Losing Our Religion?

[seer]

I'm surprised that 70% of the population still consider themselves Christian.


And it seems that evangelical Protestant churches are doing better than the mainline Protestant churches or the Catholic Church.

The drop in the Christian share of the population has been driven mainly by declines among mainline Protestants and Catholics. Each of those large religious traditions has shrunk by approximately three percentage points since 2007. The evangelical Protestant share of the U.S. population also has dipped, but at a slower rate, falling by about one percentage point since 2007.

http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/a...ous-landscape/

[Ana Dragule]

I wonder how this compares in more traditional countries.

[firstfloor]

I'm surprised that 70% of the population still consider themselves Christian.

[Adrift]

I'm surprised that 70% of the population still consider themselves Christian.




And it seems that evangelical Protestant churches are doing better than the mainline Protestant churches or the Catholic Church.



http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/a...ous-landscape/

We'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.

[seer]

We'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.

I agree 100%. When I was a kid every house emptied out on Sunday morning to go to Catholic Church. Most of the men stood in the back of the church commenting on the women and talking politics.

[Irate Canadian]

This is Allah giving Jehovah a good kicking while the Jehovah worshipers are realising that their man’s run out of talent and they are starting to line up with the righteous atheists to fight the last god standing. Diderot had it right – surely I don’t have to explain it again! Yes, you are loosing your religion, your chains, in fact. Goodbye and good riddance.

“And the three men I admire most
The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died.” – Don McLean

[Darth Ovious]

We'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.

I have to agree. In the UK the only people who identify as Christian are those that are serious about it to a higher degree. They at least know the basics. Some might still be a bit stupid but they at least know that Jesus died for their sins.

[Darth Executor]

This is Allah giving Jehovah a good kicking while the Jehovah worshipers are realising that their man’s run out of talent and they are starting to line up with the righteous atheists to fight the last god standing. Diderot had it right – surely I don’t have to explain it again! Yes, you are loosing your religion, your chains, in fact. Goodbye and good riddance.

“And the three men I admire most
The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died.” – Don McLean

Yeah fedora neckbeards driving around in walmart scooters are right there on the front lines fighting Islam.

[One Bad Pig]

I found this interesting:

As the shifting religious profiles of these generational cohorts suggest, switching religion is a common occurrence in the United States. If all Protestants were treated as a single religious group, then fully 34% of American adults currently have a religious identity different from the one in which they were raised. This is up six points since 2007, when 28% of adults identified with a religion different from their childhood faith. If switching among the three Protestant traditions (e.g., from mainline Protestantism to the evangelical tradition, or from evangelicalism to a historically black Protestant denomination) is added to the total, then the share of Americans who currently have a different religion than they did in childhood rises to 42%.

So much for the canard that we believe what we do because we were raised that way.

Nearly one-in-five U.S. adults (18%) were raised in a religious faith and now identify with no religion. Some switching also has occurred in the other direction: 9% of American adults say they were raised with no religious affiliation, and almost half of them (4.3% of all U.S. adults) now identify with some religion.

IOW percentage-wise, those who are raised without faith are much more likely to become religious than those who are raised in a faith to leave religion altogether - so the current trend will more likely than not come to a balance rather than continue to decline.

[firstfloor]

Yeah fedora neckbeards driving around in walmart scooters are right there on the front lines fighting Islam.

Gods are not defeated by swords and bullets. They are defeated by indifference.

[Darth Executor]

Gods are not defeated by swords and bullets. They are defeated by indifference.

Then judging by your posting record you seem to be losing that war badly.

[firstfloor]

Then judging by your posting record you seem to be losing that war badly.

I am just a humble commentator. I do not pretend to be right. The zeitgeist is much bigger than any individual. The change in god worship is noticeable over a lifetime but definitely not over the course of a few posts on a forum like this.

[Darth Ovious]

I seem to remember some country practicing state atheism and then totally falling apart and now it's 75% Russian Orthodox Church. I wonder what country that was again.

[shunyadragon]

I seem to remember some country practicing state atheism and then totally falling apart and now it's 75% Russian Orthodox Church. I wonder what country that was again.

I do not agree with atheism, but the history of the Russian Orthodox Church is indeed questionable and a very bad choice. In reality, many never changed, When the Soviets took over they put away their Cross and took up the Sickle and Hammer. When the Soviets collapsed they took off the Sickle and Hammer and put on the Cross. There is a dark side to the Russian Orthodox Church. The persecution of the Jews is equally intense and did not change.

[Darth Executor]

The persecution of the Jews is equally intense and did not change.

I'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.