Numbers Keep Coming In, Christianity is Failing


I keep writing about this even though it is old news. It might be good to review the arguments about why this decline does not seem reversible. I use the word "seem" because we cannot know the future for certain. 

When I started blogging about this decline, commenters often said the decline was temporary. It is like young people feeling their oats and separating from their parents. When they themselves have children they will see the wisdom of their parents and return to the faith. A decade has gone by and it's not happening yet. 

My wife and I had the honor of a private visit with Muhammad Yunus while we were in Bangladesh. Yunus received the Noble Peace Prize some years ago. My wife's former student in Bangladesh made arrangements for the meeting. 

Yunus travels the world and takes note of what is happening. When we were there the smart phone was in its early years of use. Yunus predicted it would leap-frog societies over several societal obstacles to change. It would, for example, increase literacy which has been held back by governments unable or unwilling to fund adequate schools. 

The smart phone may well have leap frogged the church or other obstacles put in place by organized religions. The link points out that religion is losing its grip on the populations of other countries, including poor ones. This challenges an assumption bouncing around some branches of Christianity, especially Catholics, that the faith will prosper in poorer continents like Africa. Numbers of Christians are growing there but so are numbers of non believers. If the faith cannot hold its own in the Western World why would it be able to do so there? Time will tell of course. 

One of the arguments predicting a return to religion is a theory that human beings have shown a need for it and that is why religion has been powerful. I don't know if a majority of humans have a "need" for religion but I know there has always been a part of all societies which have not been religious. Have those pumping societies full of religious dogma suggested a need that otherwise did not exist? With smaller congregations and money will marketing of the "need" also decline.  

Let's keep watching to this fascinating theater of the mind. 

Comments

  1. little helperMarch 2, 2023 at 5:06 PM

    Jon; Re. 2hd paragraph; "A decade has gone by and it's not happening yet". Not true ! I have seen it happen many times, including my extended family. Sorry to burst your bubble.

    ReplyDelete
  2. JonMarch 3, 2023 at 7:12 AM

    Helper "Not true!"

    In 2001 your denomination, Lutheran Missouri Synod, had 2,231,585 members. In2021 is had 1,807,408 members. That's a decline of 424,450 members. Sorry to burst your bubble.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. little helperMarch 3, 2023 at 1:04 PM

      Dear busted; Re read your 2nd paragraph. The context was/ is children that that the children will return to the faith. They do in fact, not all, but for you to deny it is an attitude not based on fact.

      Delete

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