By Tom Olago
Is the United States in a free-fall from the Christian faith, down towards secularization? Indications are that this is indeed the case, with waning levels of influence, commitment and belief spreading like a wildfire across traditionally strong Christian communities, taking down many individual adherents in its wake.
Recent research bears out this trend and prompts the question: “Is America, home to the largest Christian population in the world, actually becoming a ‘post-Christian’ nation?”
Although 78% of Americans are self-proclaimed ‘Christians’, a recent study conducted by the Barna Group seems to support a resounding ‘yes’ answer to the question. In just two years, the percentage of Americans who qualify as “post-Christian” rose by 7 percentage points, from 37% in 2013 to 44% in 2015.
Across the United States, cities in every state are becoming more post-Christian, moving deeper into a backslidden state – some at a faster rate than others.
The Barna Group analyzed 60,808 interviews conducted over a seven-year period to measure ‘irreligion’ in American cities, looking at a variety of key faith indicators for both belief and practice. Questions were designed to get beyond how people loosely identify themselves (affiliation) and get to the core of what people actually believe and how they behave as a result of their belief (practice).
Based on Barna’s research criteria, to qualify as “post-Christian,” individuals had to meet 60% or more of the following factors (nine or more). “Highly post-Christian” individuals meet 80% or more of the factors (12 or more of these 15 criteria):
- Do not believe in God
- Identify as atheist or agnostic
- Disagree that faith is important in their lives
- Have not prayed to God (in the last year)
- Have never made a commitment to Jesus
- Disagree the Bible is accurate
- Have not donated money to a church (in the last year)
- Have not attended a Christian church (in the last year)
- Agree that Jesus committed sins
- Do not feel a responsibility to “share their faith”
- Have not read the Bible (in the last week)
- Have not volunteered at church (in the last week)
- Have not attended Sunday school (in the last week)
- Have not attended religious small group (in the last week)
- Do not participate in a house church (in the last year)
Highlights of the study results were as follows:
- Based on a city-by-city comparison, six-state New England dominated the post-Christian metrics, claiming five of the top 10 most post-Christian cities, including Boston, Massachusetts (65 percent), Providence, Rhode Island (60 percent), and Portland, Maine (60 percent), with eight of the top 10 in the greater Northeast region.
- The West Coast is also fairly well represented among the top 15 cities, with San Francisco, California (66 percent) climbing up the rankings from 6th place in 2013 to top the list as the most post-Christian city in America, and Los Angeles, California (54 percent), coming in at 5th place.
- Newcomers to the top 15 cities include Las Vegas, Nevada (59 percent), Fort Myers-Naples, Florida (56 percent), Chicago, Illinois (54 percent) and Los Angeles, California (54 percent).
- As opposed to the West Coast and New England states, regions in South the nation’s interior aren’t losing their Christian roots quite as fast: “The South and Midwest have both lower comparative and slower rates of post-Christian growth… in line with these regions’ typically higher rates of church attendance and self-identified Christians.”
- In particular, cities where church attendance is high and the Christian tradition is generally strong were less affected by the post-Christian shift.
There are those who believe that perhaps the question was inaccurately framed. Could it be that America is not even predominantly Christian in the first place and is only nominally so?
Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission opines: …
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