new church life : november / december 2016
hope amid the fallout
The well-respected Pew Research Center has been tracking the decline in religious faith in the United States for years . Its most recent study says : “ Perhaps the most striking trend in American religion in recent years has been the growing percentage of adults who do not identify with a religious groups .” They are leaving behind whatever faith they were raised with .
About half of what Pew calls the “ nones ” were raised in a faith but have moved away from religion – because of science , “ common sense ,” “ lack of evidence ” or they just don ’ t believe in God anymore . Among some of the reasons given are :
• Too many Christians doing un-Christian things
• I feel there is something out there , but I can ’ t nail down a religion .
• Right now I ’ m kind of leaning toward spirituality , but I ’ m not too sure . I know I can pray to my God anywhere . I do believe in a higher power , but I don ’ t need a church to do that . One anonymous person commented : “ It ’ s really less that they are leaving
God than it is that they are leaving religion . Western religion is just outdated .”
It ’ s not all hopeless . Another person said : “ I believe in the hereafter . Why ? Because there has to be a place for those who never caught a break here on earth . The poor , the disfigured , the aborted , the socially rejected , all have been redeemed and will enjoy eternity .”
Given that we are still dealing with the fallout from the Last Judgment of 1757 it may be no surprise that people are not finding the answers they need in their churches . But we are also witnessing the fallout from a growing lack of faith and no longer looking to the Lord .
Consider just these indicators of moral tailspin in the United States – reflected throughout much of the world – and how much they seem to track the decline in religion :
• The United States now has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world
• There are more than 100,000 websites – available to all – that deal in child pornography
• According to the FBI there are 33,000 violent gangs active in the country , with 1.4 million members
• The average age a person in the United States enters prostitution is 12 to 14
• Only 35 percent of Americans say they believe in objective moral truth Another scary statistic is that our young people are growing up with virtually no religious context in public education , in their homes or in the
598