dinner, deal with the kids, and many other things in their lives. If they have a few spare hours, they'd rather spend it relaxing in front of the TV or computer, rather than have to do another "chore" of attending some function or meeting at a church or organization.

 

[PureX]

It'll be interesting to see what the religious landscape of America looks like when numbers and individual faiths are represented honestly.

I don't think most people even know what they believe. Or will honestly admit to it even if they do know.

I also don't think what we "believe" matters. I think it's what we do and do not do, that matters.

 

[Faithofchristian]

Don't get too excited. Religion isn't being pushed off stage. Its being rewritten, or updated, or repaired or prepared for the future. Also the evangelicals are not decreasing in numbers, the very group that you denounce for sponsoring Trump. That is, one group which you say is the cause of the decrease is the group that is not decreasing in numbers.

I have noticed this personally about evangelicals that they have become slightly more catholic over the last twenty years, more flexible, and their churches have spread all over the world. They're not just a USA denomination anymore. Everywhere you go you can find them, microphones and synthesizers piping. They're in Africa, South America, Asia, Australia...etc. They're everywhere.

I agree with @Faithofchristian that Christians need to figure out how dinosaurs fit with the Bible, and I think that gradually all will. Just as Christians all believe bacteria exist and that the Earth goes around the sun that is what will happen. The RC will adjust. The Liberal churches will stolidly march on and reap the benefits of their meritorious choice to become progressive. The cults will soften and morph or fizzle out. The evangelical churches will notice any innovation and steal it and incorporate it, just as they have been doing with Rock'n roll music, with hypnosis, with stage lighting and sound and personal greeters, and soon they will also be pro evolution, nicer to gays, more pleasant about Halloween and so forth. Its what happens.

I would like to thank you for your compliment in regarding me.

All though it is truth, about the dinosaur bones, Their here and that's evidence for sure.
This is just one those, in many questions, that people haved ask. That Christians can not escape from. But christians will try to explain away.
If people understood, taught about the first earth age, then it would be easy to explain what happened to the world of the dinosaurs, back in the first earth age.
What happened that caused the dinosaurs to become extinct. It's all been recorded, foretold throughout the Bible.

Thank you.

 

[PureX]

That's a lot of conditions working in concert to push religion off the stage.

That was an excellent post, and what you've stated about organized religion is all true. Yet this has always been true. Organized religion has not significantly changed, or gotten worse. So that what is really different, now, is the availability of information about it. It is this availability of information that is 'killing religion".

But bear in mind, this is not unbiased information. And this information does not illuminate the "whole picture" of religion or of all religious organizations. And the sources of this information often have their own agendas. I am not saying that religion is being slandered. I'm just saying that the negative information, itself, is a form of bias when it's set apart from the whole picture.

 

[Holdasown]

I personally haven't seen the number of people drop as much as those who are not Christian or religious speaking up more. And the general other group is more verbal as well.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Anyone who's even moderately culturally savy is aware of Christianity's decline. People have been leaving it in striking numbers, all the while there's been an upsurge in those who profess atheism, agnosticism, or simply don't claim any belief at all.

"In the seven years between 2007 and 2014 the percentage of Christians in America fell by 8 percentage points to 70%. (Protestants comprise 46.5% , Catholics, 20.8%, and Muslims make up 1.0%)

About 5 million fewer Americans now identify as Christian compared to when the study was conducted in 2007.

It was discovered that this trend occurred in all regions of the US and among all ages and demographics.

In the South, those not-affiliated with religion - or as the researchers call them, "nones" - rose to 19% of the population, while in the Northeast they climbed to 25%.
source

​

And the salient point here is that the loss among Christians is exchanged for the increase among the unaffiliated.

My question: WHY?

What has White Mainline Christianity been doing wrong that it's losing members at such an alarming rate?

​

The internet. Seriously.

The internet makes it easy to find information and to connect with communities of like-minded people.

This is trouble for churches where people just went to it because it was the best out of a small number of options available, or because they'd feel alone if they went their own way.

Now, the internet has made "brand switching" much easier. People are jumping more between Christian denominations, or from Christianity to other faiths, or from Christianity to nothing at all.

If you're a Christian who might be inclined to, say, Hellenic Paganism, you're now:

- much more likely to know that Hellenic Paganism is available as an option to you.

- not feel quite so alone as a Hellenic Pagan, since even if you're the only one in your town, you're now connected with more of your co-religionists than you can count.

The winners in all this will be the belief systems that give people a compelling reason to stay and the losers are the belief systems where people stayed because they couldn't be bothered to leave or because the cost of leaving was too high.

And I think we're starting to see second-order effects, since as previously dominant churches lose members, they also lose influence. Because of this, the people who belonged to a church at least partly because it was a good place to network for their business or to get votes for their campaign, for instance, now aren't getting as much benefit from their membership and so aren't as compelled to stay.

