I’ve written several articles about the “falling away” of Christians under the assumption that a falling away is taking place. I based this assumption on what I’ve observed, on what other people have observed, and on my own personal experiences. I’m sure many people would agree that a falling away is taking place around the world. However, not everyone may agree with the assumption that a falling away is taking place because they have different experiences and observe different things which suggests a falling away isn't taking place.
I’ve searched for data to support or refute the notion that a falling away is taking place worldwide for the past several weeks. Unfortunately, I have not yet found data that I could use to report about a worldwide falling away. However, yesterday I found some fairly recent research about the current state of Christian belief in the United States, and it’s far worse than I thought…
The Barna Group is a marketing research firm that specializes in collecting and reporting statistics about the state of Christianity in the United States. Every few years the Barna Group conducts a nationwide survey where they attempt to find out how many Americans hold a “biblical worldview”. The Barna Group summarizes their findings in a lengthy article that can be found at the following link:
I suggest you interpret the statistics reported by the Barna Group for yourself because they can be interpreted in a number of ways, but I think many of you might come to a similar conclusion as I came up with after I reviewed the numbers:
- A falling away from faith may have begun in the United States long ago and has resulted in far fewer Americans possessing a worldview that is fully grounded in the Bible or fully shaped by the Bible than what is commonly believed. There may still be a lot of Americans who say they are “Christian”, but the way many people view things is not completely consistent with what the Bible teaches.
The biblical worldview numbers the Barna Group reported may not seem "believable" at first glance due to how few people expressed a "biblical worldview". To be fair, there are some scholars who've criticized how the Barna Group defines/measures a “biblical worldview”... However, the statistics the Barna Group provided about the individual components that comprise their biblical worldview measure are eye-opening about the views that many Americans hold (or don't hold).
I understand that people have their own beliefs which likely differ from other people including my own. I am not trying to condemn individual people who hold different beliefs than my own in this article or condemn people who would provide different answers than me to the survey questions the Barna Group asked respondents. I am just trying to draw attention to an overall development in the United States which may provide evidence that a falling away has taken place in the United States, a country that many view as one of the most “Christian” countries in the world. If a falling away has eroded Christian belief in the United States then it’s probably just as bad or worse in other countries around the world.
