Coming Up For Air

If you’ve wondered where I’ve been lately, I’ve been getting ready for an audit at work, and have been swamped with all the required paperwork for that. I’ve also been preparing for a major project (at work, again) that takes place every October. Since atheist chaplains have to pay bills too, I’ve had to give the bulk of my attention and energy to those things in recent days.

Thanks to all of you who have left comments, sent me emails, etc. I should be back soon.

– the chaplain

 

A Really Bad Day

Have you ever had a day as bad as this guy’s?

Have a nice day!

– the chaplain

 

Another Irony Meter Busted

I saw this advertisement in a Christian publication:

You’ll have to excuse me for not taking seriously Mr. Jon Johnston’s message extolling the virtue of anonymity. Why should I, when he didn’t heed his own advice?

– the chaplain

 

Switched Out, Switched In, Switched Off

A Barna Group poll of 2,004 American adults, revealed that 12.5% of American adults have “switched out” of Christianity and into atheism, agnosticism or another faith. In the meantime, only 3% of American adults have switched into Christianity.

The former Christians who switched out of their childhood faith cited several reasons – none of which will surprise you – for doing so:

• gaining new knowledge or education
• feeling disillusioned with church and religion
• feeling the church is hypocritical
• having negative experiences in churches
• being in disagreement with Christianity about specific issues such as homosexuality, abortion or birth control
• feeling the church is too authoritarian
• wanting to express their faith outside of church
• searching for a new faith
• wanting to experience other religions

American adults who switched into Christianity did so for familiar reasons:

• going through difficult life events
• getting older and seeing life differently
• wanting to connect with a church and grow spiritually
• discovering Christ
• wanting to know what was in the Bible

Now, before we non-Christians get too excited about these statistics, we’ve got to remember that there are still many Christians in the USA. Tens of millions of them. Their numbers may be declining, but they’re not in danger of going extinct anytime soon. Furthermore, even though adults are leaving Christianity at a rate 4 times higher than they’re entering it, millions of child-replacements are being indoctrinated into Christianity every day. Some of those children will likely leave their churches when they become adults, but many of them probably won’t. After all, for every American adult who switched out of Christianity, seven others didn’t flip their switches at all. Assuming that at least some of those people were reared in a religious tradition (a pretty safe assumption in the USA), one conclusion is ineluctable: many Americans are still sitting in the dark.

– the chaplain