Are There Solutions for Christianity in the U.S.


The web is different now than only a few years ago. The decline of Christianity was not discussed but now is discussed. In Europe Christianity has fallen to next to nothing. But in Europe the government collects a voluntary tax that is given to the faith. This turns out to fund a lot of clergy. Everyone knows U.S. politics plays footsie with Christianity but the big public funds are not there. This makes possible, in my opinion, a fall in the U. S. faith greater than that in Europe.

I never tire of reading columns by Christians that address the decline and offer ideas the authors think will reverse the downward trend. One appeared today in a somewhat thoughtful site that was so typical it was almost embarrassing to read. The Catholic author correctly noted two things, that the decline in the Catholic branch is worse than it appears in the raw numbers and that until the cause of the decline is identifies there can be no solution. Then he makes a mistake by advancing his own solution which is nothing more than insisting that what he likes about the Catholic denomination is what everyone else would like if only the church did things "my way."  

The author notes that for every 100 people that enter the Catholic denomination, 800 leave. He defines an "active Catholic" as a person who both attends mass regularly and does confession regularly. This is 3.8% of the U.S. population. "Nones," those who do not identify with any religion, are over 40%. 

The author identifies several causes for the decline in Catholicism and Protestantism. They can be summarized as a culture that has moved on. He then correctly notes that clergy are not interested in changing how parishes are run. It's a given that those in the pews do not want changes in the church they now enjoy. The author pitches his own preferences as solutions to the decline of Catholicism. They include home schooling and Latin Mass. This is absurd. 

Perhaps a little rational thinking would help here. If the "culture" is causing a decline in Christianity, what is it that caused Christianity to grow in the first place? The answer has to be that culture at the time created both the god and its church. That is, Christianity is here because it fit, it was manufactured by, the culture. The culture that manufactured it is now destroying it.

The culture wants equality for women, birth control and abortions, gay marriage and trans people as equals. The Catholic denomination will not because it cannot do these things. Allowing the denomination to die is easier.    


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

Will the Complexity of Societies Empty Mother Earth

Image
Who is in charge of the huge arch of human experience on planet earth to see if humans are doing what it takes to survive over thousands of years into the future? The answer, of course, is no one. There are a few people looking at it and writing about it, but no central authority has the responsibility to guide human behavior and activity toward a sustainable path. The link points out a couple of interesting facts about we humans. We now think our first humans-like ancestors came into being about 300,000 years ago. That would make the number of generations of humans at about 15,000. That is, each of us has 15,000 grandparents who lived before us.  During nearly all of those 300,000 years, humans lived on a sustainable path. Unsustainability started only 10,000 years ago. That is when humans stopped walking around finding food and started living in one place by planting and growing foods. Prior to that, the same technology was mostly passed down from one generation to the next....
Read more