http://www.religionandspiritualityforum.co...31-091839-4348r


Progressive churches shrinking; conservative churches growing



NEW YORK, March 31 (UPI) — The National Council of Churches' 2006 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches finds growth among conservatives and losses among liberals.

Published yearly for the last 89 years, the 2006 edition reports on a record 219 national church bodies.

The yearbook records the continuing growth of Pentecostal, historic African-American and other non-mainline, theologically traditionalist churches in the United States. Among the largest 25 U.S. churches, the fastest growing are the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal group increasing 1.81 percent to 2,779,095; the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also known as Mormons, increasing 1.74 percent to 5,999,177; and the Roman Catholic Church, increasing 0.83 percent to 67,820,833.

Only three mainline Protestant churches, all of which lost members last year, are among the ten largest churches: The United Methodist Church, ranked 3 with a membership of 8,186,254; the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, ranked 7 with a membership of 4,930,429; and the Presbyterian Church, USA, ranked 9 with a membership of 3,189,573.

Among insights from the latest edition of the yearbook are the fact that there are nearly twice as many Mormons in the United States as mainline Presbyterians, which lost 1.6 percent of its membership last year.

Other big losers last year were the Episcopal Church, down 1.55 percent, and the United Church of Christ, off 2.38 percent.

That's because Christianity (the liberal progressive movement of it's time) has it's roots in the Old Testament, which is conservative compared to all modern forms of government.

Progressives go forward, Conservatives go backwards.

At the heart and soul of conservatism is a push to return to a paradise that we ones had and have somehow lost. Most moderate conservatives think that the 1950's were our best times. The racist conservatives think the 1850's were our best times. The Old Testament conservatives think that Garden of Eden was our best times.

Jesus taught that the kingdom of heaven is available to us, here and now, if we can open our eyes and hearts to see it.

We aren't doing very well, huh? (I'm a Presbyterian, and our denomination is really hurting. We are some of the most liberal of the mainline groups.)

conservatives bark and snarl and march backward...
progressives scrape and struggle and crawl forward...

Hey Bill,

I'm back. I took your advice & I paid for a year subscription.

By your use of the term "modern form of government," I think you mean agnostic and pluralistic. These are the pillars of American freedom. Clearly neither concept is taught in the Bible (nor most Christian churches). What the Bible did provide this nation was a way to teach childern to read (that and the McGuffey Readers). Beyond literacy, the Bible also provided another pillar of freedom: faith. One might think this third pillar (faith) is at odds with the first two (angosticism and plurialism), and indeed it can be--but only when faith give ways to dogmatic religion.

The way I see it, these three pillars of freedom can become two (agnostic faith and pluralism) and in this way there is no conflict. However, people of "faith" often give way to the religious creed of a sectarian viewpoints. When this happens, some person is in danger of losing their liberty.

What I call "beliefism" other people like to label "moral values." Belief's (or religious ideas of right and wrong) are not faith and have very little (or nothing) to do with faith. Just at religion is no champion of liberty, so to belief itself is at odds with freedom. On the contrary, religion is focused on limited the liberty (movement) of a person actions and thoughts.

Some conservatives like to believe (and often say) this is a Christian Nation and suggest that our country and it's court system is based EXCLUSIVELY on the "moral values" found in the Bible. To some degree they are correct, but let's not forget about the influence the Enlightenment on our founding fathers.

It would incorrect to suggest our American "moral values" are EXCLUSIVE to any one religion or faith, even if a majority of American happen to share the same religion or denominational label. I distinguish religion from faith because belief is not faith, rather belief is what faith is not. One is restrictive, harsh, and unloving and the other is not.

I looked at the link you included. I remember you using the metephor of "the Cave" to describe what I call The Conundrum. It was fun to read that old post. Good to be back!

/mark

Good to have you back.