Please Note: I did purchase and download this video but was unable to upload it into this blog… hence the preview.
Tag: America
The Barna Group – How Post-Christian is U.S. Society?
The Barna Group – How Post-Christian is U.S. Society?.
Based on Barna’s aggregate metric, nearly two-fifths of the nation’s adult population (37%) qualifies as post-Christian. This includes 9% of Americans who are highly post-Christian—lacking engagement in 80% or more of the measures of belief, practice or commitment. And another one-quarter is moderately post-Christian (28%), without engaging at least 60% of the factors.
Barna’s study includes a ranking of the nation’s largest 96 markets, from most to least post-Christian. The big picture is that the leading post-Christian markets are in the Northeast and in the West. The gap between the most post-Christian city (Albany, NY) and least (Shreveport, LA) is 63% to 12%, respectively. These city-by-city rankings can be found at the company’s new website www.cities.barna.org.
April 15, 2013 – The rise of the so-called “Nones”—the increasing percentage of adults who claim no religious affiliation—has been a much-discussed trend in American religion. Is the nation moving away from Christianity and other forms of conventional faith? To provide insight on this topic, Barna Group analyzed 42,855 interviews conducted in recent years, looking at 15 different measures of non-religiosity. In other words, the research explores the emerging post-Christian landscape of the nation.
Metrics of Post-Christian Culture
Currently, more than seven out of 10 adults describe themselves as “Christian” and more than six out of 10 Americans say they are “deeply spiritual.” Yet, just how deep do these labels go?
To shed light on this, the Barna team created an aggregate metric of post-Christian culture based upon 15 different measures of identity, belief and behavior. To qualify as post-Christian, individuals met 60% or more of the factors (nine or more out of 15 criteria). Highly post-Christian individuals met 80% or more of the factors (12 or more of these 15 criteria). These 15 factors are shown in the infographic below.
David Kinnaman, president and majority owner of Barna Group, explains the reasoning behind the post-Christian metric. “First, we wanted to expand the scope of secularization beyond what people call themselves. Faith-oriented self-descriptions are fine, but they are really only skin-deep in terms of understanding faith. In addition to identity, we also wanted to account for two other critical aspects of faith: belief as well as behavior.
“For decades, our research shows the variations of asking people about faith. For example, many self-described atheists also claim to pray to a deity. Long-time churchgoers often lack basic orthodox beliefs. People who effortlessly self-describe as ‘Christian’ may live like practical atheists in most other parts of their lives. Continue reading “The Barna Group – How Post-Christian is U.S. Society?”
Avengers 4 Life in DC – Official Video – “Where’s Arturo?”
Peanut Gallery: The large presence of young people at the 2013 March for Life was most heartening. The numbers of Pro-Life young people are increasing while the old guard, radical, pro-death feminists are fading into the sunset as their numbers decline. The demographics are with the Pro-Life movement.
2013 March for Life, Washington DC
Biltrix described this Pro-life Generation in a recent post. And Students for Life were everywhere. Check out their web sites to see what they’re doing to reach young people for Life.
As part of that youth movement, RC Mission Corps Volunteers made their missionary presence known with “Avengers 4 Life.” Here’s a picture I took of them along the March on the way to the Supreme Court.
Are we there yet?
Let’s roll.
The funny thing is – they took a picture of me taking a picture of them in their official video. What are the chances of that happening with 650,000 marchers?
So, here’s the challenge – “Where’s Arturo?” – that’s me. Can you find me in their video? If you take the time… and find me – click like. Trust me, I’m there… and the video is well worth watching all by itself.
“Religious Freedom Day” – not so much!
Peanut Gallery: “Words mean things.” And President Obama choses his words very carefully. That’s why his substitution of the word worship for freedom in his Religious Freedom Day proclamation (Jan 16) was important – and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty called him on it.
Perhaps this mismatch between words and deeds can be explained by the phrase “freedom of worship,” which the President uses in the first sentence of his proclamation. Religious freedom certainly includes worship, but it extends beyond the four walls of a church. If it is not to be an empty promise, religious freedom must also include acting on one’s deepest religious beliefs when one is feeding the poor, caring for the sick, educating the young, or running a business.
The Becket Fund focused on the HHS mandate affecting churches and religious institutions but the word switch (worship for religion) would also limit evengelism beyond the four walls of a church.
So what is he up to? Maybe he thinks if he says it often enough and long enough people will accept the change… and stay in their place? Out of sight and out of mind.
I don’t think God is going to go for that.
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The report from Christianity Today is found below –
Becket Fund Pushes Back on Obama’s ‘Religious Freedom Day’ Proclamation
by Jeremy Weber, blog.christianitytoday.com
Today (Wed, Jan 16), President Barack Obama continued the tradition of observing Religious Freedom Day with a presidential proclamation. But this year, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty critiqued his use of “freedom of worship” rhetoric—a debate that first arose in 2010.
“Foremost among the rights Americans hold sacred is the freedom to worship as we choose,” begins Obama’s proclamation (full text at bottom), which later asserts “religious liberty … is a universal human right to be protected here at home and across the globe. This freedom is an essential part of human dignity, and without it our world cannot know lasting peace.”
Becket challenged the president’s statement in light of the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate, which currently faces 43 legal challenges (many led by Becket) based on religious freedom concerns. Continue reading ““Religious Freedom Day” – not so much!”
“What’s the Matter with Kids Tody?” – public education (re-blog)
Peanut Gallery: A new blog – Ooobie on Everything – has been brought to my attention and it’s well worth a read. The re-blog here speaks to the issue of how America got into our current mess – public education hijacked by leftists.
What’s the solution? Think homeschooling, or private schooling… yes, it’s that bad.
Here’s a sample of what Ooobie has to say about it –
The leftist infiltration of education as a primary means of spreading the faith has been underway for many generations, but it really went into high gear following the radicalization of the 60s generation. While most of that generation went on to pursue more lucrative fields, the real activists went into the classrooms. They knew that by indoctrinating today’s youth they controlled tomorrow’s politics. They could change the country fundamentally without ever setting off another bomb. And it worked perfectly, as propaganda always does when political debate is stifled and a compliant media endlessly amplifies the message. Such an environment puts the brain to sleep and supplants independent thought with militant slogans and threats of destruction to the old order. The teachers worked hand-in-glove with the union bosses, silencing, ostracizing and even punishing dissenters among the pedagogical ranks. The left took over curricula, faculty and administration. Opposing viewpoints need not apply. Our schools today are the enemies of intellectual discourse and the invigorating clash of ideas. Instead they toil to churn out mindless zombies, zealots of the left, masters of propaganda but ignorant of the reality of what they advocate.
I hope that quote encourages you to read the entire post here – and check out her most recent posts here. I particularly enjoyed her personal story recounted in her post “A Tale of Two Cities.” I’m looking forward to reading more.
Special thanks to Maggie at Maggie’s Notebook and NEO at nebraskaenergyobserver for bringing Ooobie to our attention. Please check out their blogs as well… there’s a lot of interesting reads… and plenty to think about.
The Peanut Gallery 