By "we", I assume that you are talking about people who call themselves Christians? (all three definitions)barnhart wrote: ↑Wed May 20, 2026 12:20 pmWhat 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.
I don't use the term "we" as you use it because I have never been part of a church that sanctioned those things.
The folks who did sanction those things now sanction divorce and remarriage, some sanction abortion, and some sanction hedonism. Whole swaths of the "Christian" population sponsor and pay tribute to events/careers that wreck people's bodies. And many spend thousands of dollars to attend these sports while their neighbors struggle to provide for basic needs or pay for health services. "Worship" for many has devolved into an ear splitting, head pounding, heart racing noise. Overall, the "Christian" populace seems to have little guilt about many sins, and if they do have guilt, it is often over things that is not guilt from God. Americans spend 158 billion annually on pets which if "Christians" spend as much as non-Christians, that is about 100 billion annually. Only about 11-15% of Christians are actually in church on any given Sunday which is much different than 75 years ago when it was about 45%. It seems to me that these things are nearly as bad if not as bad.
So yes, I agree that some things are much better. Other things are much worse.