[stands2reason]

Those congregational attendance statistics tell their own story: Nobody needs a religion that licenses one's appetites.

In a sea of humor many islands of truth (apologizing for the lame metaphor)

[goldstategop]

Exactly. Liberal religion is a contradiction in terms. You can be a good liberal or a good religious believer but you can't be both. Liberalism exalts individual autonomy and freedom from absolute rules of any kind whereas on the other hand, religion insists upon restraining worldly desires and fearing God. The two are in tension and ultimately incompatible. People perceive liberal churches and synagogues are little more than sounding boards for the liberal agenda with a sprinkling of superficial spirituality added for good measure. Its all about feeling good not doing good. As a result liberal religion is slowly but surely fading away. I have no doubt which form of religion will be around in century: the one most hated by liberals and scorned by the elite culture: evangelical Christians and Orthodox Jews. In a way history revels in its own twisted irony by making religion less instead of more accomodating to the licentious mores of the dominant culture.