Continuing Decline of the Church in America: Why?

Several surveys have been released over the last year.  It has been awhile since I've posted here and these surveys would have been good opportunities to do so.  However, the trends these surveys document have not gone away and now still remains a good time.

Here is the simple reality:  In under 20 years, the Christian church in America has declined by about 10%.  In raw numbers, Christianity more or less held steady.  This is deceptive.  First of all, America itself increased by tens of millions in the last century.  Christians made up a smaller share of these new Americans and the ones who are tend to be immigrants.  This is true of the Catholic Church in particular.  In the meantime, the percentage- and raw numbers- of 'religious nones' have increased.

When we translate these percentages into actual numbers, we come to the uncomfortable conclusion that millions of Christians in America have left the faith.  Not only have those who report having no religion whatsoever increased, but this group is composed largely of those who were Christian at one time.

People sensed these changes for a long time and various solutions have been proposed and sometimes implemented.

I have begun discussing this topic with even more depth and encourage you to join me.  Hear my analysis of the problem and my suggestions for resolving it by visiting me at http://deathofchristianity.com/.  Whether your agree with me or not, I hope you will at least agree that there is a problem and then come up with your own ideas on attacking it.  At that web page, you will find links to the surveys supporting the assessments that I led off with.

Finally, I will be moderating a class at the Athanatos Online Apologetics Academy which will tackle these issues in an even more in depth manner.  It is a free course and anyone interested in the issue is welcome to participate.  Check it out:  http://www.academyofapologetics.com/fall2009/

I am looking forward to posting more on this blog in future weeks and months.  Now, at least you know something of what I've been doing in the mean time.  :)