America Becoming Less Christian

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America Becoming Less Christian

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America Becoming Less Christian

MP4 Video - 720p (200.6 MB)
MP3 Audio (4.46 MB)
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More Americans do not identify with religion. The battle for God continues.

Transcript

[Darris McNeely] What’s happening with religion in America? The Pew Research foundation, which very often comes out with research done in the United States about religious trends, attitudes, and affiliations, just released a major study that talks about the religious affiliation of the American population. And what it is showing is that there are an increasing number of Americans who are not affiliated with religion, and this number has increased. You look at it on a pie chart, you probably see that about this much of that pie chart would be taken up with a group of people that some have called the “nones”. And what the study is showing is that this has increased from a year or two ago when they did a similar study and if trends continue, is going to continue to increase for a larger and larger share of the American population are not affiliated with a religion. The only major branch of American Christianity that has kind of held its own and is larger than this particular segment is Protestant evangelical Christianity, but all others declined.

It’s an interesting matter to look at and to understand. Statistics are boring. Statistics don’t always tell every part of the story. But at least they’re seeing a trend here, and it raises something that each of us should really stop to think about. It said in this particular survey that roughly seven in ten Americans identified with some branch of Christianity, but that’s down from almost eight in ten when this survey was last taken a few years ago. And what we’re looking at is really the trend that is developing as a result of the continuing onslaught against faith, against belief in God, in the Bible, in religion in general, for any number of reasons as we look around the scene that is taking place today – we look and we see a continual onslaught. Belief is challenged. New finds, new discoveries in science, even advances in science, tend to take one’s mind away from God, creation, the idea of a Creator, God’s hand in human life, and it’s an ongoing trend.

The truth of the Bible, the validity of the Bible, continually challenged at every turn in many different circles today, and with again, the fast pace of life, the very modern global society that we have, people are becoming less religious and less inclined to believe in something absolute and remarkable in that way. The moral climate is changed dramatically, especially in the United States. We see those matters dealt with – same-sex marriage, the attitudes that have begun to shift, accepting same-sex marriage as an option, a legitimate option within the American population. The Supreme Court has even now considered a case that would determine the constitutionality of same-sex marriage for the United States of America. So a lot is taking place that erodes belief, religion, belief in God, belief in the Bible.

This particular survey found that the drop in Christian affiliation held for all age groups, as well, but especially among young adults. And that perhaps is very troubling. I work with young adults. I teach young adults who do want to understand and learn about the Bible. And I understand the challenges that they have, in many different ways, living godly, living a good life in the midst of a culture and a society that is geared towards stripping away morality. And to see that this is even beginning to make inroads there – I’m not naïve to think that even among people that I work with, as part of my church affiliation, are not being affected and impacted by this. It’s a very serious situation, one that all of us who do believe, need to take seriously and understand it, as to what is taking place around us.

What we’re seeing is a growing apathy among people of faith even at times, as whatever causes them to become apathetic, to let down in their own life, that that can then lead to perhaps agnosticism or even outright atheism. I think every one of us need to guard against that and to understand what is happening in our world and our culture today.

There’s a couple of scriptures that I have to think about in regard to this. One is in Matthew 24:12 – Christ’s Olivet Prophecy, where He makes a comment about the times that we’re living in. He says, “Because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” Iniquity, sin, lawlessness – it grows, it develops. And it leads to an ever-increasing percentage of Americans who don’t believe, have no religious affiliation. It can affect you, it can affect me, if we allow that. But it is a trend of this world and our culture.

In many ways, our world does not want to retain God in its knowledge. That’s a situation that the apostle Paul addressed in the first chapter of Romans, where he talks about this in verse 21. He says, “Because they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened” (Romans 1:21).

If we don’t work to retain God in our thoughts, in our heart, then our thoughts can become empty and lead to futility. That’s what is reflected in this particular dynamic here – a growing percentage of people who are growing futile in their thoughts about God, about belief, and about faith. It is something to understand and to pray about, but certainly to be on guard against in our own life. We’ll be talking more about this in future BT Dailys.

For now, that’s BT Daily. Join us next time.

Comments

  • tpicarella
    The problem with our younger generation not believing in God, is that there are too many religions to follow. Which one is correct? Why is there so many religions? Some people believe that just believing in the Lord is all they need to do. They don't need to go to church to understand the meaning of the lord and what he has done for us. I believe when the question is asked for statistics, they are only interested in the stats of whether you follow a particular religion, not whether you believe in God.
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