These second-order effects are going to be the real killers, since they feed back on themselves. As the influence of churches decrease, the social benefit of belonging to a church will decrease until the point where, unless you really care about the message, there won't be any point in belonging.​

 

[metis]

I was going to comment on this thread but I don't really need to as some of you really have hit the nails right on the head. Good jobs.

 

[Brickjectivity]

The internet. Seriously.

The internet makes it easy to find information and to connect with communities of like-minded people.

This is trouble for churches where people just went to it because it was the best out of a small number of options available, or because they'd feel alone if they went their own way.

Now, the internet has made "brand switching" much easier. People are jumping more between Christian denominations, or from Christianity to other faiths, or from Christianity to nothing at all.

If you're a Christian who might be inclined to, say, Hellenic Paganism, you're now:

- much more likely to know that Hellenic Paganism is available as an option to you.

- not feel quite so alone as a Hellenic Pagan, since even if you're the only one in your town, you're now connected with more of your co-religionists than you can count.

The winners in all this will be the belief systems that give people a compelling reason to stay and the losers are the belief systems where people stayed because they couldn't be bothered to leave or because the cost of leaving was too high.

And I think we're starting to see second-order effects, since as previously dominant churches lose members, they also lose influence. Because of this, the people who belonged to a church at least partly because it was a good place to network for their business or to get votes for their campaign, for instance, now aren't getting as much benefit from their membership and so aren't as compelled to stay.

These second-order effects are going to be the real killers, since they feed back on themselves. As the influence of churches decrease, the social benefit of belonging to a church will decrease until the point where, unless you really care about the message, there won't be any point in belonging.​

Those are a lot of predictions, but it could happen that way. I hope we don't all become too distant and unfriendly either way. We're already too unfriendly.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Those are a lot of predictions, but it could happen that way. I hope we don't all become too distant and unfriendly either way. We're already too unfriendly.

I'm all for friendliness and community. I just think it's divisive to use religion as the basis for community.

I remember hearing my Dad tell me about growing up in a Protestant family in Belfast. Now that was divisive and unfriendly. Even on this side of the pond, I've had friends from the American Bible Belt tell me that it's usual when you meet someone new that one of the first questions they ask is "which church do you go to?"... with the implication that your answer will go a long way in determining what that person will think of you and whether they'll want to associate with you.

My hope is that as religion loses influence and as church membership rolls shrink, it will make things better and fairer for everyone, even the Christians. As it is now, a Catholic or Mormon living in a "Baptist town" can find themselves pretty excluded. This is getting better, and it's getting better because religion is losing influence.

 

[idav]

Anyone who's even moderately culturally savy is aware of Christianity's decline. People have been leaving it in striking numbers, all the while there's been an upsurge in those who profess atheism, agnosticism, or simply don't claim any belief at all.

"In the seven years between 2007 and 2014 the percentage of Christians in America fell by 8 percentage points to 70%. (Protestants comprise 46.5% , Catholics, 20.8%, and Muslims make up 1.0%)

About 5 million fewer Americans now identify as Christian compared to when the study was conducted in 2007.

It was discovered that this trend occurred in all regions of the US and among all ages and demographics.

In the South, those not-affiliated with religion - or as the researchers call them, "nones" - rose to 19% of the population, while in the Northeast they climbed to 25%.
source

​

And the salient point here is that the loss among Christians is exchanged for the increase among the unaffiliated.

My question: WHY?

What has White Mainline Christianity been doing wrong that it's losing members at such an alarming rate?

.

​

It does appear that the Information Age is causing people to find the Bible full of inconsistencies and facts inaccuracies. This causes people to either take the Bible with a grain of salt or declare it hogwash which has obvious affects on Christianity. The average Christian is not going to be as learned as the average Jew regarding the Old Testament or Tanach and Judaism really doesn’t have the same issues that cause Christian decline.

As the stat points out all the other religions, including Judaism and Mormonism did not show significant change. So there is something particular about the denominations mentioned which account for the rise in unaffiliated, but apparently the unaffiliated aren’t coming from other religions such as Judaism and Buddhism.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

As the stat points out all the other religions, including Judaism and Mormonism did not show significant change. So there is something particular about the denominations mentioned which account for the rise in unaffiliated, but apparently the unaffiliated aren’t coming from other religions such as Judaism and Buddhism.

A few thoughts:

- minority religious don't come with the social influence and benefit that majority groups do. Sometimes the opposite: there can be a real social cost. This means that these minority groups already had some self-selection that meant the people who were in them weren't likely to be as affected by changes in those social factors.

- some religions are perpetuated through strong family pressure, rather than general societal forces. These familial factors probably take longer to change: generations instead of years.

- some religions are fed more by immigration than others. I think this might be the case with religions like Islam, Hinduism & Buddhism: the American-born kids may drift away from the family religion, but because there's a steady influx of immigrants of that religion, the overall number of adherents stays relatively constant or maybe even climbs a bit.