Allen Hunt columnist for townhall.com reports on yet another survey of religious preferences. However this one Hunt calls the Church’s obituary. The reason?

“The leading source of information for the Church’s obituary came from the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), a survey which revealed a deep shift in America’s faith life since 1990. The two most remarkable nuggets of data include the decline in the last eighteen years of those Americans who call themselves “Christian” from 86% to 76% of the population. The second nugget: nearly 15% of Americans selected the “None” category to describe their religious faith. That figure has almost doubled since 1990. About one in six Americans now state that they have “no religious affiliation.”

There was a time when I thought atheism was dead. Then (probably on some Easter Sunday) Daniel Dennett called Richard Dawkins and they both got Christopher Hitchens sober and decided to resurrect militant atheism. Continue reading …

Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton recently said ”Never waste a good crisis.”. That seemed to bother many and without getting into the politics of the moment I am thinking there is some merit to her statement. Last week I mentioned the article The Coming Evangelical Crisis which was written by the Internet Monk, Michael Spencer. Others have commented on this article as well. Phil Johnson at Team Pyro responded with Evangelicalism Down the Drain? James White at Alpha-Omega responded with The Coming Evangelical Collapse and even Mark Galli at C.T. got in on the discussion with his piece On the Lasting Evangelical Survival. Although Galli takes a bit of a different view for the most part many of the discernment ministries are in agreement with Spencer’s conclusion although not with his solutions. As I have had time to think Continue reading …

The spiritual life and “spiritual disciplines” seem somehow, disconnected from “real life” too many if not most Christians. That is likely as true with the Old Testament people of God as it is today. If so, and I think it is, that would explain why God uses so many every day life examples to communicate spiritual truth. I was again reminded of the importance of making spiritual truths understandable to the average person as I read The Coming Evangelical Collapse. Barna also came out with his latest survey Barna Survey Examines Changes in Worldview Among Christians over the Past 13 Years The change in worldview as Barna demonstrates, explains the potential collapse of Evangelical Christianity. However, it doesn’t explain why. Perhaps a corollary would be helpful to explain what is going on.

As Joy and I worked on getting our licenses for trucking the driving school spent a great deal of time telling us all of the various ways we could kill ourselves and others. It should make the decision to proceed and the carrying out of the daily tasks sobering and to be taken seriously. When we graduated and began the next phase of our training, the company we work for spent more time telling us the various ways we could kill ourselves and others. One of the more graphic media which they used was a short video and photos of a truck accident on Donner Pass. To protect their drivers and others on the road many professional trucking companies teach the “Five Keys” of the Smith System. Understanding these, in all of their simplicity, may help to explain spiritual truth. The “Five Keys” are: Continue reading …

War, Conflict or Conversation?

It has occurred to me that the title for these little comments on the news might be inaccurate. Are we in fact in a culture war or is it just a conflict? Is the ubiquitous culture conflict a conflict like Vietnam was a conflict or is it just a difference of opinion? Finally while I do think there is at least a conflict, shouldn’t it be a friendly one (at least on the part of Christians)? I worry however that evoking the emergent language of “conversation” gives too much away. After all, a conversation could be quite benign. Two people chatting over the back fence. No need to get lawyers or legislators involved as inevitably happens in the present dispute. Maybe we should call it “the recent unpleasantness” except its been going on at least since the enlightenment. Some of you may be thinking, “Who cares what its called. We must save the children!” To which I have two responses: Continue reading …