Christianity in decline in America?

[Sriram]

Hi everyone,

Here is a CNN article about Christianity not really declining in America.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/08/us/christianity-decline-easter-blake-cec/index.html

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For years, church leaders and commentators have warned that Christianity is dying in America. They say the American church is poised to follow the path of churches in Western Europe: soaring Gothic cathedrals with empty pews, shuttered church buildings converted into skate parts and nightclubs, and a secularized society where one theologian said Christianity as a norm is “probably gone for good — or at least for the next 100 years.”

Yet when CNN asked some of the nation’s top religion scholars and historians recently about the future of Christianity in the US, they had a different message.

They said the American church is poised to find new life for one major reason: Waves of Christians are migrating to the US.

And they said the biggest challenge to Christianity’s future in America is not declining numbers, but the church’s ability to adapt to this migration.

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Cheers.

Sriram

[Dicky Underpants]

The biggest challenge to Christianity's future in America is the whole show being run by fundamentalist nut-jobs.

[jeremyp]

Hi everyone,

Here is a CNN article about Christianity not really declining in America.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/08/us/christianity-decline-easter-blake-cec/index.html

***********

For years, church leaders and commentators have warned that Christianity is dying in America. They say the American church is poised to follow the path of churches in Western Europe: soaring Gothic cathedrals with empty pews, shuttered church buildings converted into skate parts and nightclubs, and a secularized society where one theologian said Christianity as a norm is “probably gone for good — or at least for the next 100 years.”

Yet when CNN asked some of the nation’s top religion scholars and historians recently about the future of Christianity in the US, they had a different message.

They said the American church is poised to find new life for one major reason: Waves of Christians are migrating to the US.

And they said the biggest challenge to Christianity’s future in America is not declining numbers, but the church’s ability to adapt to this migration.

************

Cheers.

Sriram

And yet the actual numbers show that Christianity is in decline in the USA.

https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/

[ProfessorDavey]

And yet the actual numbers show that Christianity is in decline in the USA.

https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/

Indeed - the actual data and truth of the matter are entirely distinct from the articles editorial line, which is, of course, wishful thinking on the part of its authors.

So the actual data, shows without any doubt, that christianity is declining in the US as a proportion of the population. With no religion on the rise. Pretty well the same as we've been seeing in the UK for some while, and other european countries. I suspect the US is where the UK was perhaps 30 years ago but will almost certainly follow the same trend over the next few decades, as the reasons will be the same - each generation being less religious than the previous one.

And these data nail the hoary old myth that is 'Ah but people get more religious as they get older' - they don't. In fact these data show clearly that people get less religious as they get older. The survey looked at religiosity amongst people in 2009 and 2019, grouped by their data of brith. So they are comparing the same people - they were just 10 years older in 2019. Did they get more religious as they got older? Nope - for every group (from those born 1928-45, through to those born in 1981-96) they got less religious as they got older, with greater proportions saying they were unaffiliated and fewer saying they were christian in 2019 compared to 2009 when they were 10 years younger.