I certainly don’t think there’s been a surge of atheism in this country, but there certainly has been a migration away from Christianity over the last 20 years or so. These folks are simply unaffiliated; they’ve simply disconnected from any religious affiliation, Christianity in particular. They don’t embrace any beliefs in particular, they’re not atheists or agnostics, and they don’t identify as Christian’s. They can’t really describe what they are, they just know what they’re not. And I don’t blame em’.
Maybe close to 25% of the total population, 35% of millennials, mostly males and mostly well educated, theologically apathetic…don’t know and don’t care, and don’t feel like they even need to know. They’re not hostile toward religion, they’re just not affiliated with it. And again, I don’t blame em’.
To me, the migration away from Christianity in this country is the church’s fault. The responsibility lies at the feet of the church. To me, the reason that so many people have disengaged from Christianity is not because of the message; it’s mostly because of the messengers. It’s not the fault of the unaffiliated that they've found Christianity so unappealing and unengaging and so irrational and so unscientific, and so ungracious; it’s the fault of the church.
When you open the Gospels, when you look at the way that Jesus interacted with people…and He’s the person whose at the very epicenter of everything Christians claim to believe and everything they do…you’ll see that people who were nothing like Jesus, liked Jesus. And you’ll see that He liked them back.
So maybe, if the version of Christianity that we’re seeing today isn’t attractive or compelling, maybe the church has the wrong version. There sure are a lotta deconversion stories out there. And I’ve never heard a deconversion story that had anything to do with who Jesus is. Many people have walked away from Christianity. And I think “why” is an important question that the church should be asking itself. It’s not appealing to so many people. And to me, in many cases, it’s not even accurate.
