Slowly but Surely Dying...

[Stann]

We all are, that includes religion. In the US Evangelical Protestants, Catholics and Mainline Protestants are all losing members. This is old data, 2009 to 2014; I can only assume the trend has continued. Unaffiliated and non-Christian faiths made gains. Go to : Preforum.org and type in Changing U.S. Religious Landscape for more info. Better yet, if you have updates, please post them. Thanks, Stan.

 

[Stann]

We all are, that includes religion. In the US Evangelical Protestants, Catholics and Mainline Protestants are all losing members. This is old data, 2009 to 2014; I can only assume the trend has continued. Unaffiliated and non-Christian faiths made gains. Go to : Preforum.org and type in Changing U.S. Religious Landscape for more info. Better yet, if you have updates, please post them. Thanks, Stan.

Pewforum.org

 

[Uncensored2008]

We all are, that includes religion. In the US Evangelical Protestants, Catholics and Mainline Protestants are all losing members. This is old data, 2009 to 2014; I can only assume the trend has continued. Unaffiliated and non-Christian faiths made gains. Go to : Preforum.org and type in Changing U.S. Religious Landscape for more info. Better yet, if you have updates, please post them. Thanks, Stan.

Isn't ending religion part of the Communism you promote, Jake?

 

[MisterBeale]

What about the Catholics pouring across the border in the South?

 

[Stann]

What about the Catholics pouring across the border in the South?

It may well change the demographics. Thanks for the input.

 

[Dekster]

We all are, that includes religion. In the US Evangelical Protestants, Catholics and Mainline Protestants are all losing members. This is old data, 2009 to 2014; I can only assume the trend has continued. Unaffiliated and non-Christian faiths made gains. Go to : Preforum.org and type in Changing U.S. Religious Landscape for more info. Better yet, if you have updates, please post them. Thanks, Stan.

Yet atheism has only grown a trickle. The churches just need to figure out how to get the butts back into the pews more regularly.

 

[Stann]

Yet atheism has only grown a trickle. The churches just need to figure out how to get the butts back into the pews more regularly.

All my friends, except for one gay couple, do not attend church at all. I consider myself spiritual and have outgrown religion entirely. I think people just come to their senses and during the same thing. Religion had its good points, but by and large, it's become useless, even destructive.

 

[MisterBeale]

Yet atheism has only grown a trickle. The churches just need to figure out how to get the butts back into the pews more regularly.

 

[Gracie]

All my friends, except for one gay couple, do not attend church at all. I consider myself spiritual and have outgrown religion entirely. I think people just come to their senses and during the same thing. Religion had its good points, but by and large, it's become useless, even destructive.

Now now. StupidSue will be along shortly to waggle her finger attcha, since she is Christian and represents all christianity with her judgements and call outs.

 

[Meriweather]

All my friends, except for one gay couple, do not attend church at all. I consider myself spiritual and have outgrown religion entirely. I think people just come to their senses and during the same thing. Religion had its good points, but by and large, it's become useless, even destructive.

People who follow a religion (belong to a faith denomination) are spiritual, and more than likely most are more spiritual than you. I believe you are saying you are still spiritual but do not belong to a religious denomination. I am both affiliated and spiritual, you are unaffiliated but remain spiritual.

Truth: You do not have anything the affiliated lack; you lack something the affiliated possess. I am fine with you and anyone deciding they do not need what the affiliated also have.

Let's think about why so many remain affiliated.

What happens when no one draws water from a well? The well dries up. What happens when water flows into a pond, but has no outlet? Pond scum. A healthy body of water has both input and output. We can observe the same types of thing happening in ourselves and in our community. Yes, I am spiritual, but if nothing flows into me from a larger body (a community) I become stagnant. We need new insights, different perspectives to remain fresh. If nothing flows out of me into a community, I dry up.

 

[RodISHI]

Yet atheism has only grown a trickle. The churches just need to figure out how to get the butts back into the pews more regularly.

If the pews don't have much in the way of actual spiritual sustenance in them why should they?

 

[Meriweather]

Yet atheism has only grown a trickle. The churches just need to figure out how to get the butts back into the pews more regularly.

My grandparents lived before TV. As wide-eyed children given this information, we asked what they did after dinner all during the evening.

My grandmother took us for a walk all around her neighborhood (older homes) and pointed out all the wide front porches. (Our front porch back home was the size of postage stamp, comparatively.) Grandma told us that after dinner, many people went for a stroll and many came out to sit on their front porch to watch people go by, because people would stop and talk with each other. By the end of the evening (it was a small town) the entire town was aware of all that had happened that day.

Churches were filled on Sunday, because the community gathered together for worship and fellowship. People knew each other and were happy to spend time together.

It is sad, but I wonder if our pews are going the way of the front porch? We have more and more electronics to learn from and to entertain us. The first electronics (television and radio) took us farther apart, and the electronics that we embrace today have broadened the distance between us even more.

It calls to mind another story my grandmother told me. She said her strongest memory of her mother (they lived out on the prairie) was of her mom standing outside, looking in all directions on the off chance she might see someone passing by.

