"The Spiritual Condition of America"

[Skwim]

"After conducting a nationwide survey of Americans, Christians and non-Christians, Barna* has presented his analysis of the spiritual condition of the USA in 2016. Here are some of his conclusions:

“Americans are losing faith in all aspects of their Christian heritage and commitment. During the past decade alone there have been huge declines in the proportion of people who claim to be deeply spiritual (-21 points); who say their religious faith is very important in their life (-16 points); who claim to have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ (-12 points).”

“Belief in God, trust in the Bible, and reliance on Jesus alone for salvation have all declined precipitously. Fewer than one in five adults believes that absolute moral truth exists and is defined in the Bible.”

“The unchurched population is growing like cancer, rising by 11 points in ten years, now approaching half of the adult public. Most unchurched adults consider themselves to be Christian and spiritually inclined; one in five is born again!”

“The Bible is taking a big hit. While more than nine out of ten households own one or more copies, just one-third read from it during a typical week last year. Only one out of three adults believes it is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches.”

“The nation’s morals and values are a mess. . . . A majority argues that co-habitation, sexual fantasies, sex outside of marriage, giving birth outside of marriage, divorce, doctor-assisted suicide, homosexual relations, and same-sex marriage are morally acceptable endeavors.”

“Major social institutions no longer hold the confidence of Americans. . . . Confidence in churches has plummeted by 11 percentage points in the last decade.”​

Barna concludes by noting that these massive changes in worldview provide “the cultural context for the 2016 battle for the White House and control of Congress.”
source​

And a plea from the quoted source:

"As you go to the polls, please pray that our nation will see a new reformation: a return to biblical authority."​

*George Barna (born 1955) is the founder of The Barna Group, a market research firm specializing in studying the religious beliefs and behavior of Americans, and the intersection of faith and culture. He currently serves as the senior executive in Metaformation an organization committed to "helping people optimize their life journey."
Source: Wikipedia

Any thoughts?

Mine: I love how Barna interjects his personal bias:

"The unchurched population is growing like cancer,"
"The nation’s morals and values are a mess"
"A majority argues that . . .X, Y, and Z, . . .are morally acceptable endeavors.” The implication being that they are not.​

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[Altfish]

Congratulations USA; you are finally seeing the light.
Keep it up

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

It may be a little bit biased in a certain direction...just my sense based on the excerpts...

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Some of the best news I've read in a long time! I love the language and metaphors!:
The Bible is taking a big hit

Americans are losing faith...huge declines in the proportion of people who claim to be deeply spiritual...have all declined precipitously...Confidence in churches has plummeted.....The unchurched population is growing like cancer...The nation’s morals and values are a mess. . . . A majority argues...are morally acceptable....

I wonder if people will start taking the polls showing non-theism on the rise as theism declines seriously now?

 

[David1967]

"The unchurched population is growing like cancer,"
"The nation’s morals and values are a mess"
"A majority argues that . . .X, Y, and Z, . . .are morally acceptable endeavors.” The implication being that they are not.

I'm not familiar with him, but according to what you posted as an example he seems to be a fundamentalist. As far as his opinion of the "unchurched population", I would have to disagree. Megachurches are sure packing them in.

 

[David1967]

It may be a little bit biased in a certain direction...just my sense based on the excerpts...

Ya think?

 

[metis]

One of the problems that I see is the "me feel-good" approach, such as found in the "health & wealth" denominations, that put much more emphasis on a me-orientation than on an other-orientation. Jesus' "Sermon In the Mount" narrative, for example, seems to mean so little to the former, and I gotta feeling that if he came to their churches they'd throw him out on his ear for being a Kumbaya hippie who just wants to give "our precious money" to the "takers".

 

[bobhikes]

Religions rise and fall, just like governments throughout history perhaps we are in the age of change.

 

[Valjean]

I blame those heathen Europeans. We need a wall!

 

[Father Heathen]

Sooo, we're evolving spiritually, then.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

And a plea from the quoted source:

"As you go to the polls, please pray that our nation will see a new reformation: a return to biblical authority."​

.

That plea is the heart of it, isn't it? Biblical authority? You mean the rules telling you who to kill, how to treat your slaves, whether you can sell your children, and such?

Barna might have enjoyed the Spanish Inquisition, one suspects, but I'm at least marginally hopeful that we're past all that nonsense.

 

[Skwim]

I'm not familiar with him, but according to what you posted as an example he seems to be a fundamentalist. As far as his opinion of the "unchurched population", I would have to disagree. Megachurches are sure packing them in.

Just so we're clear here, my point had nothing to do with "unchurched population," which is a reasonable way to characterize those who've never gone to church, but with his characterization of its grow as "cancer," an undesirable kind of growth.


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[David1967]

Just so we're clear here, my point had nothing to do with "unchurched population," which is a reasonable way to characterize those who've never gone to church, but with his characterization of its grow as "cancer," an undesirable kind of growth.


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I understand what your saying. There is just so much he wrote that could be commented on. Based on his writing I couldn't help wonder if his definition of unchurched included congregations he may view as liberal.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Just so we're clear here, my point had nothing to do with "unchurched population," which is a reasonable way to characterize those who've never gone to church, but with his characterization of its grow as "cancer," an undesirable kind of growth.


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Even if the word cancer wasn't used, the intended audience would still see it as a bad thing regardless. Really, I think given that saying the unchurched population is increasing is a bad thing, I suspect "growing like cancer" wasn't intended to add "extra bad" to it, but to use language to draw extra attention to what they see as a problem. I suppose another way of putting it if they didn't have the "clean language" restrictions would be, "the unchurched population has went up another ****ing 11 percent, making it about half of the goddamned population!"
I suspect it's the same intention, but different words.

 

[Skwim]

Even if the word cancer wasn't used, the intended audience would still see it as a bad thing regardless. Really, I think given that saying the unchurched population is increasing is a bad thing, I suspect "growing like cancer" wasn't intended to add "extra bad" to it, but to use language to draw extra attention to what they see as a problem. I suppose another way of putting it if they didn't have the "clean language" restrictions would be, "the unchurched population has went up another ****ing 11 percent, making it about half of the goddamned population!"
I suspect it's the same intention, but different words.

Agreed. As long as his figures are relatively accurate (I have no idea how valid his polling procedures are), fine. I just got a kick out of his descriptions.


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[Shadow Wolf]

I just got a kick out of his descriptions.

Me too. It's not apocalyptic end-of-days talk, but I can easily see it as yanking-at-hair and -tossing-up-papers frustrated talk of desperation.

 

[righthere]

Religions rise and fall, just like governments throughout history perhaps we are in the age of change.

Yep. So do Economy circle.
I think American increasingly believe in science and technology. This can be partly show in some recent film content.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Yep. So do Economy circle.
I think American increasingly believe in science and technology. This can be partly show in some recent film content.

Increasingly, maybe, but when you get a science denier as president and a flaming science denier as vp, it's going to take piles of thoroughly investigated and replicated research to convince me the average America cares about science or accepts it. And, the last study I am aware of to look at such an issue, the only country with more evolution deniers than America is Turkey.