https://www.grid.news/story/politics/2022/12/17/a-mass-exodus-from-christianity-is-underway-in-america-heres-why/
So it seems we grew up in the last 30 years
https://www.grid.news/story/politics/2022/12/17/a-mass-exodus-from-christianity-is-underway-in-america-heres-why/ |
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Hallelujah! :)
I'm not sure America is leading the transition. A few years ago, a tour guide in Norway told me that most of the people going to a church were immigrants. Alex "There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." -- Isaac Asimov |
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Belgium has been importing priests for a while
Mostly from Congo, some from France and Poland. Local new entrants are down to ~2/year. Although more than half of the crowd still identifies as Catholic, only 6% still goes to church on a regular basis. |
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That’s like the UK
A lot of people identify as Christian if asked, but far, far fewer actually do anything at all about it, like going to actual church. |
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There's a lot of fascinating stuff at the GSS.
https://gssdataexplorer.norc.org/trends?category=Religion%20%26%20Spirituality&measure=attend Yeah, the most dramatic graph is the one for Never attend by Age, and the Pandemic may throw a wrench in the 2020 datapoints. For the attend Every Week subset, the 18-34 group is kinda flat with a very small downward slope, until 2020. As one would expect, Every Weeks who call themselves Republicans are about 10 percentage points more than Every Week Democrats, Thanks. Cheers, Scott. |
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This is only the mainstram Christian Churches.
The hard core Hell and brimstone Trump supporting Evangelical Churches are holding nearly steady, and far outnumber other Christians. They are expected to take a dive as their membership dies of old age. The kids are not joining the churches in any large numbers. One popular Evangelical wrote that this is because the church and parents had not been strict enough in teaching about Hell and Damnation. Lack of belief in Hell has been costing the churches dearly. The decline in mainstream Christian churches is directly mirrored by the rise of "Spiritual but not religious". Some of them, particularly refugees from the Evangelical churches, identify as Witches. There are many varieties of Witches, and some identify as Pagans, particularly those who follow the Goddess Hekate (say Hekatee). Others get categorized as Pagans whether they want to be or not. This, of course, excludes the "aesthetic Witches" who just like the look and the bling. In North America those who identify as Witches largely outnumber those who identify as Pagans, but it is opposite in the British Isles, by a fairly wide margin. Pagans come in many stripes, polytheists, monotheists, serial monotheists, atheists, animists, and whatever. Most Pagans are solo practitioners and belong to no group or coven. The main difference between Pagans and "Spiritual but not Religious" is an altar and a ritual. There are a fair number of people who wish to join the Pagan fold and bring Jesus with them. My article Jesus and Paganism is quite popular. In the words of a former Jesuit, who's community studied this problem intensively, "The real question is not 'Can one be a Pagan and revere Jesus?', but rather 'Can one follow the teachings of Jesus and also be a Christian?'" He continues that in his understanding of Paganism, it is possible to follow the teachings of Jesus as a Pagan, but that the teachings of Jesus and the teachings of Christianity are not compatible. |
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christianity is paulism not jesusism
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts" – Richard Feynman |
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That might be more correct than you think.
Most church-goers don't know much about their own church history. 1st century Christianity grew out of a quite minor Judaistic sect that Paul became a part of at some point. A few hundred years later, Nicea happened and whatever strain that Constantine followed became blessed and all the others got suppressed. We still don't know how much was lost. Wade. |
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did someone have issues dating Dianic Wiccans?
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts" – Richard Feynman |
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Who would even try that stunt?
The main entry criteria are that you are a natural born woman (no tranies allowed) and that you are a lesbian. That first qualification is stated, the other is presumed. Of course, men have a similar spiritual group, the Radical Faeries. but they are not so hard nosed, accepting all genders, sexual orientations, and identities. They do, however, occasionally hold all men events. |
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Is that your term or theirs
I'm pretty sure that term for trans people is considered a slur now. -- Drew |
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Certainly theirs
http://www.radfae.org/gatherings This is a huge organization with many chapters and looks to be currently very active. Their Wikipedia page gives some interesting stories. Oops, on reread I see you're pointing out a different slur. Oh well. Yeah that one I'd stay away from. |
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I'm just describing their attitude . . .
. . not their wording. |