Although demographic replacement is the most obvious seismic change in America, being so visibly obvious, with the breakneck increase in accepted sexual degeneracy keeping pace in a close second, there is another change in our nation that is mirrored across the formerly White Western world: the utter collapse of public, organized religion. More specifically Christianity. Pew Research recently released a very large study of religious trends and it is not good news for organized religion (although that doesn’t mean it is all bad news for Christianity).
There was a time when almost everyone expressed some sort of affiliation with Christianity. In 1972, the year after I was born, a survey was started that asked about religious affiliation. As of that first survey better than 90% of Americans identified with Christianity. As everyone knows that affiliation has been slumping but most people don’t realize quite how much nor how precipitously it has diminished since the 1990s.
To make matters a little worse, that 63% likely still includes double digit percentages of people who claim a Christian affiliation but haven’t been to church in many years and don’t have any attachment to the faith apart from a family connection. From my experience after decades in the Christian church, I can say with an enormous level of confidence that most “Christians” in America know very little about their professed faith and what they do know is wrong. It is a cultural identifier, something to give them some sort of identity and deflect the proselytization of the zealous. They don’t read their Bible or attend services and only pray when something really bad is going on.
The real percentage of people that actually believe and practice the Christian faith is probably closer to 25%, and that is being really generous. Christianity is supposed to be a whole-life transformative faith (“You must be born again”), not something you pull out of your back pocket when things are crappy and you need some comfort. That is true for very few people.
The real percentage of people that actually believe and practice the Christian faith is probably closer to 25%, and that is being really generous.
Very very, very, generous.
Just read the article, I am not impressed at best. If he thinks paganism is ok, he is working for the devil.
For starters, true pagans don’t believe in the Christian devil, or god.
Second, I read the opinion piece and that’s not my take on it. Rather I think he is saying that liberty loving people are becoming a minority, even in their local communities, and we can’t afford to be in fighting over having different (religious) views.
I agree! That’s the point I got. There is a lot of division caused constantly by religion(not all religious people) Look at how they used Roe vs Wade to cause mayhem some more. PLEASE Don’t expect everyone to believe what you believe in, why is that so hard? People who wonder why we are here today and still think only the “Saved or reborn ” get to heaven, I feel kinda sorry for them. That is not the point of freedom and the constitution. Was it Built on God, Yes it was, I get that. I just hope we quit letting other’s beliefs DEFINE that person….If not we already lost for real. I will fight next to a Muslim if they love America and freedom enough. Just sayim…we need the large % or they keep winning. We have to start opening our eyes to the division and judgement being used constantly in religion. that is THEM winning still.
If someone is raised in middle east a Muslim as a baby, does this make them evil or the bad guy?? Doesn’t add up..
Psalm 53:1a
“The fool hath said in his heart, “there is no God….”
I would say that a lot of the people in this country are pagans.
Many are called but few are chosen.
I think that a better estimate of Christian faith would be evident in a poll of how much actual Bible study a person does and of course actual time spent praying . Many churches in these parts and I suspect the rest of America from what I see on the internet are being destroyed by the liberal world getting into the church belief system . I watch probably a half dozen different church services every day from Catholic , to Orthodox , to Pentecostal , and everything in between . I haunt the sites such as this one that are dominated by men of faith and virtue . I enjoy watching Spirit Filled worship services and try to keep my lamp filled and burning brightly in this current time of great darkness in the world . As a little black lady that mentored me and my family always taught us , to eat the fish and spit out the bones . Thank you Mama Jesse Scott .
I think a better strategy would be to work towards a fifth awakening/revival than pairing with pagans. Note that the graph in the article starts in 1972, about the time of the beginning of the so-called Fourth Great Awakening. This was the time of the rise of the so-called “Jesus Freaks.” It was also the time when the conservative evangelicals jettisoned their “moderate” components.
A little history. I’m focusing on Southern Baptists because i am one and pay more attention.
People forget, for instance, that the Southern Baptists came out in favor of abortion in the early 1970s. The 1971 Southern Baptist Convention resolution reads, in part :”Be it further RESOLVED, That we call upon Southern Baptists to work for legislation that will allow the possibility of abortion under such conditions as rape, incest, clear evidence of severe fetal deformity, and carefully ascertained evidence of the likelihood of damage to the emotional, mental, and physical health of the mother.”
It was not until the 1980s that the SBC cast out its “moderate” members and reaffirmed its fundamentalist roots, primarily over the issue of women in the ministry. The “moderate’ congregations formed the “Cooperative Bible Fellowship.” In 1980, the SBC changd its resolution on abortion to read in part: “Be it further RESOLVED, That opposition be expressed toward all policies that allow “abortion on demand,” and
Be it further RESOLVED, That we abhor the use of tax money or public, tax-supported medical facilities for selfish, non-therapeutic abortion, and
Be it finally RESOLVED, That we favor appropriate legislation and/or a constitutional amendment prohibiting abortion except to save the life of the mother.”
In the following 20 years, the pendulum has slowly swung back towards more liberal ideas. The Southern Baptists are again where we were in the 1970s, with the seminaries and “leadership” firmly in the liberal/CRT camp, while the congregations are still largely biblicsl.
The thing to note here is that if you look at the graph in the article, you sort of have two plaeaus. The first is the period of 1972-1992, which is the maturing phase of the Fourth Awakening, where the evangelical community was able to change course and returned to its roots. The plateau here is primarily due to growth in evangelical congregations counteracted by loss in mainline liberal congregations. The second plateau is from 1997-2012, where you have an acceleration of loss from mainline churches, and a loss of momentum in traditional evangelical churches. By this time the only really growing congregations were the charismatics and non-denominational “seeker” churches.
And now, even the more traditionalist conservative evangelical churches are starting to lose their way, and they are starting to hemorrhage members like the mainline churches did 30 years ago. Another schism in the Southern Baptist Convention is a real possibility as more theologically conservative congregations get fed up with the liberal movement of the Convention leadership.
The only hope, in my mind is for there to be a fifth awakening — a turning back to Christianity. These awakenings saved the nation multiple times, and it could do so again — but only if the remnant devout Christians get to work. It has to start within the existing Christian congregations. I think the winnowing of congregations inherent in the liberal/conservative schisms that have occured in the Anglican, Presbyterian, and other traditions may be the first step in this.
But the key is returning to our base faith in the Christ, not to embrace paganism.
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way broad that leads to destruction, and Many enter through it. The gate is small and the way narrow that leads to Life, and FEW FIND IT.” -- Jesus Mt 7:13-14
FEW are actual genuine believers!
2 Corinthians 6:14
May be worth a study.
Do Not Be Unequally Yoked
13As a fair exchange, I ask you as my children: Open wide your hearts also. 14Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? 15What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?…
As a Nation How has this worked, being unequally yoked with other Nations?
Which “Church” eagerly combined with the Pagans back in the day? How has this worked on in “religion”?
Another thought. All of this in fighting, (within the church)calling each others beliefs and or non beliefs.
What if it is something else, something more.
Are we not told His church is first to judgement?
i do not believe standing with the pagans is the answer. Standing with the pagans and welcoming them as is is more of what caused the problem to begin with. This is how Babylon and or Sodom and Gomorrah came to be.
True Christians, (Christ like, and or working on it) must become set-apart, in the world, not of the world. Many of us have failed.