Are Christians Driving Church Attendance Down?

By Paul Proctor | April 4, 2009 | NewsWithViews.com

The reports are everywhere now about the declining numbers of church members and baptisms – especially among Southern Baptists; so much so that church leaders address it at almost every opportunity as if attempting to somehow spark a zeal in remaining members like a coach might do in the locker room of a losing team at halftime.

Everyone is trying to figure out what’s wrong.

This might come as a shock to many, but I would suggest that the answer here might just be nothing is wrong – that those declining numbers that are troubling the pulpits of American churches right now may well be God’s will being carried out by His own being called out of a growing apostasy flourishing within them.

In no way am I condemning all established churches and religious institutions – so don’t misquote me or suggest to anyone that that is what I am doing here. It is not. I am only pointing to another exodus obviously underway and the largely overlooked reasons for it.

Being the recipient of untold numbers of emails over the years from heartbroken readers who have left or been thrown out of their churches for taking a biblical stand on important issues has given me a perspective that many pulpiteers and pew warmers are not privy to. It is, unfortunately, the view of the majority that those who don’t run with the majority are backsliders.

I don’t agree.

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Old Line Journalism Dying One Tweet at a Time

Today demonstrates well why old line print journalism involving large, corporately-owned media conglomerates is a dying breed.

In today's Des Moines Register, publisher Laura Hollingsworth describes the economic woes facing the newspaper:

Like all Iowans, we’ve already had a few months of tough decisions. We’ve dealt with a reduction in employees and a furlough program in hopes to avoid further layoffs in this volatile first quarter. We’re making tough, but necessary decisions. Some decisions have us setting aside what we want to do for what we need to do. Some simply accelerate what we were already planning, like increasing and expanding our digital content to meet the growing demand for it.

Starting on Monday, you will see some changes in the layout of The Des Moines Register. The headline is that we’ll be merging some sections and moving some features.

The bottom line is, of course, well, the bottom line. Newspapers like The Des Moines Register are losing subscribers (and advertisers) by the thousands. After all, who wants to pay for a subscription to a newspaper when you can read the same articles online 24/7?

Meanwhile, news organizations across the net are describing growing importance and power of microblogging services like Twitter.

The most recent illustration is the crash landing of US Airways flight 1549 in the Hudson River. The first tweets started hitting the Net only seconds following the crash. As MSNBC reports:

“There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people.”

Those words, hastily typed on Janis Krums’ iPhone just after US Airways flight 1549 crashed into the Hudson River on Thursday, marked yet another milestone in the microblogging revolution. Krums, a Sarasota, Fla., entrepreneur, posted his observations and a compelling photo of a half-submerged aircraft to Twitter, where it was seen by hundreds of people before any other media organization knew about the accident.

Red Ink Replacing Printer's Ink

In an Associated Press article reporting on the bankruptcy of The Minneapolis Star Tribute, writer Jeff Baenen describes what is happening within the newspaper industry:

The Star Tribune ranked as the nation's 15th-largest paper last October, with weekday circulation of about 322,000 and Sunday circulation of almost 521,000. The paper has nearly 1,400 employees.

The Star Tribune filing is the latest sign of the struggles facing the newspaper industry, which is coping with a deadly combination of high debt and declining advertising revenue amid a deep economic downturn.

In December, Tribune Co., which owns the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The (Baltimore) Sun, The Hartford Courant and other dailies, as well as 23 television stations and the Chicago Cubs baseball team, was forced to seek bankruptcy protection because of dwindling advertising revenues.

USA Today publisher Gannett Co. this week imposed one-week, unpaid furloughs for most U.S. employees. The Seattle Times has asked some employees to take a week off, and others have frozen wages. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is up for sale, with closure or an online-only future if no buyer is found.

As newspapers fight for survival, microblogging and the alternative media are growing at astronomical rates. As Elliott reports on MSNBC.com, "Seven out of 10 Twitter users joined just last year, according to the latest HubSpot 'State of the Twittersphere' report. Somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 Twitter accounts are opened every day. Most microbloggers have a small circle of friends — fewer than 30 — with whom they share their day-to-day thoughts."

An to think all of that growth is based on simple thoughts confined to a mere 140 characters. Incredible.

References:

"Register Announces Changes" by Laura Hollingsworth. The Des Moines Register, January 16, 2009.

"Changing Travel, One Tweet at a Time" by Christopher Elliott. MSNBC.com, January 16, 2009.

"Minneapolis' Star Tribune files Chapter 11" by Jeff Baenen. The Associated Press, January 15, 2009.

Google Enters Virtual World

PCMag.com is offering a preview/review of Google Lively (Beta). This is the online giant's entrance into the virtual world dominated by Second Life. Here is the summary of the article:

Lively gives you a 3D chat world with a very clear interface, and it makes getting into virtual worlds much easier than it is with Second Life or World of Warcraft, which both use far more sophisticated 3D rendering for much larger, more realistic worlds (and consequently require far more PC horsepower). Lively gives you nowhere near as rich an experience, but it's a decent way to test the waters. Because of the lack of depth and realistic physics, however, I can't really see Lively, in its current form, becoming a serious challenger to Second Life. It seems more of a phenomenon people will check out just once or twice before they move on.

Here is a video preview from YouTube:

Oil Prices Reach $135 A Barrel

The quotes below from two news stories on rising oil prices help to give some context to the crisis the U.S. faces in the coming months. I draw two conclusions from these articles:

1. Oil prices are not coming down. There are economist and politicians trying to make the point that oil will one day return to $40 or $50 a barrel, but their voices are slowly being shut out by the reality of the world market.
2. We can point our fingers at the oil companies, but oil companies do not control the supply of oil. This is controlled by oil producing countries, many of whom are not friendly to the U.S. (e.g. Russia, Iran, Venezuela).

