The above line has been a running gag in my family ever since Dan Aykroyd killed John Lithgow in the opening of The Twilight Zone movie. I ask it now with seriousness.
If you want to see something really scary, check out this article and make sure you look at the Catholic numbers. Sure, these are 2008 numbers. And yes, I remember when this study came out and that the numbers were depressing. Holy smokes, though, the graph makes it look way worse.
On a brighter note, Catholicism is growing in the South. Immigration has a lot to do with that, I know. The thing that saddens me the most is that Louisiana is the only state in the South that's losing Catholics. Losing a lot. As in, more than just about every other state in the country.
On the flip side, Louisiana picked up more "other Christians" than any other state. The remaining "other Christian" notices for other states were in decline (except Rhode Island).
For those professing "no religion," every single state saw a gain, many of them quite substantial.
Ugh.
5 comments:
Isn't a lot of the Catholic population in Louisiana centered in New Orleans and didn't the state lose a lot of people after Katrina (and is probably going to lose more people after the Gulf Oil Spill).
Yes, but it's the 2 sides of the graph together that are so disturbing. If it was just a loss of Catholics, that would be bad but understandable given the items you mentioned.
The huge simultaneous increase in Protestants seems to indicate that there is more going on, though.
That is a good point, I would also credit some of the Catholic growth in Texas to be people fleeing Louisiana and some of it being growth in Hispanic population.
One thing that doesn't jive with the loss of Catholics vs the gain in "Christian" is it seems like younger people are being more drawn into a more traditional liturgy, though maybe that is the young and religious, I Think there are a lot of young people that are dropping religion completely (due to lackluster teaching by parents or churches or possibly other reasons).
I'll check your youtube clip when I have time Patmos. I agree. God loves, and people should read their Bibles. If they did, they would find their way to the Catholic Church, established by God Himself as His instrument of salvation on this earth.
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