Is the glass half empty or half full? I, for one, am the kind of person who tends to see the glass as half full. Do you? An American Religious Identification Survey was published a few years ago. It instills fear and trepidation in some and glee and giddiness in others. The percentage of Americans who claim no religion at all has nearly doubled in twenty years, from 8% in 1990 to 15% in 2009. That “none” category is now the third-highest religious group.
As Christianity is commonly viewed, America is still a “Christian” nation. Seventy-six percent of Americans still claim some “brand” of Christianity. But they seem to be more interested in the “don’t know” or “generic” category than in one of the “organized religion” categories. And that “none” category does not mean they are all atheists.
The percentage of Muslims in America has doubled – from 0.3% to 0.6%. Eastern religions, like Buddhism, have more than doubled – from 0.4% to 0.9%. New movements like the pagan Wicca movement have quadrupled from 0.8% to 1.2%.
Initially, the thing that strikes me is that we have work to do! New Testament Christianity is needed now more than ever. If you were a shoe-salesman and went to Africa where they went barefooted, wouldn’t you say to yourself – “This is great! My clientele is unlimited!” An American culture which is adrift in agnosticism and religious confusion means we will be quite occupied, busy evangelizing as God desires.
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Third, a tiny foot-note in the USA Today article which drew my attention to the ARIS study notes that the “Protestant Denomination” category (distinct from the “Mainline Protestant” group) includes churches of Christ, among others. That group grew from 2.6% to 3.1%. That category and the “Pentecostal/Charismatic” group (3.2% to 3.5%) are the only two “Christian” categories that saw a growth. That means many, many, people are still interested in Christianity!
Yes, there is cause for concern in this increasingly pluralistic society. But that cause also shows that we have work to do. We have the solution – the Gospel. We, too, must be about our Father’s business. To the work! To the work!
–Paul Holland
