APOSTASY

United Methodists Lose One-Fourth of their Churches in the ‘Largest Denominational Divide’ Since Civil War

https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/united-methodists-lose-one-fourth-of-their-churches-in-the-largest-denominational-divide-since-civil-war.html

(7) Paul Rolland, Night Watchman, Night Watchman Ministries | (7) Christian Apostasy & Revealing the Man of Sin

Paul Rolland| Night Watchman | Night Watchman Ministries |The (5) False Prophet Endorses the World’s (7) Worship of the Beast and His Image

Apostasy and Revealing the ‘Man of Sin’. America’s nonreligious are a growing, diverse phenomenon. They really don’t like organized religion. ‘They Fall For Anything and Anyone.’

By PETER SMITH PUBLISHED OCTOBER 5, 2023

Mike Dulak grew up Catholic in Southern California, but by his teen years, he began skipping Mass and driving straight to the shore to play guitar, watch the waves and enjoy the beauty of the morning. “And it felt more spiritual than any time I set foot in a church,” he recalled. Nothing has changed that view in the ensuing decades.  

“Most religions are there to control people and get money from them,” said Dulak, now 76, of Rocheport, Missouri. He also cited sex abuse scandals in Catholic and Southern Baptist churches. “I can’t buy into that,” he said.

As Dulak rejects being part of a religious flock, he has plenty of company. He is a “none” — no, not that kind of nun. The kind that checks “none” when pollsters ask “What’s your religion?”

The decades-long rise of the nones — a diverse, hard-to-summarize group — is one of the most talked about phenomena in U.S. religion. They are reshaping America’s religious landscape as we know it.

In U.S. religion today, “the most important story without a shadow of a doubt is the unbelievable rise in the share of Americans who are nonreligious,” said Ryan Burge, a political science professor at Eastern Illinois University and author of “The Nones,” a book on the phenomenon.

The nones account for a large portion of Americans, as shown by the 30% of U.S. adults who claim no religious affiliation in a survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Other major surveys say the nones have been steadily increasing for as long as three decades.

So who are they?

They’re the atheists, the agnostics, the “nothing in particular.” They’re the “spiritual but not religious,” and those who are neither or both. They span class, gender, age, race and ethnicity.

While the nones’ vast diversity splinters them into myriad subgroups, most of them have this in common:

They. Really. Don’t. Like. Organized. Religion.

Nor its leaders. Nor its politics and social stances. That’s according to a large majority of nones responding to the survey.

But they’re not just a statistic. They’re real people with unique relationships to belief and nonbelief, and the meaning of life.

They’re secular homeschoolers in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, Pittsburghers working to overcome addiction. They’re a mandolin maker in a small Missouri River town, a former evangelical disillusioned with that particular strain of American Christianity. They’re college students who found their childhood churches unpersuasive or unwelcoming.

Church “was not very good for me,” said Emma Komoroski, a University of Missouri freshman who left her childhood Catholic religion in her mid-teens. “I’m a lesbian. So that was kind of like, oh, I didn’t really fit, and people don’t like me.”

The nones also are people like Alric Jones, who could cite bad experiences with organized religion that ranged from the intolerant churches of his hometown to the ministry that kept soliciting money from his devout late wife — even after Jones lost his job and income after an injury.  

“If it was such a Christian organization, and she was unable to send money, they should have come to us and said, ‘Is there something we can do to help you?’” said Jones, 71, of central Michigan. “They kept sending us letters saying, ‘Why aren’t you sending us money?’”

Although he doesn’t believe in organized religion, he believes in God and basic ethical precepts. “People should be treated equally as long as they treat other people equally. That’s my spirituality if you want to call it that.”  

These days, if a visiting relative wants to attend church, he’ll go along, “but I’m not prone to listening to anybody telling me this is the way it should be,” Jones said.  

About 1 in 6 U.S. adults surveyed, including Jones and Dulak, is a “nothing in particular.” There are as many of them as atheists and agnostics combined (7% each).

