38% of Americans now ‘post-Christian,’ say researchers
October 29, 2014
Examining data from over 20 recent surveys, two researchers from the Barna Group have found that 38% of Americans-- and nearly half of Americans born since 1984-- are “post-Christian” or “churchless.”
“We are far from becoming an atheist nation,” said David Kinnaman, president of the evangelical polling firm. “There are tens of millions of active believers in America today. But the wall between the churched and the churchless is growing higher and more impenetrable as more people have no muscle memory of what it means to be a regular attender at a house of worship.”
“When the unchurched were asked to describe what they believe are the positive and negative contributions of Christianity in America, almost half (49%) could not identify a single favorable impact of the Christian community,” according to the Barna Group’s report.
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Further information:
- Five Trends Among the Unchurched (Barna Group)
- Secularism grows as more U.S. Christians turn ‘churchless’ (RNS)
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Posted by: dowd9585 -
Oct. 29, 2014 11:31 AM ET USA
It all makes sense to me. What are the Churches offering? Given that the Churches have been much jettisoned their belief system what is the point of belonging. They have eliminated the downside motivation, i.e., hell and and made the upside automatic as pretty much declaring everyone goes to heaven. I think they need to rethink their program.
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Posted by: jg23753479 -
Oct. 29, 2014 8:46 AM ET USA
50% of Americans born since 1984 are “post-Christian” -- a tribute to the work of government schools. I retired in disgust from 30 years of teaching there, convinced of 2 things concerning these institutions: (1) They were much worse when I left than when I began. Pervasive and baleful political influence [e.g. Dept of Ed, state 'regulations', etc.] had managed to wring from them almost every trace of any decency they once exhibited. And (2) there is no way to ever change or 'reform' them.
