Strib, beginning:
The men and women relaxing on yoga mats recently at a Minneapolis meditation center didn’t know it, but most belonged to the fastest-growing religion in America — none at all.
They included a former Lutheran who left the church because the Bible clashed with science, a former Catholic who became leery of its teachings, a former Baptist uninspired by Sunday services, a young man raised with no religion.
They reveal a major force behind the empty pews in churches across Minnesota and the nation. Nearly one in four Americans now declare themselves unaffiliated with any organized religion. An estimated 56 million strong, and growing, there are more of them than all mainline Protestants combined.
The church experience that was central to many of their parents’ lives has lost relevance and credibility.
“I can’t imagine that only one religion has access to the pearly gates,” said Lisa Pool, explaining her church breakup after class ended. “I realized there are all kinds of different paths to being a good person.”
The surge has Minnesota religious leaders wrestling with implications for the future of their churches, the future of Christianity. More than half of U.S. churches now see fewer than 100 worshipers on weekends, and they’re getting older, reports the Hartford Institute for Religion Research.
Particularly alarming is the plunge in church membership by people in their 20s and 30s. One in three are now churchless, according to the Pew Research Center. Faith leaders are racking their brains over how to reach these adults who may never step under a steeple.
"Pew Research" is an apt polling venture for this report. That said, I recall being forced into Saturday confirmation class by nonreligious parents, Ferguson's Evangelical and Reform Church, Rev. Paul Press conducting the thing, and on breaks staying out long to do snowball fights rather than reenter the building basement to suffer yet more indoctrination. I was confirmed, went one Easter, and after that ignored the unneeded distraction of mythology.
Opinions can differ, but read the Strib item. People do not need false ideas that death is not the end of it, because it is and a secular human morality is stronger than one where kneeling and seeking forgiveness permits a looser norm for transgressions against others than self awareness and self respect being moral compass guides.
After all, look at Wardlow. And look at truth and how Wardlow campaigned.
One Strib mid-item subhead, "Why They Leave," has several paragraphs readers might want to access. Why they never bought the story is yet another thought. Strib left that alone, perhaps seeing a third rail.
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This above screen capture says, indirectly, more irreverance is needed but thank Strib for acknowledging that which the pious pastors would rather keep under a hat; they're not assured of the cash flows they'd want and the adulation they feel entitled to receive. They are a political nuisance when activist; tolerable when helping a flock to be better and more tolerant people toward others. And when they stand in a pulpit and direlectly or insideously tell the flock how to vote they should be taxed the way any other business gets taxed. And audited.
Enough. Read Strib. And be thankful there are people who are totally appalled by the likes of Doug Wardlow.