“All the media attention is on atheists and agnostics, when most nones are not atheist or agnostic,” Burge said.

About half of nothings in particular say they’re “spiritual but not religious,” and some say they’re both.

Many embrace a range of spiritual beliefs — from God, prayer and heaven to karma, reincarnation, astrology or energy in crystals.

“They are definitely not as turned off to religion as atheists and agnostics are,” Burge said. “They practice their own type of spirituality, many of them.”

Dulak still draws inspiration from nature.

“It just feels so good to be next to something so timeless,” he said, sitting in his yard beneath a rustling hackberry tree in the Missouri River town he now calls home.

He finds similar fulfillment in his two-story workshop, where he makes the latest of thousands of mandolins he has created over the decades, enabling people to “share the joy of music.”  

“It feels spiritually good,” Dulak said. “It’s not a religion.”

Burge said the nones are rising as the Christian population declines, particularly the “mainline” or moderate to liberal Protestants.

“This is not just some academic exercise for me,” said Burge, who pastors a dwindling American Baptist church in Mt. Vernon, Illinois. It’s “what I’ve seen every single Sunday of my life the last 16 years.”

The statistics show the nones are well-represented in every age group, but especially among young adults. About four in 10 of those under 30 are nones — nearly as many as say they’re Christians.

The trend was evident in interviews on the University of Missouri campus. Several students said they didn’t identify with a religion.

Mia Vogel said she likes “the foundations of a lot of religions — just love everybody, accept everybody.” But she considers herself more spiritual.

“I’m pretty into astrology. I’ve got my crystals charging up in my window right now. Honestly, I’ll bet half of it is a total placebo. But I just like the idea that things in life can be explained by greater forces.”

 – Mia Vogel, a student at the University of Missouri.

One movement that exemplifies the “spiritual but not religious” ethos is the Twelve Step sobriety program, pioneered by Alcoholics Anonymous and adopted by other recovery groups. Participants turn to a “power greater than ourselves” — the God of each person’s own understanding — but they don’t share any creed.

“If you look at the religions, they have been wracked by scandals, it doesn’t matter the denomination,” said the Rev. Jay Geisler, an Episcopal priest who is spiritual advisor at the Pittsburgh Recovery Center, an addiction treatment site.  

In contrast, “there’s actually a spiritual revival in the basement of many of the churches,” where recovery groups often meet, he said.

For some, Geisler said, the God of their understanding is “GUS,” for Guy Up Stairs. Or “SAM,” for Sure Ain’t Me.  

“Nobody’s fighting in those rooms, they’re not saying, ‘You’re wrong about God,’” Geisler said. The focus is on “how your life is changed.”

Participants echoed those thoughts recently at the center. In keeping with the Twelve Step tradition of anonymity, they shared their experiences on condition only their first names be used.

“I grew up Methodist, but I don’t follow any religion,” said John, 32. “I don’t believe in a big, bearded dude in the sky.” But after surviving overdoses, he knows that “something has been watching over me.”  

Some identified as Christian, but skip evangelizing in favor of supporting each others’ individual paths.

“I don’t push my belief on anybody,” said Linda, 57. “The pain bonds us.”

All those interviewed said their new found community is essential to their recovery — and the lack of community contributed to their initial fall into addiction.

Scholars worry that, as people pull away from congregations and other social groups, they are losing sources of communal support. 

But nones said in interviews they were happy to leave religion behind, particularly in toxic situations, and find community elsewhere. 

Jones agreed that church connections can have benefits — but not for him.

“When you need references and you need other things, those people are there to support you,” he said. “But again, what are you willing to sacrifice of your own beliefs to develop that kind of relationship?”

Marjorie Logman, 75, of Aurora, Illinois, now finds community among other residents in her multigenerational apartment complex, and in her advocacy for nursing home residents. She doesn’t miss the evangelical circles she was long active in.

