What to Understand about Christianity’s Decline in America

Quick to Listen

Christianity Today

Religion, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.3 • 622 Ratings

🗓️ 27 November 2019

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Transcribed highlights of the show can be found in our episode summaries. Last month, Pew Research Center published survey data from 2018 and 2019 on religion and Americans. The big takeaway: the number of non-religiously affiliated Americans was growing; the number of Christians was declining. Here’s how they summed it up: "The changes underway in the American religious landscape are broad-based. The Christian share of the population is down and religious “nones” have grown across multiple demographic groups: white people, black people and Hispanics; men and women; in all regions of the country; and among college graduates and those with lower levels of educational attainment. Religious “nones” are growing faster among Democrats than Republicans, though their ranks are swelling in both partisan coalitions. And although the religiously unaffiliated are on the rise among younger people and most groups of older adults, their growth is most pronounced among young adults." To talk about these numbers and what they suggest about the future of Christianity in the US, Quick to Listen turned to CT’s news editor Daniel Silliman, who has closely studied American religious life. Daniel joined digital media producer Morgan Lee and editor in chief Mark Galli to discuss why Christianity continues to decline, the relationship that “nones” have to faith, and what similarities or differences these numbers have with the religious situation in Western Europe. This episode of Quick to Listen is brought to you in part by Intensional. D.A. Horton unpacks how God addresses these issues and where to take it from there in his new book Intensional. Go to dahorton.com to learn more about Intensional. This episode of Quick to Listen is also brought to you by Christianbook.com, your go-to source for everything Christian. Books, Bibles, gifts, music and more, all in one place. And always from people who share your values. Go to Christianbook.com. What is “Quick to Listen”? Read more Subscribe to Quick to Listen on Apple Podcasts Follow the podcast on Twitter Follow our host on Twitter: Morgan Lee Subscribe to Mark’s newsletter: The Galli Report Follow our guest on Twitter: D aniel Silliman Music by Sweeps Quick to Listen is produced by Morgan Lee and Matt Linder Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you in part by The Apologetics Guy Show, the podcast that helps you find clear answers to tough questions about Christianity.
0:11.1	Learn to explain your faith with courage and compassion. Join Moody Bible Institute professor Dr. Mikhail Del Rosario at apologeticsky.com.
0:22.6	Last week, Pew Research Center published survey data from 2018 and 2019 on religion in Americans.
0:29.6	Here's how their write-up of this data was framed.
0:33.6	In U.S., decline of Christianity continues at rapid pace. I'm going to read some of
0:39.2	Pew summation of its numbers. Before I proceed, I just wanted to clarify one thing, which is that
0:45.1	when we say the word nun, it refers to someone who is not religiously affiliated. The changes
0:50.3	underway in the American religious landscape are broad-based. The Christian share of the population is down, and religious nuns have grown across multiple
0:58.4	demographic groups.
0:59.7	White people, black people and Hispanics, men and women, in all regions of the country,
1:04.8	and among college graduates and those with lower levels of educational attainment.
1:08.6	Religious nuns are growing faster among Democrats than Republicans, though their ranks are swelling in both partisan coalitions.
1:14.5	And although the religiously unaffiliated are on the rise among younger people and most groups of older adults, their growth is most pronounced among young adults.
1:21.9	We wanted to talk about what this new Pew Report says and what it means for American evangelicals at large.
1:32.4	It is Wednesday, October 23rd.
1:35.2	This is quick to listen, where we go beyond hashtags and hot takes, discuss a major cultural event.
1:40.8	I'm Morgan Lee, Associate Digital Media Producer here at Christianity today. And I'm Mark
1:45.1	Alley, editor-in-chief. All right, Mark, I would love us to do a gut check and for us to have a chance to kind of react.
2:04.4	When I first read it, it was, okay, haven't we heard that before? What else is new? But then I started
2:10.1	reading a number of people decided they wanted to comment on this report. And the way they were
2:14.8	talking about it struck me that maybe there was something new in the
2:17.7	report or something more dramatic about the decline. So I thought, frankly, it would be a good
	...

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