Christian churches spend millions of dollars every year in America, on ministries, missionaries, evangelism, and outreach programs. For whatever reason, however, membership in Christian churches has declined. This report (New York Times) talks about a new social awareness of atheist (or humanist) groups and their new-found social activism. Compare and contrast that report with this view from Pew Research that describes a much larger percentage of Americans now who are unaffiliated (Atheist, Agnostic, between churches, or undecided) over the last 20 years.
Why? What’s going on?
Let’s go back in time 20 years. The 1980s saw the merger of Christianity and conservative American politics. These were the high-water years of the Reagan administration and the first Bush administration. Conservative Christianity was feeling its oats – part of the mainstream of political thought.
Ah, perhaps that’s it then. The church became part of the political landscape and thus became redundant, irrelevant, and a part of the furniture. Perhaps the Pharisees will never learn?
August 21, 2009 at 11:24 am
I suppose a symptom could become a cause in a perpetuating chain. In any case, surely you would agree that US (white) Christianity’s partial assimilation into the political Right is not the only cause of its proportionate dissipation.
Beware also: Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones. Left and right, we all have specks or rather logs in our own eyes. Alternately, the church is a popular object of mockery; what manhood is proven by whipping the institution further now that is down?
August 23, 2009 at 1:29 pm
I am asking questions, not throwing stones. What other causes do you propose?