Post re-natal depression: As the Bush administration continues its inexorable push toward an Ametrican theocracy, it appears that more and more of us — especially we “of an age” — are turning into born again Bible thumpers. At least that’s the finding of Ventura, Calif.-based Barna Group.
A recent survey by Barna found that 75 percent of senior pastors at U.S. Protestant churches consider their church to be “evangelical.” Barna says this is explained by the findings of his most recent national survey. In that study, 1,003 adults from the 48 continental states were randomly interviewed. The number of adults who could be classified as “born again Christians” based upon their beliefs (not on their use of that phrase to describe themselves) was 45 percent.
Barna defines “born again Christians” as “people who said they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today and who also indicated they believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior.”
I’m sorry, but I find it very difficult to believe that nearly half of Americans can be described as born agains. But Barna’s historical numbers do support his trend:
In 1983 the number 31 percent; from 1992 through 2005, the percentage hovered in the 36 percent to 43 percent range. Barna attributes the increase to — you guessed it — a 16-point rise in rebirths in Jesus among us Baby Boomers since 1990. Barna says 53 percent of Boomers meet his born again criteria, surpassing the percentage of born again adults in the two preceding generations.
Here are some more Barna findings:
Other demographic comparisons indicate that women are 16 percent more likely than men to be born again. African-Americans are the ethnic group most likely to be born again (59 percent), while Hispanics were barely half as likely (32 percent). Residents of the South remain the most committed to Christ (57 percent were born again), while those in the West (33 percent) and Northeast (37 percent) were least committed.
The rest of the U.S. populace can be broken down into the following categories:
Evangelicals, which represent 9 percent of the adult public, are born again but also possess each of seven core beliefs:
Those include saying their faith is very important in their life today; believing they have a personal responsibility to share their religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians; believing that Satan exists; believing that eternal salvation is possible only through grace, not works; believing that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; asserting that the Bible is accurate in all that it teaches; and describing God as the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the universe and still rules it today.
Non-evangelical born agains constitute 36 percent of adults. They have made a personal commitment to Christ and believe they will go to heaven after they die because they have confessed their sins and accepted Jesus Christ as their savior.
Notional Christians are people who describe themselves as Christian, but do not meet Barna’s born again criteria. He says these have declined from 46 percent in 1991 to 36 percent today.
Barna says adults who are aligned with faiths other than Christianity and those who consider themselves to be atheist or agnostic, account for less than 10 percent of the population. Let’s see, that would include Catholics, Episcopalians, Latter Day Saints, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, etc., right?
Wrong!
Barna’s numbers don’t match up with census demographics, which in 2001 found there were 159 million Christians in the United States, or 76.7 percent of the population. But of those, 50.8 million were Catholic and 33.8 million were Baptist, or 24.5 percent versus 16.3 percent, respectively.
The census only found 1 million self-described evangelicals, or .5 percent of the population, and only 56,000 adults who described themselves as born again, which comes out to 0.0 percent of the population. There were 2.8 million Jews (1.4 percent), 1.1 million Muslims (.5 percent) and a million Buddhists.
However, the nation is moving in the “right direction spiritually,” according to Barna:
“The same tracking survey shows us that people’s faith is not at all deep, but at least more people are becoming attuned to the importance of the life, death, resurrection and message of Jesus Christ. Faith is a progressive journey, so we are hopeful that the recent surge in the number of adults who say they have committed themselves to following Jesus Christ is the first in a series of steps toward maturity in their faith and relationship with Christ.”
The problem with Barna’s surveys is he always finds what he is looking for — more Christians than there were yesterday. I’m sure his methodology is flawed, since he doesn’t explain where he gets his lists of phone numbers (probably a database of church directories).
But to me, Barna’s bad data is dangerous. It’s clear that this country is being pushed toward a Christian theocracy dynamic by the Bush administration and the increasingly powerful religious right. Barna provides such groups with self-serving demographics that can make them seem more powerful than they are.
As this small portion of the population continues to push its conservative, religious, intolerant agenda, influencing public policy, legislation and the Supreme Court, we will continue to move toward a theocratic state, one capable of mounting a religious crusade against the non-believers.
Oh yeah, we already did that in Muslim Afghanistan and Iraq.
And yet we’re also told that there is a “war on Christianity,” which is codespeak for anything that stops them from forcing their religion on others.
GWB is a born-again fraud.
Never heard him quote scriptures.
Wish I could find links if he did.
Rove was his John the Baptist.
He’s writing his own Book of Revelations. He thinks Matthew Mark and Luke were a C&W trio.
At the GOP debates in 1999 he said Jesus was his favorite philosopher.
Yea right!
More like Orwell.
Born-againism is on the rise only because, compared to what’s billed as a heavenly paradise, what’s the earth got to offer, other than the same old, same old, business as usual status quo? It doesn’t have to be that way. We can build a world to match the greatness of us living beings. How? We the people see to it, that’s how. Could be starting now, too; what with 500,000 plus marching in Los Angeles this past weekend for justice and equality. Now we need the same number of people (at least) out in the streets demanding troops home from Iraq, a similar number calling for health care for all and so on and so forth until, suddenly, there’s a fusion of all this energy. It’s called revolution. Totally peaceful, of course. with anyone advocating violence being either an idiot or a government provacateur. That’ll put heaven on hold because folks will be too busy taking control of their own destiny to even think about the so-called after-life. No need to be born-again. Life will be too enjoyable, too rich, too blessed. Is everyone ready?
My take on all this is that religion is a function of the ability of the human brain to become addicted easily. it is a fully approved addictive drug that we recreate all the time to fit our needs. We will find it impossible to ever grow out of it. These people have a certain need (power and control probably) and they simply recreate their drug to fit–neat and tidy and incredibly useful since we are all required to “RESPECT THEIR BELIEFS”.
I am Christian and reject dogma of organisation.My questions include: who edited the Bible? who translated the Bible? who interprets Christ’s speech? Why does anyone need to be told how to “Love thy neighbor as you love yourself”?Or “Judge not lest ye be judged and by the same measure”? These things are as self evident as all men are created equal. I will not be dictated by some urserer when and where to dispense what is Ceasar’s.Or how to pray.Community is defined as church, “Where ever two are gathered in My name” not some mega propaganda complex.
This is not a hate speech or any attacks. It is my conclusion after seeing BA’s in action and forcing their beliefs on the weak and naive. Lord knows when Christ was on this earth he did not practice this.
Born agains are freaks plain and simple.
They have been brainwashed to the point they will lie, cheat, and sneak to get what they want in business, with friends and family, and slaughter you with THEIR view of the Bible. They prey on the under educated (Africa is a favorite target), jail birds (meetings with those in jail), naive teens in their development stages of making informed judgments, and anyone else who is an easy target. They all hate Catholics…I’ve even read about a born again mission to Ireland to rescue women that were forced to be nuns! These people are wacked! In comparison they are as dangerous to a society as Hitler’s Gestapo was in Europe.
When you run into one, don’t be nice since that is one of their sneaky tactics and run as far way from them as you can. If you are in a store or in line to purchase something, drop it and tell the manager on your way out you don’t want to shop there because of born again freaks solicitation on their premise.
The born again club/society has gone far enough. God only speaks to BA’s, only BA’s will go to heaven, and on and on with their hypocrisy. Since they are brainwashed to the danger point, it is hard or impossible to stop them. Any engagement with them is usually fruitless because they are so clever and manipulative and have so many HIDDEN agendas. You can not trust them in any way, form shape, or matter. Period.