Good point 20yearfader, my church doesn't water down the bible--but there are many PC churches that have sprung up. My church is pretty hardcore, so if any young people were to leave over doctrine, it would probably be because they are looking for a watered down doctrine that tickles their ears.
"Christians Are Leaving Christianity by the Droves"
by designs 69 Replies latest social current
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Separation of Powers
I think at a local level that might be the case particularly with smaller commuities, but this doesn't address the fact that AMGE CHURCHES are springing up in metropolitan areas right and left.
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Junction-Guy
What are AMGE churches?
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LisaRose
A few years back Ophrah did a show that was an update to a show she did back in the eighties, during the height of the AIDS crisis. Back then most people had a lot of fear and distrust of gay people. She got these same people to come back on the show and asked them if they had changed their opinion, and almost all of them were much more accepting and tolerant of homosexuality.
There was a major shift in society since then, as more gays came out of the closet and people realized that people they already knew and loved were gay. Being gay is just not the big taboo it used to be. Churches will either change or become irrelevant. Even the Catholic church has indicated they are softening their stance on homosexuality.
You can quote the bible all day long, and there will always be haters, but most people are just not going for it anymore, especially among younger people. I don't know if people are leaving the church in droves, but I do think that people will drift to more tolerant churches, if they stay in a church at all. At one time the church was against giving women the vote and did not condemn slavery. Churches changed and adapted as society changed, and I believe they will on this issue as well.
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Junction-Guy
LisaRose, the American Churches were divided over slavery too.
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designs
Churches use to be the center of social activity, that has changed over the past 50 years.
I know with the JWs we use to have large scale Congregation picnics, then they got banned. A Church that functions only to hear a sermon and have little relavence to the community at large is sunk these days.
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Junction-Guy
I think most churches probably care more about relevance than doctrine, along with money, devotion etc etc etc which is why I can even see the JW's evolving. There will always be hardcore churches who don't water down the bible though and their numbers will drop for sure--the bible says so.
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jgnat
JG, there's a hard-core bible-believing church around here where members abstain from the "internet" (makes it deucedly difficult to find meaningful employment) and take the admonition not to be "unequally yoked" to an extreme (marry in the denomination, and blacks marry blacks, whites marry whites). Yes, their numbers will drop, from natural selection alone. But are they "pure"? Really? Or just stupidly fastidious?
The Essenes, the Quakers, and the Shakers faded in to history, too. Remaining pure to their beliefs to the end.
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Junction-Guy
The Shakers didn't believe in procreation--so naturally they died out.
The Quakers are still around, I believe
The Essenes, I have no clue who they are.
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designs
"Contemporary Service" became a big deal locally, Rock Bands in church to attract the young. I went to a Calvary Chapel church that had a soft-Rock Band. I would seem like a temporary fix.