MSNBC -- May 22, 2008 [Source Link]

As dire forecasts about runaway oil prices become reality, it’s impossible to know how much higher they’ll go. But the impact of the price surge already is  being widely felt. And if prices go much higher, the damage to the U.S. economy will be deeper and wider than the fallout from the run-up so far.

Oil prices have doubled in the past year and have shot up nearly 50 percent since January to a record $135 a barrel. Much of the rise appears to be driven by speculators betting that tight supplies — or outright shortages — will push prices even higher.

Consumers — already hit with rising prices and flat wages — are being stretched further. As the Memorial Day weekend kicks off the summer driving season, gasoline prices are at record levels, reaching a national average above $3.83 a gallon. Some analysts predict the average will break past $4 as early as next week. In some parts of the country, prices are already closing in on $5.

“We're already in a mild recession,” said Lakshman Achuthan, an economist at the Economic Cycle Research Institute. “I think if we go towards $150 (a barrel), we start talking about something worse than a mild recession.”

FinancialSense.com -- May 20, 2008 [Source Link]

The oil price is around $128 a barrel. As recently as last year we were being told that the price would probably not make it over $100. Now we are being told there’s plenty of oil, so the oil price should drop to $100 or lower. These platitudes are sounding pretty empty as we are told that O.P.E.C. is not supplying any more than they are at present. And still the oil price goes up. What is not clear is the long-term effects of an oil price forecast to move as high as $200 a barrel. This will be a major crisis in itself.

Who is Benefiting from High Oil Prices?

 

Indeed O.P.E.C. is presently happy with the market situation; for there are many moves that oil users can make to reduce the cost of fuel and oil should they wish to do so. They can halt speculation in oil, which would return a great volume of oil to the market for consumption, which would lower oil prices, but it would also mean to go against the Free Market principles that shape the entire developed world. 

Americans Watching a Way of Life Disappear?

Yesterday, crude oil reached $126 per barrel for the first time. That is a 25 percent increase year-to-date, and it isn't finished. Search the web, and it is easy to find broad-ranging opinions pointing towards $200 a barrel.

This is a life-changing catastrophe for Americans. As gas quickly approaches $4.00 a gallon, we must start to grapple with the concept of gas at the pump costing $5.00 to $6.00 and up.

For me personally, I now spend $75.00 each time I fill my 2002 Ford Windstar. Every time I make a 20-trip, I need to tack on an additional $4.00 in fuel expenses. Moreover, how will I respond when I have to pay $175.00 to fill my vehicle each time? I won't be able to afford to drive it.

Unlike many Americans, I am still fortunate. Most of my required travel (work, church, school, etc.) is within a relatively short distance from my home. There are many, however, who travel 40 to 50 miles or more each way from their home to their workplace. That will add up quickly! What will happen when millions of Americans start spending hundreds of dollars every month just to get to work?

You will start to see a spill-over effect in many other sectors of the economy. As Americans watch their discretionary income dry up due to high gas prices, large segments of the economy will struggle. Simply put, Americans will not be able to afford many extras as they pour their hard-earned money into their gas tanks.

Unfortunately, there is not a quick, easy fix to this problem. Wouldn't it be nice to have cars that rely on clean, affordable electricity instead of gasoline? Wouldn't it be nice if the US had a high-speed rail network operating on Electricity (like Europe) that connects the major cities in every state?

The problem is easy to see: even if our government leaders made the decision to "fix" the problem next week (A "War on Foreign Oil Dependency"), the relief is years away. Meanwhile, the American economy will shrivel and die.

As a historian, I am always looking for parallels, and this one appears easy to see: the years 1928-1932. If I was Barak Obama or John McCain, I would find some good books on Herbert Hoover and his Administration and study the decisions they made during this critical time period in American history. Hoover was a good man, and in normal times, would have made a good president. Unfortunately for him, he was the wrong man at the wrong time. America's bill came due during his term, and we couldn't pay it. Moreover, the policies his Administration implemented in an effort to combat the economic crisis only exasperated the problem. Ten years of hard economic depression followed.

Like Hoover, whoever wins the 2008 presidential election will likely face a historic crisis during his term in office. Like America in 1930-32, we will be incapable of dealing with the problems that could confront us in 2010 to 2012. It will take a couple of years of real pain before Americans of all levels are willing to accept the inevitable change that has come upon them. It is in times like these that either greatness or evil will rise. The United States elected FDR in 1932; Germans elected the Nazi party to a majority in the Reichstag and Adolf Hitler became chancellor.

Regardless of what the future holds, it is likely we  are watching a way of life Americans have enjoyed since 1946 come to an end. Our dependency on foreign oil is the root cause. We have enjoyed a carefree lifestyle for many decades, but now it's time to pay the bill.

References

$200 Oil Could Happen This Year - May 06, 2008
A Goldman Sachs analyst on Tuesday predicted that oil prices could reach $150 to $200 a barrel over the next 6 months to two years, but said that how far prices could climb still "remains a major uncertainty." Oil for June delivery hit a record of more than $120 a barrel Tuesday in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. MSNBC

China Projected to be World's Biggest Auto Market by Middle of Next Decade - May 06, 2008
China boasts the world's second-longest highway system at 1.1 million miles and has seen its auto production rise quickly, from only 220,000 passenger cars in 1993 to 2.34 million in 2004, according to IBM. With millions of new Chinese purchasing their first automobile, the demand for fuel in China will grow exponentially. MSBBC