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Americans with no religion are now as numerous as Evangelical Protestants or possibly outnumber them slightly. I can remember when admitting you were an atheist could get you in trouble.
Forty-some years ago, Mainstream Protestants were the largest religious group, followed by Catholics. Evangelicals were fewer than either, and the “nones” were a small minority.
Evidently increasing numbers of Americans reject organized religion, and many others stick to strict religion, but few of us want to bother with easy religion.
Doug Muder shrewdly observed on his Weekly Sift post today that, if you eliminated immigrants and only surveyed the native-born, mainstream Catholicism might be declining in the same way that mainstream Protestantism is.
LINKS
‘Nones’ now as big as evangelicals, Catholics in the US by Jack Jenkins for Religious News Service.
Why America’s ‘nones’ don’t identify with a religion by Becka Alpert for Pew Research Center.
Tags: Trends
Phil Ebersole's Blog 
April 1, 2019 at 11:43 am |
Interesting 🤔
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April 1, 2019 at 1:15 pm |
They are sick of organized relgion playing political games, but they are not godless.
Universal Audience of Ultimate Truth for Salvation
Ultimately all ethics depends on individual consideration, mandated in Leviticus 19:18 “Love your neighbor as yourself,” also found in Confucius Analects 12:2, Buddhist Udana Vagna 5:1 and Matthew 7:1. Consistency is the hobgoblin of limited minds as God and Truth are incomprehensible (Isaiah 40:25) and dogma and ideology are idolatry which detracts from evidence based realism. This is why the only answer can be a question. All creativity and science is divine (1 Cor 3:5-9). Jesus opposed traditionalist Sadducees and fundamentalist Pharisees but embraced syncretic Samaritans. Jesus was nothing if not anticlerical “Do as they say, not as they do” (Mt 23:1). Isn’t it odd the fundamentalists quote scripture by number as if lawyers? Meek means tranquil, not humble. Meekness is devoid of the passion of just war which divides and obfuscates. (Jer 17:9, Eph 2:3)
Hades (Sheol) was a holding place from which Jesus freed us, not a banishment. “gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn”. (Matthew 3:12 ) There is no purgatory, burning is into oblivion. “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43 ) Today! Saints intecede! If Jesus told us to be like the children (Matt 18:3) how could he believe them to have Original Sin? Mary CHOSE, by Free Will, to be sinless and surrendered herself to the service of God, as God long awaited (Luke 1:30). Luther said “Mary is rightly called not only the mother of the man, but also the Mother of God” (24:107) and “There can be no doubt that the Virgin Mary is in heaven. How it happened we do not know.” (10:268). God lived in the Temple (Exodus 36:8) so as Mary bore God she replaced the Temple which was destroyed when she rose exactly on Tisha B’Av, the original lent of eating only fish because fish survived Noah’s flood.
God is beyond time and reason, not being limited by the dimensions that govern our world (Isaiah 57:15). God’s perspective on time is far different from man (Psalm 102:12, 24-27). God sees all of eternity’s past and eternity’s future, hence free will and predestination do not contradict. Since He is the Alpha AND the Omega, there can be no historical progression which is satanic anthropolatry. Parable of Talents (Matt 25:14-30) confirms the glory of capitalism over slothful envy of socialism. Parable of Warehouse is about being obsessed with what we have so we stop living. Superachievers aren’t concerned with accumulation but with constant achievement, seeking to ever use their gifts to the fullest (Calvin Institutes 3.7.5). James 2:14-18,26 shows that while faith is the essential prerquisite, you cannot escape the need for works as well. Half the planet worships to the Psalms of David so stop renaming them as your own hymnals. A Republic of Judges was preferred by God over the Reign of Kings. (1 Sam 8:6-18) The clothing and responsibilities of the Cohens (chief priests) resembles the early bishops (overseers) and of rabbis with the pastors (presbyters, elders). Paul’s word for fornication meant prostitution instead. Paul’s word for masturbation meant malady. Paul’s word for sycophant meant slander. Magog meant Mongol. Jesus came to fulfill not repeal the Law (Matt 5:17) as Pharisees were condemned because they syncretized vindictive Roman natural law over Jubilee redemptory Deuteronomy law. Moneychangers were racist about Roman coins. Redemptory confession is from 2 Chron 7:14 and Resurrection from Dan 12:2, Ezek 37:12-17, and Isaiah 26:19. Forgiveness is found in Isaiah 33:24, Isaiah 55:7, Jeremiah 3:22, Numbers 14,15, Leviticus 6,19,2 Samuel 14:14. Jesus used the lunar calendar, so why do you use the calendar of those that slew him and stole his religion.
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April 1, 2019 at 4:05 pm |
“Nones” are the most popular political affiliation as well.
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April 2, 2019 at 3:48 pm |
It is interesting. I’ve been following those kinds of trends for many years now. It’s similar to how on numerous major issues the majority of Americans are shifting left. Most Americans, for example, disagreed with Obamacare because it wasn’t left-wing enough compared to what most Americans wanted.
Yet the elite remains as right-wing as ever or maybe even further right than before. Consider that the American public came around to supporting same sex marriage before either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. Even the Democratic elite wait until social issues are safely majority positions before backing them.
So it is the same with religion. As the data shows, quickly becoming the largest demographic are the religious nones. But I can promise you won’t find an equal percentage of politicians who would identify along those lines. Christianity still dominates the politics of both parties. No one has ever been elected to the presidency while openly not being Christian.
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