These days, even in families, since we are content to be up in our own rooms with our electronics, do we even see other family members passing by?

 

[Meriweather]

If the pews don't have much in the way of actual spiritual sustenance in them why should they?

Or, could it be more like the proverbial horse that could be led to water, but could not be forced to drink? By Monday morning how many of us remember the Gospel reading or the homily?

 

[Dekster]

All my friends, except for one gay couple, do not attend church at all. I consider myself spiritual and have outgrown religion entirely. I think people just come to their senses and during the same thing. Religion had its good points, but by and large, it's become useless, even destructive.

It is useless to those who do not believe. It is not useless to those who do. If they did not find something of value there, they would walk away.

 

[Meriweather]

Now now.

I am hoping you keep in mind, Gracie, that I understand that for you (and perhaps Stann) that church rites and attendance became more of a distraction for you than a portal to God. It is in the quietness of nature that the gateway opens. Most of us who enjoy nature totally understand what you are saying. It happens to us as well and is infinitely beautiful, perhaps more so because we are alone with our Lord.

 

[Dekster]

My grandparents lived before TV. As wide-eyed children given this information, we asked what they did after dinner all during the evening.

My grandmother took us for a walk all around her neighborhood (older homes) and pointed out all the wide front porches. (Our front porch back home was the size of postage stamp, comparatively.) Grandma told us that after dinner, many people went for a stroll and many came out to sit on their front porch to watch people go by, because people would stop and talk with each other. By the end of the evening (it was a small town) the entire town was aware of all that had happened that day.

Churches were filled on Sunday, because the community gathered together for worship and fellowship. People knew each other and were happy to spend time together.

It is sad, but I wonder if our pews are going the way of the front porch? We have more and more electronics to learn from and to entertain us. The first electronics (television and radio) took us farther apart, and the electronics that we embrace today have broadened the distance between us even more.

It calls to mind another story my grandmother told me. She said her strongest memory of her mother (they lived out on the prairie) was of her mom standing outside, looking in all directions on the off chance she might see someone passing by.

These days, even in families, since we are content to be up in our own rooms with our electronics, do we even see other family members passing by?

Well first I would point out that faith is about one's relationship with God more so than their day to day social interactions. In that sense, I feel that churches have a greater opportunity to expand their affiliations than ever before. some like Osteen have done that by preaching happy feel good prosperity gospel sermons that resonate with viewers on fair weather days. Others have taken the more music forward tact. TBH, I was considering trying to start going to a church in my neighborhood due to the reputation of the minister and the church's programs. Then they got a digital sign and started scrolling fire and brimstone stuff and the pastor showed up at my door and basically told me I was going to hell and he was guaranteed a spot in heaven. Needless to say, I will not be visiting that church as long as he is there. I expect humility and have far more respect for people who have a quiet faith. Going door to door telling people they are going to hell is neither.

 

[Meriweather]

Well first I would point out that faith is about one's relationship with God more so than their day to day social interactions. In that sense, I feel that churches have a greater opportunity to expand their affiliations than ever before. some like Osteen have done that by preaching happy feel good prosperity gospel sermons that resonate with viewers on fair weather days. Others have taken the more music forward tact. TBH, I was considering trying to start going to a church in my neighborhood due to the reputation of the minister and the church's programs. Then they got a digital sign and started scrolling fire and brimstone stuff and the pastor showed up at my door and basically told me I was going to hell and he was guaranteed a spot in heaven. Needless to say, I will not be visiting that church as long as he is there. I expect humility and have far more respect for people who have a quiet faith. Going door to door telling people they are going to hell is neither.

All I can say is one of those eye-popping wows. Jesus' command to us was to preach the Good News, not fire and brimstone, and it appears the minister missed that memo.

 

[BreezeWood]

.
for the desert religions there is a disconnect between the Garden, the Everlasting - and their social values, family ... the latter they make themselves and are stupendously selfish in all regards enclosed by their false religion.

the former has become trivial in their pursuits despite the dependence of the latter to the former for even their existence. a spiral that can only have an unfortunate conclusion - best but improbable they wise up before its to late for everyone. and has been for far to long. the desert religions.

 

[buttercup]

We all are, that includes religion. In the US Evangelical Protestants, Catholics and Mainline Protestants are all losing members. This is old data, 2009 to 2014; I can only assume the trend has continued. Unaffiliated and non-Christian faiths made gains. Go to : Preforum.org and type in Changing U.S. Religious Landscape for more info. Better yet, if you have updates, please post them. Thanks, Stan.

That is exactly what the bible said would happen. It says that in the last days there will be a great apostasy, meaning many people departing the faith, and instead giving heed to lies and seducing spirits. Here are just a few:

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2 Thessalonians 2:3​

Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,​

Matthew 24:12​

Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.​

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1 Timothy 4:1-3​

But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron,​

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2 Timothy 4:3-4​

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.​

​

​

 

[Stann]

Now now. StupidSue will be along shortly to waggle her finger attcha, since she is Christian and represents all christianity with her judgements and call outs.

Thanks for the warning.