Posted on 10/01/2009 10:47:15 PM PDT by Steelfish
Bruce Feiler September 25, 2009
Where Have All the Christians Gone?
The number of people who claim no religious affiliation, meanwhile, has doubled since 1990 to fifteen percent, its highest point in history.
Christianity is plummeting in America, while the number of non-believers is skyrocketing.
A shocking new study of Americans’ religious beliefs shows the beginnings of a major realignment in Americans’ relationship with God.
The American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) reveals that Protestants now represent half of all Americans, down almost 20 percent in the last twenty years. In the coming months, America will become a minority Protestant nation for the first time since the pilgrims.
The number of people who claim no religious affiliation, meanwhile, has doubled since 1990 to fifteen percent, its highest point in history.
Non-believers now represent the third-highest group of Americans, after Catholics and Baptists.
Other headlines:
1) The number of Christians has declined 12% since 1990, and is now 76%, the lowest percentage in American history.
2) The growth of non-believers has come largely from men. Twenty percent of men express no religious affiliation; 12% of women.
3) Young people are fleeing faith. Nearly a quarter of Americans in their 20’s profess no organized religion.
4) But these non-believers are not particularly atheist. That number hasn’t budged and stands at less than 1 percent. (Agnostics are similarly less than 1 percent.) Instead, these individuals have a belief in God but no interest in organized religion, or they believe in a personal God but not in a formal faith tradition.
The implications for American society are profound. Americans’ relationship with God, which drove many of the country’s great transformations from the pilgrims to the founding fathers, the Civil War to the civil rights movement, is still intact.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Some thoughts:
1. Perhaps since being a Christian is no longer promoted as the American way to be as heavily as it used to be, a lot of CINOs (Christians In Name Only) have stopped pretending.
2. Perhaps the percentages have immigrated away. Do immigrants altogether number as high in Christian population than the current U.S. population does?
3. Perhaps the relentless de-Christianization by the public school system, the courts, the media, and the ACLU is bearing some fruit.
Christians are getting scarce. And America will fall because of it. With new Agers and Muslims filling the gap.
What an interesting article from Bruce Feiler who wrote two very wonderful books...”Walking the Bible” and “Abraham”, largely from a Skeptic/Jewish point of view.
Yet, reading Walking the Bible, you could see his viewpoint change in a very subtle way.
...not exactly.
“We are to have a personal relationship with God.”
Yes, but we are to elect bishops, and they are supposed to rule. We’re supposed to get baptized, take communion, worship together, and submit to church discipline. There is plenty of direct communication about this in the New Testament.
Ultimately, its we, the American people who are responsible for allowing this to occur. We vote the school board, the state and national reps who provide the funds for our colleges and universities, and it’s we who fund Hollywood’s depravity by watching their movies. We, the American people have acquiesced in the influx of hordes of non-Christian immigrants whose birth rates are soaring. And, we the American people who have through our senate reps confirmed the most liberal and activist judges to the US Supreme Court and the federal judiciary. In short, we the American people have sold the Christ for 30 pieces of silver. How you ask? We slept while the vandals and barbarians were at the gate. They have now entered the city and occupied its offices.
That’s right. We were left with the tools to keep it together. As a nation, we have largely failed to do that.
The Christ established one “Church” and assured us that the gates of hell will not prevail against her. If each person is a church unto himself we would have as many churches as there are believers.
Talking snakes and Jewish zombies are unconvincing in today's world of science.
The extraordinary advances in Science can drive you closer to God, as well, as you begin to fathom the incredible complexity of life and all the systems of this universe.
The scandals haven’t helped either.
Pubic education is no more acceptable than any other "public option." As J. Gresham Machen said in 1928, "If we give the bureaucrats our children, we may as well give them everything else."
I think the mainstreaming of pornography and obscenity is one major reason for this.
When you send your kids to public school- apparently for economic reasons- then yes, we have handed our children to bureaucrats.
But of course I am in awe of the creator and not the created.
God lives within me and I do not forsake the assembly of believers. The Bible is one truth and there are many many different religions. Why? Because religion is man made. I follow God’s Word and not a religion.
I follow God’s Word and not someones self motivated interpretation of it.
God inspires me. Man often disappoints me.
Unfortunately, the Bible is One Truth and not subject to different interpretations. Multiple interpretations, like multiple denominations, destroy the idea of a single truth and a single Church against whom, we have been assured, the gates of hell shall not prevail.
I’m still here. And while there’s breath in my lungs, I’ll fight and do everything I can for God.
As my mother often said,
Going to church no more makes one a Christian than
sitting in the garage makes you a 57 Chevy.
One must study the word.
Ask and you will receive.
Thank God for Mom.
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/DBG.TAB1.2.GIF
Soviet Union-61,911,000
Chinese communists-38,702,000
German Nazis-17,000,000
Chinese Nationalists-10,214,000
Japanese militarists-5,890,000
China(Mao Soviets 1923-49)-3,466,000
Cambodia-2,035,000
Turkey-1,883,000
Vietnam-1,670,000(most after the war by communist)
North Korea-1,663,000
Poland-1,585,000
Pakistan-1,503,000
Mexico(1900-20)-1,417,000
Yugoslavia-1,072,000
Russia(1900-17)-1,066,000
Notice the top killing governments of all time pushed godlessness.
Are there no atheist, agnostic, Hindu, Muslim, New Age, or Buddhist scandals? I can think of some. . .
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Well we’ve already been told that there would be a great falling away in the last days.
How is there a correlation between being “religious” and believing in god? Some of the most spiritual people I know aren’t religious, and some of the least spiritual people are religious.
What made you think you were a Christian?
What makes you think you are scientifically literate?
I prayed. I believed in Jesus. I believed he is the son of God. I asked for forgiveness of sin. I believed the story of creation. I believed in miracles etc.
What makes you think you are scientifically literate?
I've always had an interest in science/math/physics and eventually became an engineer. I think I know enough about science to claim scientific literacy.
Anything else?
You are probably right. :(
I...I...I... So what did He do for you?
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