Is American Christianity in Decline?

[Bootstrap]

I have read articles that claim:

1. American Christianity is in decline.
2. American Christianity is beginning to see massive revival, and the loudest forms of Christianity are at the forefront.
3. American Christianity is seeing revival, but mostly in "new wineskins", not the traditional churches.

They can't all be right. At most, one of these is true.

How do you see it? What evidence is there for your view?

[JohnH]

I recently read an article that claimed all 3... in the same article. (Can't find it right now.) It had a bunch of bemoaning about the decline in church attendance, religiosity, etc., then claimed some kind of big revival is happening with young people in Catholic, Orthodox etc churches, then claimed there was some groundswell of increasing attendance.

[JimFoxvog]

Church attendance is down. A decline in cultural Christianity does not mean a decline in real Christianity.

Real evangelicalism is being replaced by "Christian" nationalism. I had believed that most of these evangelicals were real Christians. No, I'm not sure, but if so, this represents a decline in American Christianity.

[Soloist]

I’m not sure… anecdotally as a child it seems like churches were opening everywhere and now it seems like there is multiple dying or closed churches everywhere.
The consumer culture seems to be the norm with church hopping to find one that fits your preferences and just in application to our culture, this line of thinking is very common as well and telling someone to find a church that shares their views or to find somewhere else they can submit to is far more common then changing beliefs/practices of either the church or attending person.
The desire to recruit more warm bodies seems common in mainstream churches while the Anabaptist (conservative side) seems more focused internally.
Covid accelerated some of this decline, after all, if church can be attended online with no loss or it being even looked at as a good thing then why bother returning to how things were?

[Ernie]

I think American Christianity is in decline overall, even if there are places here and there where it is growing and flourishing.

I define Christian as follows:
1. A Christian is someone who believes in Jesus, loves Jesus, follows Jesus, obeys Jesus, follows the Apostles' doctrine, and does so within the context of an accountable church community.

A second definition is similar to the definition that sociologists and journalists use when they use the term, Christian. (This is not how the term was defined originally from what I can understand from the book of Acts and early Christian history.)
2. A Christian is one who believes (gives mental ascent) in the God of the Bible and believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

A third definition applies to those who are more committed than #2 but have some bad theology.
3. A Christian is one believes in God and Jesus (gives mental ascent) and is one who endeavors to follow some basic moral teachings of the Bible as well as the teachings of the New Testament writers. But they are misguided on some fairly significant matters due to how they read the Bible overall.

If we are using definition 1, I'm not sure whether Christianity is in decline or not. (This sort of Christianity has always been rare.)

If we are using definition 2, then I definitely think Christianity is on the decline based on the number of people who losing their belief in God and in the inspiration of scripture.

If we are using definition 3, then I think Christianity has been in major decline for nearly a century. Overall, these sorts of Christians have been dropping moral teachings as well as teachings of the New Testament writers right and left.

Here are further definitions.
https://forum.mennonet.com/viewtopic.ph ... 42#p268542

[Judas Maccabeus]

I think American Christianity is in decline overall, even if there are places here and there where it is growing and flourishing.

I define Christian as follows:
1. A Christian is someone who believes in Jesus, loves Jesus, follows Jesus, obeys Jesus, follows the Apostles' doctrine, and does so within the context of an accountable church community.

A second definition is similar to the definition that sociologists and journalists use when they use the term, Christian. (This is not how the term was defined originally from what I can understand from the book of Acts and early Christian history.)
2. A Christian is one who believes (gives mental ascent) in the God of the Bible and believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

A third definition applies to those who are more committed than #2 but have some bad theology.
3. A Christian is one believes in God and Jesus (gives mental ascent) and is one who endeavors to follow some basic moral teachings of the Bible as well as the teachings of the New Testament writers. But they are misguided on some fairly significant matters due to how they read the Bible overall.

If we are using definition 1, I'm not sure whether Christianity is in decline or not. (This sort of Christianity has always been rare.)

If we are using definition 2, then I definitely think Christianity is on the decline based on the number of people who losing their belief in God and in the inspiration of scripture.

If we are using definition 3, then I think Christianity has been in major decline for nearly a century. Overall, these sorts of Christians have been dropping moral teachings as well as teachings of the New Testament writers right and left.

Here are further definitions.
https://forum.mennonet.com/viewtopic.ph ... 42#p268542

Definition 1 was a small minority always. It is the only one that I would consider within the absolute limits of Christianity.

The other was never Christian to begin with.

[JohnH]

Definition 1 seems to require church / church membership / church attendance - would you agree someone who doesn’t attend church at all can’t be a “Christian”?

[Judas Maccabeus]

Definition 1 seems to require church / church membership / church attendance - would you agree someone who doesn’t attend church at all can’t be a “Christian”?

First of all, I don't know who can and cannot be a Christian. I just know if somebody gives evidence of being a Christian.

And I like some, well, I do believe that salvation is solely by faith given through grace, I do put conditions on what kind of faith is saving faith. If somebody is truly regenerated, if somebody is truly reborn in Christ, his behavior will definitely change and begin to reflect the spiritual transformation that has taken place within him. One of these includes obedience to God's word, and manifesting a love for the breathing, I could justify all this with specific verses, but I'd rather not bore you with that.

In other words, if a person claims to be a Christian, and shows none of the evidence of being a Christian, such as love for the breathing, not forsaking the assembling of themselves, then, while I do not know whether they are not a Christian, they certainly aren't giving me any reason to believe they are.

While one could summarize their are places in the world, where is impossible to meet, if it is impossible, then one cannot hold them to the standard, but if it is possible, the natural inclination, the natural urging of a person that is truly regenerate, truly born again, truly a believer will be to meet with a body of believers, and will exhibit that love of the brother. While salvation is solely by faith, not meeting with the brother and her not being part of a body of believers is certainly not evidence that would give Creedence to such a testimony.

[barnhart]

I think American Christianity is in decline overall, even if there are places here and there where it is growing and flourishing.

This raises questions for me besides the question of who IS a Christian (which is a worthy topic in a country where the governing administration hosts events in the Capitol to "rededicate" the country to God). What is decline and how would we measure it? American Christians no longer enslave one another or support defacto regimes of terror and suppression. We no longer kill people and move onto their land while the ground is still wet with blood. We don't burn witches or break Quakers and Baptists on the wheel for public preaching. We no longer drive people out in the winter for supporting the right of native people to believe as they choose. I would think all these represent an increase in the authentic Christianity.

[JohnH]

I think American Christianity is in decline overall, even if there are places here and there where it is growing and flourishing.

This raises questions for me besides the question of who IS a Christian (which is a worthy topic in a country where the governing administration hosts events in the Capitol to "rededicate" the country to God). What is decline and how would we measure it? American Christians no longer enslave one another or support defacto regimes of terror and suppression. We no longer kill people and move onto their land while the ground is still wet with blood. We don't burn witches or break Quakers and Baptists on the wheel for public preaching. We no longer drive people out in the winter for supporting the right of native people to believe as they choose. I would think all these represent an increase in the authentic Christianity.

Er… American Christians are quite okay, as a whole, with slavery as long as it’s conveniently outsourced overseas and are also generally OK with many kinds of warfare and resultant bloodshed.

I suppose the increase in plain Anabaptists is a good thing, lots more of those than their used to be, and they are by population basically the entire future of the “peace churches”.