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Although covid is part of the reason, now that most restrictions no longer exist, the fact is they have self-reported 1.1 less people, to the lowest point in FORTY years. Interestingly enough, for the first time in years, baptisms up slightly in the last quarter, although still 100,000 less than 3 years ago.
As this branch of religion continues to recede, it is indicative of religion in general declining in the USA. We also need to be prepared that the remaining adherents will often become increasingly in their zealot drive to impose their beliefs on the larger population.
Need proof of that? Look at recent SCOTUS decisions that are clearly driven by religious beliefs.
Positive change takes time, and it will be years before the harm that the zealot religious are currently imposing on the greater society to be corrected. But, dropping participation in the Southern Baptist group is a good first indicator that the pendulum is starting to swing.
Its is strange, that religion seems to be on the downward trend in this country...but the Supreme Court rules in religions favor? And not only the abortion issue, many other laws are based on religious law as well...I dont see anyone calling for these laws to be redacted though?
The Catholic church is STILL very powerful and influential in the world today...(even though belief is trending downward?) That doesnt make sense...shouldnt the churches influence decrease as well?
Ive said this before, even though the Catholic Church was found guilty of protecting and hiding child molesters, NOT A SINGLE CHURCH was run out of town?!!! In fact, 10s of 1000s of parents send their kids to catholic schools every day!
Something is not adding up...Im not sure religion is truly trending downward...it doesnt appear to be true imo.
Its is strange, that religion seems to be on the downward trend in this country...but the Supreme Court rules in religions favor? And not only the abortion issue, many other laws are based on religious law as well...I dont see anyone calling for these laws to be redacted though?
The Catholic church is STILL very powerful and influential in the world today...(even though belief is trending downward?) That doesnt make sense...shouldnt the churches influence decrease as well?
Ive said this before, even though the Catholic Church was found guilty of protecting and hiding child molesters, NOT A SINGLE CHURCH was run out of town?!!! In fact, 10s of 1000s of parents send their kids to catholic schools every day!
Something is not adding up...Im not sure religion is truly trending downward...it doesnt appear to be true imo.
The SCOTUS rules according to law, not popular opinion.
And I've said it before, as secularism increases in America I think people just don't pretend like they used to a generation ago. Those that don't believe simply see no reason to get up and go to church, where they did before.
It is a complex dynamic and could go either way. I have long seen the tendency to radicalization (in both religious and political terms) to reflect the death throes of an unsustainable authoritarian system. And it does. But at the same time, we can, to borrow a Biblical metaphor, still end up wandering for 40 years in the wilderness before the system finally breathes its last. Who knows what fascist, regressive dystopian hellscapes may await us on the path to a better world?
And sometimes the rabid elements of a group can, through sheer ruthlessness, have an influence on the wider society all out of proportion to their actual numbers. Rushdoony's theocratic Christian Reconstructionism movement for example has brooded in the background since the 1960s with some predecessors folded in from as far back as the 1930s, quietly power-brokering and influence-peddling in the shadows, letting other groups handle the public front, and having quite a significant impact on the public square in ways you have to tease out with investigative reporting to really understand.
Conservative Christian organizations have their tentacles in far more things than most of us realize. To the extent that the Baptists (for example) might yet enjoy a sudden uptick in popularity. I am not sure exactly how it will play out. All I know is that dark times are ahead in this country. Do not think that the proposed SCOTUS decision on Roe will be the end of it. Expect the clock to be turned back for decades and generations on many fronts in an attempt to re-homogenize American public life. Expect to see marriage rights pulled back, expect to see segregation re-introduced. You can object that these genies are already out of the bottle, but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of crackpots willing to shove them back into the bottle or die trying. The laws being seriously proposed right now include all this and more. Whether it remains "red meat for the base" or gains traction for a time remains to be seen.
Expect to see marriage rights pulled back, expect to see segregation re-introduced. You can object that these genies are already out of the bottle, but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of crackpots willing to shove them back into the bottle or die trying. The laws being seriously proposed right now include all this and more. Whether it remains "red meat for the base" or gains traction for a time remains to be seen.
I don't think this will happen in the traditional sense but it has already happened from a political standpoint.
If you are a minority person or a gay person or even a transgender person like Caitlyn Jenner who believes enough like "me" politically and/or a religious standpoint. You are good.
I doubt there is any significant difference in "drop" among Southern Baptist compared to other denominations. They just happen to be one of the main groups that people like to complain about, though some of it is warranted.
I doubt there is any significant difference in "drop" among Southern Baptist compared to other denominations. They just happen to be one of the main groups that people like to complain about, though some of it is warranted.
Not to mention the guy from Canada is the one who brought it up.
I doubt there is any significant difference in "drop" among Southern Baptist compared to other denominations. They just happen to be one of the main groups that people like to complain about, though some of it is warranted.
Well they are a major denomination in the US as to influence and have had decent numbers. So it's not illegitimate to see it as one (of several) bellwethers.
As jimmiej points out, individual churches in that denomination seem to be thriving, it is more of an overall thing and from what I've read off & on the drop in numbers may reflect as much an internal schism where some congregations have gone independent or joined with other evangelical groups, over differences in direction and emphasis.
The more interesting numbers are the overall increases in the religiously unaffiliated. And even those numbers are a little bit hard to pin down because how people self-identify is rather compartmentalized. I often use the example of my wife, who is clearly an atheist, definitionally speaking, but probably would not identify as one in a survey because it is a label with a lot of social downsides. To a survey taker she might say she is areligious or perhaps agnostic. To a religious inquirer she would probably say that she is "open to and respectful of all possibilities" as a way of deflecting from her internal belief that religion by and large is incoherent nonsense. Only as age has reduced her ability to give a fig what people think has she started to give any sort of voice to her actual lack of belief in any deities, and she would still soft-peddle it to the general public.
It's the same with the Nones, they are all over the place, many perhaps not going to any church yet holding fast to some spiritual practices such as prayer or meditation, usually loosely based on what they were born to, such that some Nones may actually be more devout / pious in important ways than some church-goers.
Last edited by mordant; 05-13-2022 at 12:57 PM..
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