[Magdalen] Decline of U.S Christianity

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

I would be more interested in trends over the measurable past, which, while
not a large time period, would be over a century.  That's what would be
both meaningful and interesting.  We've had all sorts of blips over various
centuries in the past.  Faith does not change.  Our stumbling, wacko,
stupid, bigoted, narrow, intolerant, chauvinistic ways of striving to
understand that faith have, on the other hand, varied all over the
ferschugginner map. Maybe it is actually time for a replacement of
christianity. Time will tell....

A sig line that essentially says, "the problem is nobody makes sense but
me," is not particularly clever, helpful, or accurate.

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Tue, May 12, 2015 at 3:18 PM, Jim Guthrie <jguthrie at pipeline.com> wrote:

> From the NY Times:
>
> The Christian share of adults in the United States has declined sharply
> since 2007, affecting nearly all major Christian traditions and
> denominations, and crossing age, race and region, according to an extensive
> survey by the Pew Research Center.
>
> Seventy-one percent of American adults were Christian in 2014, the lowest
> estimate from any sizable survey to date, and a decline of 5 million adults
> and 8 percentage points since a similar Pew survey in 2007.
>
> The Christian share of the population has been declining for decades, but
> the pace rivals or even exceeds that of the country’s most significant
> demographic trends, like the growing Hispanic population. It is not
> confined to the coasts, the cities, the young or the other liberal and more
> secular groups where one might expect it, either.
>
> The decline has been propelled in part by generational change, as
> relatively non-Christian millennials reach adulthood and gradually replace
> the oldest and most Christian adults. But it is also because many former
> Christians, of all ages, have joined the rapidly growing ranks of the
> religiously unaffiliated or “nones”: a broad category including atheists,
> agnostics and those who adhere to “nothing in particular.”
>
> Read it all at:
>
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/12/upshot/big-drop-in-share-of-americans-calling-themselves-christian.html
>
> As for Young people . . . well"Nothing" seems to be the faith of choice of
> an increasing number. See the sidebar to the above at:
>
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/13/upshot/the-rise-of-young-americans-who-dont-believe-in-god.html
>
> I've been saying this for awhile now. I've come to the conclusion that one
> of the biggest problems is that churches have become an hour of nostalgiac
> retreat for boomers and their parents, rather than continue to move forward
> (while maintaining "We're doing what Christians have done for 2,000 years."
> of course <g>)
>
> Cheers,
> Jim
>
> "The enemy isn’t liberalism;
> the enemy isn’t conservatism.
> The enemy, is baloney." - Lars Erik Nelson
>