[Magdalen] Decline of U.S Christianity

[Zephonites at aol.com]

Jim
 
How about the Pentecostals? Does this also affect them negatively or are  
they growing?
 
I ask this because I believe they are a significant force in South America  
and I was wondering how they are faring in the USA.
 
How are the figures for TEC?
 
Not that I am crowing because in the UK our figures are poor too and also a 
 good friend of mine who is an Area Dean tells me that  the Swiss Reformed  
Church is feeling the pinch too as it affects Kirchensteuer.
 
Blessings
Martin
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In a message dated 12/05/2015 20:35:29 GMT Daylight Time,  
jguthrie at pipeline.com writes:

>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-call
ing-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-don
t-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