News dominating religious (and other media) this week is the sharp fall of the number of people identifying as Christians in the US.
A recent Pew Research Center survey showed that the number of Americans calling themselves Christians had dropped by 8 points in the last seven years. At the same time, Americans who were not affiliated with a religion rose from 16 percent to 23 percent. According to this report:
Roughly 56 million Americans now identify themselves as agnostic, atheist or ‘nothing in particular’. That’s more than 22 percent of the population.
Why is this happening? One man who thinks he has the answer is right-wing loon and radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh, above, who told his listeners that “less than one million” gay activists had managed to “bully and steamroller an entire country”.
Limbaugh explained that the drop in self-identifying Christians could be explained by “homosexual marriage”, noting that many churches were already performing same-sex weddings and ordaining gay clergy.
“Female and lesbian ministers” may also account for an exodus of members from denominations such as the Methodists, the Presbyterians and the Lutherans.
They have left their churches because of social issues and the evolution of their churches to social areas they didn’t want to go and don’t feel comfortable being in.
But:
If you look at the evangelical churches, they haven’t lost anything. Their membership is holding pretty steady. Where the message has remained, where the mission has remained the same, where the members of the church don’t think any corruption is taking place. They’re still hanging in there.
And he asked:
How is it that 70 percent of the population can be bullied and silenced and coerced into accepting societal evolution with which they disagree because of their religious beliefs?