Religion has taken a beating in the United States in the past decade. The media has smeared it as the home of hate and bigotry. Universities are teaching that religion is the cause of conflict. Politicians use it to explain hunger, famine and climate change.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!“Currently, self-identified Christians of all types make up about 63% of the population. This includes Protestants, Catholics, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Orthodox Christians.
That number is down 12 points from 75% in 2011, a continuation of a downward spiral in the 21st century.
According to the study, about three-in-10 adults (29%) identify as religious “nones,” people who describe themselves as atheists, agnostics or “nothing in particular” when asked about their religious identity. That number is 6 percentage points higher than it was five years ago and 10 points higher than a decade ago.”
Europe is almost totally anti-religion—and Canada arrests Pastors that teach the Bible. It is time for those of Faith to fight back—before it is too late.
Christianity continues to decline among US adults
A new Pew study shows the share of those who identify as Christian has decreased by 12% in the last 10 years. A Yale professor says political polarization is a factor.
Joe Harris, Courthousenews, 12/14/21
ST. LOUIS (CN) — Though they still make up most of the U.S. population, the percentage of Americans identifying as Christian continues to decrease, according to a Pew Research Center survey released Tuesday.
Currently, self-identified Christians of all types make up about 63% of the population. This includes Protestants, Catholics, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Orthodox Christians.
That number is down 12 points from 75% in 2011, a continuation of a downward spiral in the 21st century.
According to the study, about three-in-10 adults (29%) identify as religious “nones,” people who describe themselves as atheists, agnostics or “nothing in particular” when asked about their religious identity. That number is 6 percentage points higher than it was five years ago and 10 points higher than a decade ago.
The latest survey results come as no surprise to Philip Gorski, a sociology professor at Yale University.
“They’re just continuations of trend lines that people who follow these things have now been noticing for a while,” Gorski said.
Christians now outnumber religious nones by a ratio of a little more than two-to-one. In 2007, when Pew began asking its current question about religious identity, Christians outnumbered nones by almost five-to-one (78% vs. 16%).
Politics is seen as the main driving factor, with the polarization of the country under former President Donald Trump and his alignment with the Christian Right.
“That, in fact, has been one of, if not the most, important of the driving factors behind the rise of the nones,” Gorski said. “There was a really strong association between being a none and being a liberal, or identifying as evangelical and identifying as a Republican. And I think what we’ve seen really over the last four or five years is particularly, with the election of Donald Trump, is that trend has been accelerating, and that it’s become more obvious to people that this is one of the factors. I think it’s interaction of religion in politics. It’s the big story here.”
Other issues driving the decline could involve the theory of secularization, or the belief that religion was inevitably going to decline over time. Gorski also said some others believe the breakdown of the traditional family unit has led to less church involvement.
Protestants, a group that is broadly defined to include nondenominational Christians and people who describe themselves as “just Christian,” along with Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, suffered the highest concentration of losses. Protestant membership is down 4 percentage points over the last five years and has dropped 10 points in 10 years.
The decline in Protestantism is equal between evangelicals – believers who describe themselves as born again – and non-evangelical, with both sects seeing a 6-point decline.
In contrast, Catholics have held steady after suffering a downward trend between 2007 and 2014. Gorski believes immigration is holding that number firm.
“The percentage of native-born whites who were churchgoing Catholics, those trend lines don’t look much different than people who are native-born white Protestants, and in some surveys, they even have been worse in recent years,” the professor said. “So, I would guess if you broke those numbers down by immigration status and ethnic identification, what you probably find is that you just got a bunch of pretty religiously observant immigrants who were boosting the average.”
He believes the numbers will continue to decline at a steady pace, if not accelerate, in the next five to 10 years. Long-term prognostications are trickier.
“Never underestimate the ability of American Christianity to reinvent itself,” he said. “I suspect that there are things going on close to the ground that just aren’t really on very many people’s radar screens.”
Gorski pointed to so-called exvangelicals, a group of people who have broken from traditional evangelicalism. It is a mixed group, with some holding onto traditional Christian beliefs while others have sworn Christianity off altogether.
“They don’t like the evangelical label and don’t like this sort of evangelical subculture and they’re trying to invent something new and add to Christianity in a different way,” he said. “It’s really hard to predict it in the medium to long term.”
The study surveyed 3,927 U.S. adults between May 29, 2021 to Aug. 25, 2021. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points for results based on the full sample.
The study comes three weeks after another Pew study showed that the majority of Americans blame individuals or society rather than God for bad things happening.
About Stephen Frank
Christianity is not down. Participation in organized religion is down. The religious leaders thought it best to cater to the wolfs in their flock at the expense of their sheep. Like home schooling, many parents and families are practicing home religion.
It’s not the number, it’s the quality.
So many “Woke” churches are simply purveyors of govt propaganda, people end up leaving them in droves.
It is intentional by the Democrat Left.
Destroy tranquility and defend criminal riots this is what you get.
You are a voter. Want it to change? Then stop voting for the LEFT because you want more and more hand outs from government….it is called welfare both personal and corporate.