Demographic future of US Christianity?

awitch said:

Oh, absolutely. To reverse the decline, it has become relevant to peoples' lives again.
In my experience, people are put off by the corruption, being told who to vote for and who to hate, and that every cultural fad is caused by demons. They need to focus on messages of hope, humility, and forgiveness.

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You pretty much nailed it here. Christianity became weaponized by the Right to use against the counter-culture and social liberation movements of the 60's and 70's.

awitch said:

I don't suspect it will ever be less political, but I suspect it will change tactics because politicians won't be able to openly cater to Christians as the numbers of nones increase. Their goal isn't to be less upsetting to non-Christians, it's to have people in the pews when the collection plate goes around.

I suspect as the younger generations phase out the older, Christianity will be re imagined and before you know it, they will be the ones proudly announcing that it was Christianity that fought for the acceptance of the LGBTQ community.

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That's my fear, and why I left my church denomination (ELCA). Despite their relative liberalism on the issue (they permit a plurality of perspectives), there has not been a "Truth and Reconciliation" moment, and much of the language of their statements on sexuality, official and otherwise, is setting up just the sort of scenario you imagine. That is a betrayal of the historical memory of all LGBT people that were harmed by the religion.

I have had so many LGBT friends and had to counsel enough young people that I just realized the Church hasn't begun to account for the pain and suffering it inflicted on that community. The worst thing is many liberal Christian institutions simply want to engage in revisionist history and make themselves look like the good guys for doing so.

cloudyday2 said:

I suspect the future of US Christianity will be whatever emerges in Africa and other areas where Christianity is on the rise. The original US Christian sects will shrink to irrelevance, but maybe African missionaries will plant their new Christian sects in the US. Catholicism has been successful in Africa and many of the Pentecostal denominations have also been successful. So Catholicism and Pentecostalism will probably be the future of US Christianity. Maybe the replanted African versions of these denominations will have some African cultural features in the music and architecture and art.

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Given the monolithic nature of Roman Catholicism, that might not hold in their case, but it is already reality that Africans are sending missionaries to the USA and also have planted a number of congregations here.

Nor is it the case that these congregations are just for immigrants from the home country.

cloudyday2 said:

I suspect the future of US Christianity will be whatever emerges in Africa and other areas where Christianity is on the rise. The original US Christian sects will shrink to irrelevance, but maybe African missionaries will plant their new Christian sects in the US. Catholicism has been successful in Africa and many of the Pentecostal denominations have also been successful. So Catholicism and Pentecostalism will probably be the future of US Christianity. Maybe the replanted African versions of these denominations will have some African cultural features in the music and architecture and art.

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I have my doubts about Catholicism.
The Catholic Church has been paying out one billion dollars (with a "b") every ten years for the last forty years on child abuse by priests settlements. Eventually Catholics are going to start thinking twice about donating money to cover the Church's legal expenses. Eventually.

cloudyday2 said:

I suspect the future of US Christianity will be whatever emerges in Africa and other areas where Christianity is on the rise. The original US Christian sects will shrink to irrelevance, but maybe African missionaries will plant their new Christian sects in the US. Catholicism has been successful in Africa and many of the Pentecostal denominations have also been successful. So Catholicism and Pentecostalism will probably be the future of US Christianity. Maybe the replanted African versions of these denominations will have some African cultural features in the music and architecture and art.

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I wouldn't count on Christianity, or religion in general, making a resurgence in North America or Europe, short of some kind of disaster or calamity destroying our civilization.

cloudyday2 said:

I suspect the future of US Christianity will be whatever emerges in Africa and other areas where Christianity is on the rise. The original US Christian sects will shrink to irrelevance, but maybe African missionaries will plant their new Christian sects in the US. Catholicism has been successful in Africa and many of the Pentecostal denominations have also been successful. So Catholicism and Pentecostalism will probably be the future of US Christianity. Maybe the replanted African versions of these denominations will have some African cultural features in the music and architecture and art.

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Sounds like Mexico.

awitch said:

I have my doubts about Catholicism.
The Catholic Church has been paying out one billion dollars (with a "b") every ten years for the last forty years on child abuse by priests settlements. Eventually Catholics are going to start thinking twice about donating money to cover the Church's legal expenses. Eventually.

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I foresee a situation in which they need to leverage their popularity in non-western countries to officially keep their coffers afloat. They don't need to cut their losses here quite yet but I see it coming in a generation or two, they'll need to lean on subsidies in African and LatAm countries to a greater degree combined with those congregants rather than western ones.