Losing Faith In America
I watched a show on Fox News a couple nights ago called "Are We Losing Faith In America". The first few minutes showed it was about religion, not about faith in country as I first assumed.
The first twenty minutes or so they described fewer people having interest in church and documented a number of churches actually closing. That's good news to me and, no, I'm not saying I want to shut down the churches. I'm just glad to see them declining by people's own volition. Of course, the theme of the show overall was that this is a bad thing. Oh, well.
Last half hour or so of the show went into ways the church is trying to rebrand itself and find new ways to make the institution relevant to people's lives. Good for them.
One interesting thing they showed later on was a baptist(?) church somewhere in the southeast. Can't remember the state, or for sure if it was baptist, but it was losing members. So much so they couldn't afford to keep it open. Who'da thunk that could happen in the Bible Belt?
Then came the Arabics to the rescue. Actually, I'm not sure if that was the exact word, but they were arabic speaking baptists (maybe protestants). There were enough of them and they bought out the church, took it over and the old congregation joined them in a mixed language church. The english speakers had a translator and used earpieces to understand what was being said.
Kinda neat the way they joined together, although the xenophobe in me didn't particularly like middle easterners taking over an American church, lol.
Anyway, maybe something for both sides in that show. I found it interesting and good news that church in America seems to be declining. I'm also not all that sure it's a bad thing that the churches are trying to stay relevant.
I believe the link above has video of the show for those interested in watching it, but the web site drives my computer nuts.
posted by Fred Mangels @ 9:15 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
What, me worry?
My late stepmother's Baptist congregation in Jacksonville FL has been slowly dying for years, but when she suggested being opening and welcoming to the Black families that were moving into the area, she was practically thrown out of the church. They will continue to decline.
"...she suggested being opening and welcoming to the Black families that were moving into the area, she was practically thrown out of the church."
Wow!
I used to work for a lady that went to the local Baptist church. Forget the name but it's a block or two away from my house. She told me once, "Our church is literally dying. It's all older folks and not unusual to see a member or two not showing up each month, having died, and there's very few younger folk joining to fill things in".
Kinda creepy. Almost like a living obituary.
Europe is full of no longer used churches. Religion has been on the wane there for a long time. The US is late to the show.
Lots of people, when I was growing up, went to church because it was about the only social gatherings that happened on a regular basis and there was a lot of social pressure for not going. The country is very, very different now.
I get the impression most are into church as more of a social function than anything else. I can't imagine much social pressure from, or on, the church bunnies I know, but I had a guy tell me the Mormons are pretty heavy on pressure.
He was a Mormon who lived in Utah for some time. He told me he was a Jack Mormon- one who didn't attend church. He said he didn't get overt pressure to show up for church but there was certainly pressure in other ways.
Shame, as my favorite church used to be the Mormons, if only because of the neat TV commercials they produced. After their strong support of Prop 8 I lost my admiration for them.
Take a guess which church is my favorite now? The Jehovah's Witnesses, because they don't vote!
It was destined to happen. Churches putting government before God, and government putting government into churching. The founding fathers forbid the mingling of the two for many reasons. One such reason & perhaps the most obvious, is the church's power to emotionally manipulate mixed with any government's power to steal more power. That's a powerful mix! God bless the libertarians & true Constitutionalists (NOT the constitution party), for discerning between God & Religions. God & governments.
The political parties use the manipulative church's to divide, the people with disinformation.
Just remember God's 10 commandments of common sense morals which True Liberty is based on. Either choose Liberty (God, not religion) or Government. You can't choose both, they don't mix well together.
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