A research of religious trends indicates that the future of America’s majority religion is questionable, as the percentage of Christians is projected to plummet to as low as 35 percent by 2070 as millions turn agnostic, atheist, or unaffiliated.
[
According to the Pew Research Center, the percentage of U.S. adults identifying as Christians has decreased from 90 percent in the 1990s to 64 percent today, and will likely continue to decline in the following decades, becoming a minority faith.
The reduction is a result of Christians converting to ‘nones’ — a secular mix of atheists, agnostics, and those with no religious identity — whose population is projected to increase from 30 to 52 percent by 2070.
Pew predicts that adherents of various faiths, including Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists, whose current proportion is approximately 6% of the population, will quadruple in proportion, with immigration being the primary driver rather than conversions.
Several damaging sex abuse scandals and cover-ups in the Catholic, Southern Baptist, Mormon, and other churches have accelerated the drift away from Christianity in a significant portion of the developed world.
Researchers at Pew forecasted alternative religious scenarios for the United States based on birthrates, migration trends, and demographic variables such as age and sex.
Christianity is declining while minority religions such as Islam and Hinduism are increasing, as seen by empty pews at a Catholic church in Florida and Muslim worshippers in Maryland.
Others are abandoning a faith that has been associated with the political right in the United States, with evangelicals and other Christians frequently being the most vocal critics of progressive laws on abortion and homosexual marriage.
According to experts on religion, the trend away from Christianity is part of a deep social shift that is altering the nation of over 330 million people.
Bob Smietana, author of Reorganized Religion, stated that the fall of Christianity could threaten “faith-based organizations that play a vital role in community life,” which, he continued, could “weaken or vanish.”
Smietana said on social media that they will include ‘food pantries at churches, shelters, and vigorous faith-based disaster relief’ activities that assist the destitute in the United States and overseas.
Such Christian organizations as Catholic Relief Services and the Salvation Army aid millions in the United States and abroad by coordinating anything from food packages to adoption programs.
Amy Sullivan, a religion and politics journalist based in Chicago, said she ‘grieves these Pew results’ and attacked Christian leaders, calling them ‘fools’ who ‘have been the face of the faith for decades’
This month, a theatrical troupe at Tennessee Tech University produced a Christianity-themed drag show with the headliner dressed as a Catholic monk in a corset and stockings, demonstrating a diminishing regard for Christianity.
In the study, Pew researchers used birthrates, migration patterns, demographics such as age and gender, and the existing religious landscape to estimate alternative religious scenarios for the United States.
In addition, they analyzed the transmission of religions from parents to children and the frequency with which people switch religions, focusing on the growing number of Christians who reject Christianity and become “nones.”
31 percent of those reared Christian become religiously unaffiliated by the age of 30, according to Pew, while 21 percent of those raised without religion become Christian.
‘If flipping among young Americans continued at recent rates, the Christian share of the population would shrink by a few percentage points per decade, falling below 50 percent by 2060,’ the study stated.
‘At the same time, the unaffiliated are anticipated to increase in all four scenarios,’ the report continued.
Landon Starbuck posted the video to Twitter and denounced the ridicule of Christians.