The Death Knell Of Christianity

[Heimdall]

I posted this on another website....every Christian there was upset...NOT MY CHURCH! LOL

 

extracted from Nov 13 2006 issue of Southern Baptist Texan)

The death knell of western Christianity may be the mass exodus of young people from Evangelistical churches within a year of graduation from high school. Somewhere between 75 and 88 percent of young people leave the church in their teens and aren’t reconnecting later.

The low number, 75%, represents the findings by Lifeway Christian Resources’ Glen Schulz in his book “Kingdom Education”. The 2002 report of the Southern Baptist Council on Family Life stated a higher number, 88 % - of young people from Evangelistical homes who leave the church. Similar numbers are getting the news media’s attention, prompting questions about Christianity’s viability in North America.

An example of this exodus is that in 1972 Southern Baptist churches baptized 138,oo young people – the highest number on record. Since then youth baptisms have dropped dramatically, while the population of the United States has increased to more than 300 million. In 2004 the number dropped to 84,000 and in 2005 the number was 81,000 baptisms. Rather than admit that it could be that their message no longer fills the need of the young, they believe that the family breakdown and cultural rot have played negative roles in reaching and discipleing the young. - Heimdall

[Piprus]

Fundamentalist christianity may be on a downward cycle based on these figures, but it may only be part of a cycle. Fundie-ism has seen upward cycles as well, depending on the economy, wars, social movement. I'm not quite ready to buy christianity a casket yet.

[Eccles]

There will never be peace in the World until Religion is eradicated.

[Lycorth]

Fundy Xianity may have had its cycles, but it also has never had the criticism, the internal problems, and the sheer mountains of evidence against it as it has today. This is not like the Great Awakening - people are far more educated, have far more alternatives to Xianity, and are aware of Xianity's flaws more acutely than ever.

 

Fundy Xianity will not rise again. Is-lame is another story, but I think it's only a matter of time before Jebus finally keels over for good.

[Astreja]

It's actually quite ironic, if you stop and think about it. Christianity had its big moment in the sun, and instead of Taking Over The World it got shown up for the waste of time and emotional energy that it is.

 

The many, many scandals that followed the '70s membership boom just make it all the more obvious that there is no life-altering power in religion. Those who did experience better lives created those new personae all by themselves, much as many of them would hate to admit it.

[Piprus]

Fundy Xianity may have had its cycles, but it also has never had the criticism, the internal problems, and the sheer mountains of evidence against it as it has today. This is not like the Great Awakening - people are far more educated, have far more alternatives to Xianity, and are aware of Xianity's flaws more acutely than ever.

 

Fundy Xianity will not rise again. Is-lame is another story, but I think it's only a matter of time before Jebus finally keels over for good.

Quite true. Although the web is polluted with christian support sites, their are a lot of sites supporting freethought, atheism, and deism as well. There is an abundance of information debunking the christian myth, and it's catching on. Not to mention the damage the fundies are doing to themselves, with their exalted ministers getting caught in their little sexual peccadillos or outright sexual criminality, their idiotic promotion of pseudoscience like creationism, their political blunders like aligning themselves with Bush and the neocons. What may happen is a morphing of fundieism into the mainstream, but I don't see a complete demise of christianity. There are still a lot of people who have a need to believe in a god-and-heavenly afterlife meme of some kind.

[-Demona-]

Smaller churches are going down, but megachurches are getting even bigger. Or at least appearing to get bigger.

[The Paineful Truth]

I agree with Varokhar. There may be cycles involved but the trend is downward for the reasons he stated.

 

I do agree with the family/cultural rot part though--to a degree. These people may be leaving Christianity (fundy et al IMO), but they're rudderless because so many don't develop any kind of reference for their moral compass or code of personal virtue and behavior. Those who do move on to some more reasonable philosophy such as atheism, deism or a few Eastern 'ism's, I believe end up more moral than their virtue & morally challenged Christian counterparts. But a large portion of those leaving the church just suck up some pixie dust and fly off to Neverland where whatever feels good at the moment goes and vanity rules the road.

 

At one point the article said, “Our current approach to youth ministry is unbiblical, unhealthy and unsuccessful,”

 

They're totally clueless. Either they do a better job of brainwashing their kids, or their exodus problem due to their ever increasing lack of credibility will continue.

 

For those that are interested, here's a link to the article: http://www.sbtexas.com/default.asp?action=...ssue=11/16/2006

[dibby]

There are so many fundies expecting Jesus to show up within their lifetimes. Do you think that as time passes on and the Lord doesn,t show that the people will wonder whats going on? I mean within a generation or two its going to be extremely hard to defend the second coming. All those preachers saying it are going to look daft.

[roman]

Jesus expected the Kingdom Of God to be accomplished in his lifetime.

 

His disciples expected His Return in their lifetimes.

 

Present-day so-called Christians expect (whatever) in their own lifetimes.

 

It never ends.

 

Jimmy cracked corn, and I don't care.

[Panther]

I don't know but it would sure be great to see fundyism wiped out in OUR lifetime.