What the new American Religious Identification Survey really shows.
Some observers point to the new American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) as evidence that religion is finally in decline in the United States. However, John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge say the nation's free-market principles of innovation and competition help keep religion vibrant.
Religion, no less than software or politics, is a competitive business, where organization and entrepreneurship count. Religious America is led by a series of highly inventive "pastorpreneurs" -- men like Bill Hybels of Willow Creek or Rick Warren of Saddleback. These are far more sober, thoughtful characters than the schlock-and-scandal televangelists of the 1970s, but they are not afraid to use modern business methods to get God's message across.
The authors, who this week are releasing their book God is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith is Changing the World (Penguin), have nothing to say in their Wall Street Journal article about how the forces of capitalism may affect orthodoxy for good or ill. But it is probably fair to say that reports of religion's death have been greatly exaggerated.
Posted by Stan Guthrie on April 7, 2009 8:26AM
Comments
I don't know if the study tested for this or not, but I suspect that what has happened is not that more people are opting out of religion, but that it has become more socially acceptable to say so. I think that could well be the case for now.
Posted by: David at April 7, 2009
I don't know if people of faith should embrace this as "good news". That Christian Religion has integrated liberal-capitalistic western tradition into its being we can see the radical discipleship of the New Testament being watered down to a moralist-theraputic deism ministering to the "felt needs" of a culture sick with consumerism, hollow sexuality, and fear.
Posted by: Matt K at April 7, 2009
There's a lot of talk right now about Christianity shrinking in America. Church leaders relax. It isn't our fault. The problem is that the cows are out of the barn and we cannot put them back in.
Who is speaking for us? Crazy televangelists and talking vegetables (Veggie Tales). Hollywood, on the other hand is doing something differently.
As Hollywood finally put Charlton Heston to pasture and began making films about the true history of the church, people have become increasingly disgusted. The true stories of Joan of Arc, the Crusades, the treatment of the Indians, etc. won't simply go away because we want them to.
Then there was Hollywood's favorite Christian, Mel Gibson. The effectiveness of his personal spirituality is now well documented. His 'Passion' film was so outrageous to those on the fence that it did more harm than good. Next to the X-Men and Spiderman, Jesus' powers look weak. His subsequent drunken rant confirmed his critics' assessment.
This Autumn there will be another assault on us in the form of the film "Agora." A full screen blockbuster depiction of the rape of the last librarian of pagan Alexandria aught to help seal our downfall in the eyes of young people. We can look forward to the final scene where fourth century Bible wavers peel the skin off her living body with sea shells. Nothing like scenes of mobs of book burning Christian zealots to ring in the Christmas season... I mean Saturnalia.
Hollywood knows what they are doing.
We cannot say The TRUTH will set us free, then cherry pick or abandon it when it releases countless others. I think the church will be destroyed, and true Christians will return to small groups of Bible believing worshipers.
There is a lesson here for us.
Posted by: Jim Luxor at April 7, 2009
"There is a lesson here for us."
Yes, there is. But it is not that Christ's Church is about to be destroyed. It is Christ who is building his church, not pastorpreneurs. The gates of hell will not prevail against it.
Our lesson is to find our hope (and truth) in the Words he left for us. If we treasure Christ and his Word, the gnats that raise their fists against God will be pitied and prayed for.
Posted by: Marcus at April 8, 2009
Jim Luxor,
You appear to have an unbiblical view or the Church and what constitutes the Gospel
While I will not claim that all Christians have had an irreproachable behavior throughout history, we need to be careful not to confused true Christians (those that are regeneration and now indwelled with the Holy Spirit) with what I called cultural (or nominal) Christians (whose affiliation to Christianity is more a matter of tradition and cultural practice and whose faith does not go beyond intellectual assent and does not exhibit a life of a regenerated person).
Hollywood and society in general has never been interested in the former but loves portraying the misdeed of the latter (hatred, religious wars, hypocrisy, double life and so on).
It is a good thing if cultural Christianity falls out of favor and dies. These so called Christians out there are just causing confusion and are obscuring the Gospel
Speaking of the Gospel, you seem to be under the impression that a movie like the Passion did more harm than good because it offended the sensibility of “those on the fence”
I invite you to read the canonical gospels and be reacquainted with the Jesus that was a cause of offense to those in His hometown (Matt 13:57; Mark 6:3) and who lost the majority of His followers when he presented the scandal of the gospel and the cross (cf. John 6:60-66). The message of the cross is to be “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense (Rom 9: 33; 1 Peter 2:8)”.
This is not to say that Christians should seek to become offensive by misbehaving (1 Corinthians 10:32) but that the very nature of the Gospel and the message of the cross is offensive to both Jews and Gentiles since “we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles” (1Co 1: 23, cf. Gal 5:11)
It is the attempt to make the gospel acceptable and palatable to the world by denying its power that brought about this mess.
It is only natural that society finds the ethical demands and claims of the Gospel unacceptable in this climate of moral relativism and humanism that rejects God’s rule and demands on each and every human being.
I would be worried if the world was suddenly welcoming “for what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16: 15)
Society antagonism will only increase giving two alternatives to Christians: conform and fold under the pressure in order to be accepted and avoid becoming social outcasts ( cf. 1 John 2: 15) or accept the rejection and bear the cross for the sake of Christ in a climate of persecution (John 15: 19)
God will purify His Church and the pretenders will withdraw when the cost becomes too high
Posted by: Alain Maashe at April 8, 2009
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