“The farther away I get, the freer I feel,” she said, criticizing churches for prioritizing money over caring for people.  

She said she’s seen church leaders tell people with depression their problem was sin or demonic possession — piling guilt upon unaddressed mental illness. She has been dismayed by churches suppressing cases of sexual misconduct.

Logman said when she was recovering from an injury at a nursing home in 2010, her husband was “home by himself in despair” and died before she could return home. She said her pastor refused her request to visit him because he hadn’t been involved in church.

She now identifies as agnostic. “I’m not throwing in the towel on everything,” she said. “I still believe in a higher consciousness.”

Nones are finding community even in places far from the urban centers.

Adria Cays and Ashley Miller, who live in nearby towns in northwest Arkansas, helped found a group for parents homeschooling according to secular principles. The group has organized mutual support and regular activities.  

Even in a predominately Christian region of the Ozarks, they found “people like us who were approaching education and just raising their children from a more secular view,” said Miller, 35.

Cays and Miller also regularly share their families’ hiking adventures throughout the Ozarks on Instagram. While they don’t describe their explorations as spiritual, they aim to inspire wonder and purpose in their children.

“We really want them to have a deep connection to nature and be connected with the changes of the seasons and all of the tiny things that make up an ecosystem,” said Cays, 43.

“We are part of something bigger, and that is the Earth. There is meaning just in being.”

 –  Ashley Miller, a mother from northwest Arkansas who helped found a group for parents homeschooling according to secular principles.

The poll of 1,680 adults was conducted May 11-15 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based Amerispeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.  

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

(7) Deception in the Church | End Times Teaching | Jimmy Evans

(7) Fake Christianity | This Is Happening In So (7) Many Church But People Don’t See it

(7) This Biblical End Time Prophecy Was FULFILLED (7) THIS YEAR, But People Don’t Realize It

Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ testifies who is he is and his offer of salvation for mankind, through the forgiveness of their sins, the shedding of his blood and his resurrection. Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus communicates (witnesses) the who, what, where, when, why and how of mankind’s salvation. This is known as the gospel of Jesus Christ. Once again, seven (7) references regarding the Holy Spirit witnessing to Christ denotes God’s divine purpose and plan.

In His Service,

Night Watchman

Paul Rolland

Night Watchman Ministries

Make Your (7) Decision for Christ NOW!!!!!!! Time is Up!!!!!!!

Jesus Christ’s Offer of Salvation:

The ABCs (7) of Salvation through Jesus Christ (the Lamb)

A. (7) Admit/Acknowledge/Accept that you are sinner. Ask (7) God’s forgiveness and repent of your sins.

. . . “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23).

. . . “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10).

. . . “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8).

B. Believe Jesus is Lord. Believe that (7) Jesus Christ is who He claimed to (7) be; that He was both fully God (7) and fully man and that we are (7) saved through His death, burial, and resurrection. (7) Put your trust in Him as your (7) only hope of salvation. Become a son (7) or daughter of God by receiving Christ. (7777777) 7×7

. . . “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (John 3:15-17). For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13).

C. Call upon His name, Confess (7) with your heart and with your lips (7) that Jesus is your Lord and Savior.

. . . “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:9-10).

. . . “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” (John 1:8-10).

. . . “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (John 2:2).

. . . “In this was manifested the love of god toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.” (1 John 4:9, 14-15).

. . . “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:8-10).

. . . “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23).

. . . “Jesus saith unto them, I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6).

. . . “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.” (Romans 1:16).

. . . “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts: 4:12).

. . . “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth for there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:4-6).

. . . “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:9).

. . . “But as many as received him, to them gave the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” (John 1:12).

True Church / Bride of Christ Spared from God’s Wrath:

 Romans 5:8-10. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”

Romans 12:19. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 1:10. And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

1 Thessalonians 5:9. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

Romans 8:35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Jeremiah 30:7. Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.

Revelation 3:10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.