Helping Nones (Re-)Discover Mystery in the Body of Christ, His Church

Hank Unplugged: Essential Christian Conversations

The Christian Research Institute

Education, Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality

4.9 • 809 Ratings

🗓️ 11 October 2021

⏱️ 6 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the 𝘉𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘈𝘯𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘔𝘢𝘯 broadcast, comments on an article in USA Today by Deena Yellin, entitled “Millions Giving up Organized Religion—America’s Fast-Growing Movement: The ‘Nones’” (October 4, 2021). ‘Nones’ have no religious affiliation. Yellin explains that a “sea change” is taking place in our culture. Something is “replacing organized religion.” This “hard-to-define” something “can manifest as a devotion to nature, meditation, yoga or political activism, among other things.” According to polls, Nones—“as many as 70 million American adults”—“still believe in a higher power, or even the biblical God—but on their own terms.” The truth, however, is that Church is never optional. What is needed is to find the mystery that can be found nowhere other than in Christ’s Church, because the Church is the sphere within which union with the one true and living God in Christ is accomplished. It is through the Church that God’s saving power is mediated to the whole of humanity. While the article talks about lone-ranger, individualized spirituality, Christianity knows nothing of the sort. The Church is the reincarnation of Eden. The place in which we may access the Tree of Life replete with its eucharistic bounty. It’s in the Church that we receive the graces that transform us and satisfy our deepest needs, and such cannot be accomplished in isolation—but only within the community of the body of Christ.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, this is Hank Hennigraph, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Bible Incemen broadcast with another Hank Unplugged Short.
0:21.7	I'm sitting in my office this morning looking at yesterday's edition of USA Today.
0:28.6	And on the front page is an article that's titled Millions Giving Up on Organized Religion.
0:37.9	And this article, of course, as many articles have in the recent past, are writing about
0:46.0	the nuns, people that have no religious affiliation.
0:50.8	They're talking about this sea change that is taking place in our culture.
0:57.3	Something is replacing organized religion and that something is hard to define.
1:06.8	They say that it can manifest as a devotion to nature, meditation, yoga, political activism,
1:15.3	but it's all a replacement for what is called organized religion.
1:21.8	Many of those who have no religious affiliation are telling pollsters that they still believe in a higher power, maybe even a biblical God, but on their own individualistic terms.
1:40.1	And so today as many as 70 million Americans are now leaving the church and identifying as having no religious affiliation.
1:57.7	They want to believe in something, something that's greater than themselves, but they don't want to be tied down to a hierarchy or to a church organization.
2:14.1	Many are saying they get more from yoga than sitting in a church pew,
2:18.6	saying prayers that they simply don't believe in.
2:22.5	And then the article also talks about how the pandemic may have exacerbated the problem.
2:27.6	People get out of the habit of going to church and eventually see that they enjoy their lives a whole lot more having broken
2:40.4	that habit.
2:43.2	Well, the truth of the matter is that church is never optional.
2:50.7	What is needed is to find the mystery inherent in church.
3:00.4	A mystery that can be found nowhere else,
3:05.0	because church is the sphere within which union of people with the one that created them is accomplished.
3:18.3	I oftentimes quote St. Cyprian of Carthage, who said that no one can have God for his father who does not have the
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Christian Research Institute, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Christian Research Institute and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.