My wife says her Mom was a member of the Religion of the Month Club.
Wow, at least once during their lives...
Startling...
It’s interesting how curious about religion the liberal institutions are. I’m sure they’re just trying to instill renewed support for religion.
Doesn’t matter what team you play for, as long as you’re in the game.
...restlessly switching faith affiliation at least once during their lives...
“The survey found that Catholicism has suffered the greatest net loss in all the religion switching. Nearly six in ten former Catholics who are now unaffiliated say they left Catholicism due to dissatisfaction with Catholic teachings on abortion and homosexuality. About half cited concerns about Catholic teachings on birth control and roughly four in ten named unhappiness with Catholicism’s treatment of women.”
I should note that the people who left the Church are LIBERALS. And I’m not sure what’s the deal with “treatment of women.” What, they’re not permitted to serve as priests? That’s mistreatment? Did these gals who departed wish to become priests?
To be technical, I guess you could even say Jesus changed religions. When I mentioned to my kids recently that Jesus was Jewish, my wife chimed in, “He wasn’t a Christian?”
It shows a true level of ignorance to describe movement within orthodox Christian denominations as “changing faiths.” The essentials of the Christian faith revolve around the deity of Christ and His saving and redeeming us. The remainder of the trappings of the various Christian churches involve preferences of worship modes and doctrinal distinctions.
Changing faith would be movement from orthodox Christianity to the Mormonism, Judaism, Islam and Atheism.
While the different Christian denominations may look like war to outsiders in reality it is just sibling rivalries or some other family squabble.
Some mainline Protestant churches have radically transformed themselves over the last 100 years, so it isn’t always so much a Protestant shopping around for a new church to fit comfortably with his personal beliefs but his search for what may have disappeared entirely from his existing church to be replaced by happy-talk, social networking, and PC prayers. It is the tradition of Protestant denominations from their beginning for new denominations to spring up one after another, flourish and then fade, replaced by a yet new version. One Church alone endures, sometimes in spite of itself.
“About half of those who have become unaffiliated cited a belief that religious people are hypocritical, judgmental or insincere. Large numbers said they think religious organizations focus too much on rules, or that religious leaders are too focused on money and power.”
What a mix of legitimate and illegitimate reasons.
1) “Religious people are hypocritical”. This could mean two things. First the obvious, that they do not practice the core beliefs of their religion. But it can also mean that the critic wants rigid adherence by others in the less important trappings of religion.
2) “Religious people are judgmental”. Again, two things. Either that they profess and practice strong moral rules, ignoring trendy and fashionable moral relativity; or that they condemn the sinner as much as the sin.
3) “Religious people are insincere”. This is a valid criticism of those of say they are of a religion, but do not follow its tenets or guidance, religious in name only. Many Americans have this problem, and belong to the Santa Claus and Easter Bunny church as their only religious affiliation.
4) “Religious organizations focus too much on rules”. A criticism by people who don’t like to follow rules other than their own. This is the choice of agnostics, but who still want their children baptized, and to get married in church.
5) “Religious leaders are too focused on money and power”. This has always been a balancing act for religion. While they usually need some money, it is easy to get caught up in greed. And power is easier to shun when you live in a just place, and your congregants are not oppressed, or there is great injustice.