U.S. religious landscape in flux

[Meshavrischika]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23337807/

The U.S. religious marketplace is extremely volatile, with nearly half of American adults leaving the faith tradition of their upbringing to either switch allegiances or abandon religious affiliation altogether, a new survey finds.



whatcha think? Any ideas about cause? implications?

 

[Dannager]

We've known for a while now that fundamentalist and conservative churches are hemorrhaging members. People simply do not like what they stand for. That's the cause. As for implications? As a student of political science, the largest implication to me is the rapid decline in political power we'll see of the Christian right.

 

[flicka]

I think some people just want to disassociate themselves from the outspoken evangelicals who have been in the news the last few years. It's a shame.

 

[Tsadde]

My understanding, as I read the article, is that the mainline churches are losing members and that non-denominational churches are gaining.

Do not most Protestant mainline churches lean toward the liberal side while non-denominational are mostly evangelical-ish? (not that all evs are right wing -or libs left wing for that matter)

Perhaps we need a definition of "mainline".

My understanding is that they were the established European churches from non-Anabaptist roots that immigrants brought with them such as Lutheran, Anglican/Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, etc.

 

[Foolish_Fool]

YOU WILL BE UNASSIMILIATED. RESISTANCE IS PLAUSIBLE.

Although I think it's pretty impressive that Atheists/Agnostics beat out the other 3 major religions combined. I imagine by the time that my generation is a senior we'll have broken into double digits.

 

[ArnautDaniel]

The fact is that most American's don't live in a place with any sort of "townsquare" where people can just hang out and meet each other.

Churches largely fulfill this function.

People are going to go to the church that best meets their social needs.

Let's face it, churches are social clubs first, and everything else second.