The Bible Can't Compete; Christians Need to Accept That


George Barna, founder of the Barna Group, is a deep Christian but does survey work similar to those in the secular world. He finds regularly the public is leaving organized Christianity and becoming "nones", those who do not affiliate with any religion or religious group. 

Barna has a blind spot, a big one. He believes that a.) parents are not well-versed in the Bibler and b.) if they were and passed this Biblical knowledge down their children would not be leaving the faith. Further he thinks exodus from Christian churches can be reversed by having parents better versed in the Bible.

The entire Christian faith made a strategic error when it based its dogma on the Bible. Today it is impossible to convince the public the Bible different than the gazillion other kinds of propaganda bombarding the public. Barna needs to wake up and smell the coffee. People do not believe the Bible's content the way he does nor the way his parents did. If it were possible for today's young people to believe what the Bible preaches they would not be leaving the church today.

Today Russians are subjected to a version of war in Ukraine far different from what we hear and see on our televisions. We can see the Russian version is propaganda. Why can't Barna see the Bible sounds just like Russia to the majority of modern people in the U.S. 

How does the Bible strike modern people? There are invisible gods judging us and will later decide where we spend the eternity after we are stone cold dead. As Biden likes to say, "Come on." Barna's world is not the real world. People just can't and won't believe that stuff anymore.

There are other options. There are branches of the faith that treat the Bible as literature and don't demand it be taken seriously. These branches are declining also but they have some hope because they are dealing with today's reality. 

Today there are Christians claiming to be "prophets." Since there are no qualifications to be a prophet I can claim to be one also. I hereby prophesize Christianity will decline so long as it is based on the Bible.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Maybe the "Original Sin" Should be Reassigned

Image
We can all agree most Catholic priests are fine people and not guilty of sexual abuse. What Catholics must face, however, it that their church harbors executives who are dishonest . There is an incredible story about the Argentine Bishop Zanchetta. The Pope worked with him in Argentina and they are considered friends. Around 2015 Zanchetta sent nude pictures of himself and they began circulating world wide. He also was too friendly with young seminarians and some left because of him.  Three different officials say they made formal complaints to the Vatican about Zanchetta between 2015 and 2017. Yet, in 2018, the Vatican claimed it was unaware of any complaints about Zanchetta. This might be a good time to repeat the Catholic hierarchy claims to have the sole authority handed down from Jesus to what the faith stands for. It condemns as sinners those who practice birth control, have abortions and gay sexual relationships. Handing the hierarchy this responsibility would make som
Read more

The Religious Capitol Invaders May Yet Win

Image
So much about U.S. society and religion can be learned from the Civil War and what happened afterwards. After its defeat, the South started a myth about the unethical soldiers from the North. The South fought for principles of God and states rights. The North did not. It was the South, this propaganda told the country, that had the high moral ground.  The Capitol invaders, encouraged by Trump, swallowed the myth that Biden's election was stolen. Thus, they think they held and still hold the high moral ground. This was reinforced by the cross and prayers during the invasion. Even with Trump is gone, we will see political opportunists like Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley stroking crowds and feeding the same lies as Trump. Like "the South will rise again" these gullible followers will talk of victory over the unclean. After the Civil War the South rallied around the phrase, Lost Cause. For decades, and maybe to this day, there are ceremonies remembering fallen martyrs, Re
Read more

Father Frank Pavone, the Ultimate Crook

Image
Recently, the Vatican defrocked Frank Pavone. His diehard fans are outraged. This is because he cleverly manipulated his fans and the press all the while living well from donations and, apparently, abusing some women. By making abortion the "sin" of the century, and himself the main opposition to this one sin, he himself could get away with any sin he pleased.  As the link points out, Pavone was the perfect priest for the Trump era. Trump is so self-important laws have no role in his life. He felt accountable to no one. Women were there to be had. Pavone and Trump are interchangeable.  Pavone was very successful raising money. In his mind, abortion was so important in Catholic beliefs and he was so important in anti-abortion the money he raised opposing it was his to do with what he liked. The Catholic Church, the brand name he used to raise this money, thought the money belonged to it. When he gave the Vatican the bird, it gave him walking papers. With polls showing the majo
Read more