Cranach - Page 878 of 891 -

Why are churches losing their young people?

January 2, 2008 By Gene Veith

Findings from a Southern Baptist-sponsored study of young adults leaving the church: 70 percent of 18-year-olds who attended church regularly in high school quit by age 23: they don’t like it. And by age 30, 34 percent still have not rebounded. That means one in four young Protestants has left the church. On their laundry list of reasons: they wanted a break (27%), church is too judgmental (26%), they moved away to college (25%), busy with work (23%). On the… Read more

Statistics about American belief

January 2, 2008 By Gene Veith

24 Comments

Gallup, one of the most reliable pollsters, offers some useful and intriguing statistics about the state of religious belief in America. This remains a very religious country, especially compared to our peer nations, but there has been some slippage. Excerpts from the report: About 82% of Americans in 2007 told Gallup interviewers that they identified with a Christian religion. That includes 51% who said they were Protestant, 5% who were “other Christian,” 23% Roman Catholic, and 3% who named another… Read more

The Name of Jesus: God Saves

January 1, 2008 By Gene Veith

4 Comments

Happy Holiday! Happy Holy-day! No, not New Year’s, but a far more significant and wonderful day, the commemoration of the The Circumcision and Name of Jesus. On the eighth day after the Christ child was born, Mary and Joseph had Him circumcised, which was also the occasion of his being given his official name (Luke 2:21). The former event is important because with His circumcision, Christ began to fulfill the Law of Moses on our behalf. The latter event is… Read more

New Year’s Traditions

December 31, 2007 By Gene Veith

36 Comments

So what do you do for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day? The one ritual I have is to go over one or more of those month-by-month Year in Review stories, thinking about the year gone by, including thinking about the year gone by in my life. We never, ever go out on New Year’s Eve, but we do stay up until midnight. (When our kids were little, we let them stay up until the ball dropped on Times… Read more

Hollywood Christians

December 31, 2007 By Gene Veith

7 Comments

This list of The 12 Most Powerful Christians in Hollywood — Beliefnet.com contains some surprises (Denzel Washington, Martin Sheen) and some interesting information (a movie version of “Paradise Lost” is in the works). HT: Anthony Sacramone Read more

Gearing up for the New Year

December 27, 2007 By Gene Veith

5 Comments

We’ve been on the road for Christmas and will continue to be there until around New Year’s. Since it will be rather hard to keep up my blogging every day, I’ll leave you with some items to discuss until we meet again. Read more

Predictions

December 27, 2007 By Gene Veith

997 Comments

So, what are your predictions for 2008? They can include matters political, social, artistic, religious, or whatever else you want to put forward. This time next year we will return to this post to see who was right, who was wrong, and who all were taken by surprise. Read more

Cranach’s Greatest Christmas Hits

December 24, 2007 By Gene Veith

121 Comments

This Christmas tide I offer you blogs from Christmas past. Just as TV goes into re-run mode with all of those Christmas specials that have become family traditions, so I will do with this blog, re-running Christmas posts that left an impression. I start with two contrarian posts that left many readers indignant. Then I move to a series that makes the case that Christianity was NOT derived from a pagan holiday and that December 25 just might be the… Read more

In defense of the commercialization of Christmas

December 24, 2007 By Gene Veith

12 Comments

[This entry, from 2005, got a lot of people riled up who did not get what I was doing.] I love everything about Christmas, including its commercialization. First of all, it is very appropriate for non-Christians and secularists to observe this holiday. “At the name of Jesus, every knee should bow. . .and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:10-11). This will happen at Judgment, but it happens too in a lesser way at Christmastime. The practically-universal… Read more