Seven Reasons Why Evangelical Christianity is Coming to an End | Christian Science Monitor

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After the results of the latest American Religious Identification Survey, Christian Science Monitor appears to blame evangelical Christianity on the reduction of believers nation-wide.

One interesting tidbit here is that strong proponents of the Separation of Church and State are strong proponents for two reasons.  1.  They want the church to stay out of the government business, and 2.  They want the government to stay out of church business.

What happens when you cross that line?  Well, perhaps the Christian Science Monitor is on to something…

Why is this going to happen?

1. Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and with political conservatism. This will prove to be a very costly mistake. Evangelicals will increasingly be seen as a threat to cultural progress. Public leaders will consider us bad for America, bad for education, bad for children, and bad for society.

The evangelical investment in moral, social, and political issues has depleted our resources and exposed our weaknesses. Being against gay marriage and being rhetorically pro-life will not make up for the fact that massive majorities of Evangelicals can’t articulate the Gospel with any coherence. We fell for the trap of believing in a cause more than a faith.

The coming evangelical collapse | csmonitor.com

Non-believers on the rise in America according to Trinity College survey – Catholics on the move

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This is interesting information, especially the data about Vermont being the largest non-believer state with 34% “nones,” or no religion.  I would be willing to bet that the numbers of non-believers is much higher that this survey shows.  I only say that because when I talk to people who doubt their faith, or otherwise claim to be agnostic or atheist, they only do so after they feel comfortable talking about it for awhile.  Therefore, I bet that many more people are agnostic than they would ever admit to on a survey, or at the very least, function as deist.  The only reason why the number jumped from 8.2 to 14.2 like it did in 2001 is probably just an indication of an increasing population feeling more and more comfortable admitting their agnosticism.  However, I don’t have any hard data to prove that, so that is nothing more than a hypothesis waiting to be tested.  It seems that most people just don’t know how to categorize their doubts.

In broad terms, ARIS 2008 found a consolidation and strengthening of shifts signaled in the 2001 survey. The percentage of Americans claiming no religion, which jumped from 8.2 in 1990 to 14.2 in 2001, has now increased to 15 percent. Given the estimated growth of the American adult population since the last census from 207 million to 228 million, that reflects an additional 4.7 million “Nones.” Northern New England has now taken over from the Pacific Northwest as the least religious section of the country, with Vermont, at 34 percent “Nones,” leading all other states by a full 9 points.

“Many people thought our 2001 finding was an anomaly,” Keysar said. We now know it wasn’t. The ‘Nones’ are the only group to have grown in every state of the Union.”

The percentage of Christians in America, which declined in the 1990s from 86.2 percent to 76.7 percent, has now edged down to 76 percent. Ninety percent of the decline comes from the non-Catholic segment of the Christian population, largely from the mainline denominations, including Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians/Anglicans, and the United Church of Christ. These groups, whose proportion of the American population shrank from 18.7 percent in 1990 to 17.2 percent in 2001, all experienced sharp numerical declines this decade and now constitute just 12.9 percent.

American Religious Identification Survey 2008

Updated - Pompous church “elders” threaten to expose sexually active 49 year old woman

Attack of the mutant 19th century church:

Updated from comments:

Thanks for your thoughts Todd. We obviously have a different opinion on what it means to have a “loving commitment,” but that is Okay.

The really ironic thing is that by Ms. Hancock going to FoxNews.com with this story, she got to expose her “sins” on her own terms, especially since she is not even a member of the church any more.

I see this differently than you. This is about power and ego. The church threatened to expose her publicly to the congregation, so she resigned from the church. In a blatant display of abuse of power and trust, they are going to go through with it any way.

Perhaps Mathew 15:1-3 is in order?

Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, “Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.” - He answered and said to them, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?”

FOXNews.com - Florida Woman Says Former Church Plans to Make Her Sins Public - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

A 49-year-old Florida woman says her former church is threatening to reveal her sins to its congregation after learning that she is in a “sexually immoral relationship.”

Rebecca Hancock told FOXNews.com that Grace Community Church, a non-denominational church in Jacksonville, Fla., was against her relationship with boyfriend Frank Young because the two were sexually active but not married.

When she wasn’t willing to obey the church’s orders to leave him, she decided to leave the church instead, allowing her two children to remain active members.

Now, she says, church elders have given her the worst ultimatum yet: In a Dec. 8 letter, they told her she either has to meet with them and end her “immoral” relationship or she will face public humiliation.

“Bottom line, on January they 4th they are going to the church publicly with my sins, and my children will be sitting in church at the time,” Hancock told FOXNews.com.