USA Today reports on a survey that found Most religious groups in USA have lost ground:
"The percentage. of people who call themselves in some way Christian has dropped more than 11% in a generation. The faithful have scattered out of their traditional bases: The Bible Belt is less Baptist. The Rust Belt is less Catholic. And everywhere, more people are exploring spiritual frontiers — or falling off the faith map completely.
These dramatic shifts in just 18 years are detailed in the new American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), to be released today. It finds that, despite growth and immigration that has added nearly 50 million adults to the U.S. population, almost all religious denominations have lost ground since the first ARIS survey in 1990."
The USA article has a really cool graphic at the top which shows the sad decline in a variety of ways.
Here is the full report of the American Religious Identification Survey 2008. The survey found that the number of American adults who identify themselves as Christian has dramtically declined from 86% in 1990 to 76% in 2008.
It should be no surprise to parents that children in government schools end up questioning and doubting their faith. Public schools may not be openingly hostile to religion, but there are lots of subtle attacks. Science poh-pohs anyone who is "dumb" enough to believe in creation. Most sex education classes effectively teach that chasity is old fashion. History classes often focus on some horrible religious events, without providing context or balance. English classes have children read books that attack morality. The list goes on.
Homeschooling is a great way to avoid this trend. Daily scripture study is part of our instruction. Janine sits down with the girls in the morning, after I head off for work. They'll read a chapter or two.
Years ago we found that we could read to our girls and they would be quiet, but they weren't really listen. Janine asked a question about what we had just read. They didn't know. So we read the verse again. They still didn't have a clue. We read it again. They realized we could be there a long time, so they really listened, and do a pretty good job now of listening. It is exciting when they'll ask questions.
Dr. Brian Ray did a survey of homeschoolers in 2003. Dr. Ray works at the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI). The results of the survey were published in Home Educated and Now Adults. Dr. Ray found that over 94% of adults who had been homeschooled said that their beliefs were the same as their parents.
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5 comments:
Great post! While it is sad to see this decline in faith in our country, you're right - it really should come as no surprise. It really surprises me that more Christian families don't see the connection between sendng their kids to public schools and the growth of spiritual apathy in the U.S.
I am so thankful for the freedom to be able to educate my kids at home and include the study of our faith as part of every day.
Kris - thanks for the positive feedback. I am afraid that the current trends will only get worse. When public schools took off about 120 years ago they were largely supportive of Christian values. Some time government schools went to being relatively neutral. Now they are hostile.
More and more parents are recognizing there are serious problems in public schools, but there are still many who are comfortable with how government schools teach their children.
In Interesting screening test for perspective son-in-laws Shannon asked:
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Isn't that forcing your children to believe in something that they, at the time, we're intellectually ready to believe and/or learn? Additionally, by rereading it to them over and over, it seems as though you're forcing them to believe some standard of behavior and moral without letting them develop their own beliefs, ideas, and desires. And then a next few posts you mention the USA study wonder why religion is declining in America? I'd say it has something to do with the old-school way faith is installed on others. No wonder your children listened-they had no choice, as you say: "We read it again. They realized we could be there a long time, so they really listened, and do a pretty good job now of listening." Although your children, as you say, ask questions now, where's the independence and individual development in this structure?
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Since her question about was about this post, I'm going to respond here.
Shannon, I apologize that I wasn't clearer in my explanation. We reread a couple times to get the children to listen. When we started reading the scriptures they would tune out. The point I was trying to make was that our daughters realized that they needed to listen.
We do not demand that our children believe exactly the same as we believe. We do expect that they listen when we teach.
Parents have a responsibility to teach their children the best they know how.
Most changes and events in society have more than one cause. I acknowledge that some children leave their parents faith because some parents are controlling and demanding. However, for hundreds of years America has been a largely Christian nation. My analysis of the dramatic decline in religion is that it is due to factors outside the home.
Honestly, I think there hasn't been much of a real change in religious beliefs but rather people who in the past would've claimed some nominal affiliation are now more honest about being nonreligious.
Could be, though I think a hundred years ago a lot more people just accepted that there was a God. Now I think a lot more people in the middle ground are likely to to doubt.
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