(April 22, 2019 at 9:00 am)Jehanne Wrote:

(April 22, 2019 at 8:57 am)Mister Agenda Wrote: And 10% in a recent PEW poll said that they don't believe in God or a 'higher power'.

Can you post a link for that!

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/20...ef-in-god/

(April 23, 2019 at 8:54 am)Mister Agenda Wrote:

(April 22, 2019 at 9:00 am)Jehanne Wrote: Can you post a link for that!

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/20...ef-in-god/

Wow, but one of the side articles was even more interesting:

European neighbors, most Czechs don’t believe in God

The most obvious evidence that the religious right are scared is their support of Trump.

Seriously.

Trump has got to be as much a disgusting pig in the eyes of an evangelical as he is in the eyes of a hippy. The man as no morals/ethics at all. He is contemptuous of the poor, without compassion for the oppressed, sympathetic to white nationalism. He is antithetical to Jesus.

Yet the religious right support this putz in the desperate hope that he can halt their slide to oblivion. Can their shame be any greater?

(April 24, 2019 at 12:32 am)AFTT47 Wrote: The most obvious evidence that the religious right are scared is their support of Trump.

Seriously.

Trump has got to be as much a disgusting pig in the eyes of an evangelical as he is in the eyes of a hippy. The man as no morals/ethics at all. He is contemptuous of the poor, without compassion for the oppressed, sympathetic to white nationalism. He is antithetical to Jesus.

Yet the religious right support this putz in the desperate hope that he can halt their slide to oblivion. Can their shame be any greater?

I can't agree. Nowhere does the religious right indicate they are capable of such analytical thinking. Are they even aware that such things as polls exist?

So many millions of them and not an original thought ever entered their heads, this lack of curiosity will be the end of the once mighty USA.
Trump with the mindless support of the religious right will destroy that country.

(April 22, 2019 at 8:39 am)Jehanne Wrote: U.S. Church Membership Down Sharply in Past Two Decades

That isn't necessarily meaningful.  Over the last 30 or 40 years, there has been a move away from requiring church membership.  I myself have been attending the same church for 15 years, and my family and I have yet to become members.  My older brother is a member in that church and serves as an Elder, but even he hesitated to join for a number of years.

(April 22, 2019 at 8:39 am)Jehanne Wrote: U.S. Church Membership Down Sharply in Past Two Decades

That isn't necessarily a meaningful bit of information.  Over the past 30 to 40 years, there has been a move away from church membership or an increasing number of people within churches who are not taking to step of becoming full members.  I myself have attended the same church for 15 years, and my family and I have yet to become members of the church.  My older brother serves as an Elder in the same church and is a member, but even he waited several years before taking that step.  So I would suggest that this probably has as much or more to do with that development within the church than it has to do with any genuine decline.

I see that "Christian soldier" replied to this thread, but now he is, apparently, consigned to the virtual netherworld?   Could someone paraphrase??  ("Love" your avatar, by the way, not!)

Oh, there it is!  Are you like an "American Taliban"?  Do you favor violence to advance your religious views??

P.S.  What evidence would convince you that American Christian evangelicalism is in decline?

Other links have shown that disbelief in God is at a high, that would seem to corroborate that the trend isn't solely due to different ways of counting membership; though that is almost certainly a factor in the decline of church membership; we are also seeing lower attendance. IMHO, mega-churches aren't a sign of growth, they're a sign of smaller churches having more trouble paying their bills and being forced to consolidate.

(April 24, 2019 at 9:29 am)Mister Agenda Wrote: Other links have shown that disbelief in God is at a high, that would seem to corroborate that the trend isn't solely due to different ways of counting membership; though that is almost certainly a factor in the decline of church membership; we are also seeing lower attendance. IMHO, mega-churches aren't a sign of growth, they're a sign of smaller churches having more trouble paying their bills and being forced to consolidate.

I've seen some of those over the last several years myself, though I can't say that I'm the most familiar with this topic.  The problem with the various surveys is that they are a bit amorphous when it comes to specifics.  For examples, on survey results, you really don't want to trust the veracity of any survey unless your response rate is 85% or higher.  Anything lower than that tends to reduce the accuracy fairly dramatically.  And regarding religious affiliations, there has been an increasing tendency within the Church and in American society at large to avoid or be less inclined to identify with particular sects.  This has the effect of sometimes, though it's not clear how much, seeing people declaring themselves as having no religious affiliations, by which they often mean that they are non-denominational rather than non-Christian.  And the point that I'm making is that these results are often not as meaningful as first thought.  Having said that, I don't necessarily disagree that the overall trend might be down.  I think that is perfectly possible.  I just don't have a very high level of confidence, given some of the things I've mentioned above.

(April 25, 2019 at 1:55 am)Guard of Guardians Wrote:

(April 24, 2019 at 9:29 am)Mister Agenda Wrote: Other links have shown that disbelief in God is at a high, that would seem to corroborate that the trend isn't solely due to different ways of counting membership; though that is almost certainly a factor in the decline of church membership; we are also seeing lower attendance. IMHO, mega-churches aren't a sign of growth, they're a sign of smaller churches having more trouble paying their bills and being forced to consolidate.

I've seen some of those over the last several years myself, though I can't say that I'm the most familiar with this topic.  The problem with the various surveys is that they are a bit amorphous when it comes to specifics.  For examples, on survey results, you really don't want to trust the veracity of any survey unless your response rate is 85% or higher.  Anything lower than that tends to reduce the accuracy fairly dramatically.  And regarding religious affiliations, there has been an increasing tendency within the Church and in American society at large to avoid or be less inclined to identify with particular sects.  This has the effect of sometimes, though it's not clear how much, seeing people declaring themselves as having no religious affiliations, by which they often mean that they are non-denominational rather than non-Christian.  And the point that I'm making is that these results are often not as meaningful as first thought.  Having said that, I don't necessarily disagree that the overall trend might be down.  I think that is perfectly possible.  I just don't have a very high level of confidence, given some of the things I've mentioned above.

As I asked you already, "What type of evidence would convince that evangelical Christianity is in decline in the United States?"