Yet Another Group That Claims it Can Make Kids into Christians


At least once a week a Christian site features a person or a group that claims it can keep young people in the church. Gifts, entertainment, singing and hip preaching are supposed to do the job. There are examples of success. 

Statistics on young people do not show such success, however. They show a continual and constant decline in the percentage of children who stay in church. The percentage of people into their early 20's leaving the church is larger than it ever has been in history. 

While I did not have the experience of leaving the faith at a very young age, people who comment here and those I have known tell of a similar experience. It is the experience of gradually realizing the tenets of the faith do not make sense. Belief that many invisible beings exist are not required in other parts of their lives. Belief invisible places like heaven and hell exist are not required either. It doesn't seem lots of pizza will change that.

We have to remember a small army of people make a living marketing services to churches. They can be seen on the Christian Post site and many others. They write posts that are accepted by the site and each article has a "bio" about the author. The bios are written by the authors and are always something like, "John Jones is a widely respected author and lecturer and has appeared on many important sites." I would guess the group discussed in the link above has a slick web site telling us they are available to local churches needing an increase in membership and one can read testimony from those who hired the group. If any church wanted to hire them it would be wise to ask how they convince young people that "the man" actually walked on water. 

VP Hubert Humphrey once made a profound observation. It was that politicians will not do well if they "talk down" to the public. He meant people are and always have been suspicious of politicians (and preachers) who speak to them as if they are not intelligent or equals to the speaker. We can all learn from that. But those who could learn the most are Christians.  

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...
Read more

Who Suffers from a "Hardened Heart"

Image
Some years ago on this blog there was a discussion about what the Bible calls "The hardened heart." The "hardened heart" was the explanation given for why people like me cannot accept the tenets of Christianity. We are unable to believe there are floating spirits and gods or imaginary places people go when the die. Now, a prominent Christian preacher and author has given us a way to diagnose the "hardened heart." It contained some surprises.  Rev. John Piper, who spoke about the hardened heart, said we can see this in a person who lacks "ordinary tenderness and compassion." He went on to describe the characteristics of a person without the affliction of the hardened heart. A healthy person displays empathy and sympathy. Those with the hardened heart are like stone. Jesus wanted compassion for the poor. The hardened heart discussion referred to atheists only if they are sinners and then it was indirectly. Sin, Piper said, hardens one's heart a...
Read more

Young Women can see Bull$hit a Mile Away

Image
Republicans including their Forced Birth subgroup is bother by recent election results and polling. All show young women going to the left. A poll shows young women are 30% more likely to be very liberal than young men. The link advises the Forced Birth community to give young pregnant women an uplifting message. The message suggested is, "Buck up. You've got this. You can give birth and have a happy life." Another way of saying this is, "It will be OK if you miss work and/or are fired because of the birth. If you cannot make your rent payment, it's OK. Somewhere out there is another place to live. We don't know where but be optimistic."   This is an add on to the new version of the Forced Birth message, "We're for both the baby and the mother." They are not and never have been for the mother. Their message has always been to condemn women who have abortions. Now, the "thoughts and prayers" message, which costs no money, it the me...
Read more