Originally posted by Irate Canadian
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Losing Our Religion?
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“I think God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.” ― Oscar Wilde
“And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence” ― Bertrand Russell
“not all there” - you know who you are
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Originally posted by Adrift View PostWe're not losing our religion, it's just that the facade is finally falling away. My whole life has been filled with people who, when asked "are you a Christian?" will answer that they are, but when pushed for details don't know much beyond some sort of karmic "if I do good, I'll get into heaven to see my dead relatives". Most people vaguely believed that God lives in the clouds, and has a big white flowing beard, and he wears a toga and sandals, and he is surrounded by our dead relatives who have turned into winged angels playing harps, and that when we die, we will see a bright light, and our dead relatives pleading for us to come into the light so that we may join them. They don't know what salvation is. They don't know what the purpose of Jesus dieing on the cross is. They don't know what the trinity is or who the Holy Spirit is. They don't know that through Christ Jesus, Christians are filled with power and live more than abundant lives in the here and now. They just have no real clue what Christianity is about outside of some old Sunday school classes they took as a child.
My mother was telling me the other day that she was getting her hair done or at a shop some place in town, and she was wearing a pendant that said "Born Again", and the person working there asked her what that 'Born Again" meant. My mother asked her if she knew what "salvation" was, and the girl shook her head no. So my mom asked her if she ever went to church, and the girl answered, "oh yes! I go to Shawnee Methodist (a church down the street) every week". My mom was confused, "You go to church regularly and you've never heard of salvation?", and the girl shook her head no again. So my mom witnessed to her and led her to Christ.
That's common Christianity in the United States. It's absolutely no surprise to me to hear that, in this day and age, people are no longer pretending to be Christian anymore. Christianity is not a social club. It's not a cultural identity. It's a personal commitment and a conscious decision to make Jesus first in your life. It's a way of life that permeates everything that you say, think and do. In my opinion it's about time that the wheat was separated from the chaff. I can't think of a better thing for the health of Christianity or for evangelism.Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.--Isaiah 1:17
I don't think that all forms o[f] slavery are inherently immoral.--seer
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Originally posted by seer View Post
Originally posted by fm93 View PostThis is a nice speech, but a thought occurred to me while I was reading it--how do you know that the people who have accounted for the decline are, in fact, those nominal Christians? How do you know that the doubly-bad result isn't the case--that the nominal Christians who are a poor witness have continued to identify as Christian, and the people who did understand Christianity are the ones who have led to this drop?
But I think also, society generally becoming more secular has led a lot of nominal Christians to simply not bother to call themselves Christian any more."I hate him passionately", he's "a demonic force" - Tucker Carlson, in private, on Donald Trump
"Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism" - George Orwell
"[Capitalism] as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of evils. I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy" - Albert Einstein
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Originally posted by fm93 View PostThis is a nice speech, but a thought occurred to me while I was reading it--how do you know that the people who have accounted for the decline are, in fact, those nominal Christians? How do you know that the doubly-bad result isn't the case--that the nominal Christians who are a poor witness have continued to identify as Christian, and the people who did understand Christianity are the ones who have led to this drop?
It confirmed my expectations when it reported, "Pew researchers said Christian losses were driven by decreases among mainline, or liberal, Protestants and Roman Catholics", and that evangelicals have the highest growth among all faith groups.
People who are no longer on fire for God, who are stuck in old dead or dying churches, and those who are attempting to secularize the Gospel in order to stay culturally relevant are losing the most adherents. This has totally been my experience as well.Last edited by Adrift; 05-12-2015, 08:49 PM.
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Originally posted by Adrift View PostIt confirmed my expectations when it reported... that evangelicals have the highest growth among all faith groups."I hate him passionately", he's "a demonic force" - Tucker Carlson, in private, on Donald Trump
"Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism" - George Orwell
"[Capitalism] as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of evils. I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy" - Albert Einstein
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Originally posted by pancreasman View PostSo ... if Americans are identifying less with organised religion it's bad news because the country is sliding into a moral abyss, but good news because nominal Christians aren't bothering to say they're Christians any more....>>> Witty remark or snarky quote of another poster goes here <<<...
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Originally posted by Starlight View PostEr, it reported that Evangelicals lost one percentage point (although in absolute numbers this still amounted to a slight gain due to population growth). The only faith group that actually grew in percentage size was the "Non-Christians faiths".
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Originally posted by Darth Executor View PostI'm not sure what you mean. Jews were instrumental in the rise of communism, it's part of how Hitler's antisemitism got him to power in the first place. They definitely weren't persecuting themselves when they were part of the Soviet Union's power structure. And nobody is persecuting them these days, Putin just opened a holocaust museum a while back and a lot of Russian jews are leaders of industry or high ranking government officials. Compared to Tsarist Russia it's like heaven and earth.Enter the Church and wash away your sins. For here there is a hospital and not a court of law. Do not be ashamed to enter the Church; be ashamed when you sin, but not when you repent. – St. John Chrysostom
Veritas vos Liberabit<>< Learn Greek <>< Look here for an Orthodox Church in America<><Ancient Faith Radio
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I recommend you do not try too hard and ...research as little as possible. Such weighty things give me a headache. - Shunyadragon, Baha'i apologist
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Originally posted by pancreasman View PostSo ... if Americans are identifying less with organised religion it's bad news because the country is sliding into a moral abyss, but good news because nominal Christians aren't bothering to say they're Christians any more.“I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.” - C.S. Lewis
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