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?
.
Christianity has done nothing "wrong" in itself, and I'm not speaking about those wrongs involved with genocide or the Crusades or whatever the narratives say in the Old and New Testaments.
I think a few reasons for the decline is partially due to our advances in technology and further understanding of the world around us and how it comes together and works.
Another aspect is the complete confusion that Christians go through involving their own religion. When you have a religion with 36,000 plus denominations and and hundreds of accepted translations of the Bible that's their core scripture, it sends a message that there's nothing there other than their own interpretations.
The behavior of Christians is abysmal too as far as a religion goes touting peace and love but it contrasts sharply with the actual practices that are going on. On top of the list start with evangical preachers with public displays of insane greed and corruption for which many of the smaller churches attempt to emulate, the sheer lack of Education as it applies to the Sciences, and the reputation of arrogance, pride, egotism, and of course in house politics.
For those with the boots on the ground, and to emphasize this is just my perspective it may not be yours. ...is there are those who are not as concerned with the aforementioned also known as common churchgoers, it pretty much goes on a schedule of entering the building, grabbing the days program, opening hymm books sing for a while, stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down with each song. Tithing plates gets passed around, everybody puts money in. Pastor enters the room or gets off his chair in back,. Gives his sermon of the day, stand up for prayer, sit down, opening books sing some songs, stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down, stand up sit down..... Then announcements are made, kneel for prayer, stand up when prayer concludes. then everybody heads for the door happy to get out of that place by 12 or 1 in the afternoon from 8 in the morning Shane under way out how wonderful the sermon was.
Then the real passion begins. football talk, the local bar, and life in general.
I think people had done this because they might feel a sense of obligation for tradition, however life doesn't seem to have as much free times that it used to. There are more important things to deal with, so traditions get
dropped and placed in mothballs for posterity.
I think people are basically waking up to the fact that this is an ancient religion that was around the time of Odin, Thor, and any kind of Greek or Roman god you can think of that had a an amazing run in history. However from a practical standpoint it just simply doesn't work so there's no need to bother with it anymore. Fin.