23AR28-09
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AR 28:9 - Are official LDS metrics off even more than expected?
In this issue:
CULTURE - religious or spiritual, "roughly half of Americans don't experience the two terms as a binary"
MORMONISM - "membership in all of Africa ... remains far 'below its major competitors'"
SCHAEFFER, FRANCIS - reflecting on "what drove the work of L'Abri"
Apologia Report 28:9 (1,606)
March 22, 2023
CULTURE
"You've heard of 'spiritual but not religious.' What about 'religious but not spiritual'?" by Matthew Bowman (Salt Lake Tribune, Feb 5 '23) -- "About 1 in 4 Americans identify as 'spiritual but not religious'.... [R]oughly half of Americans don't experience the two terms as a binary. They call themselves both 'spiritual' and 'religious.' And, to complicate the matter, many others call themselves 'religious but not spiritual.' ...
"According to the Gallup Poll, 31% of Americans trust organized religion, which is, it turns out, a better rating than television news, the Supreme Court or public schools. So Americans appear to be equal-opportunity doubters of organizations. ...
"We grow up thinking that finding happiness and forming our identities is intimately connected to the particular brands ... that we choose to ornament our lives."
Bowman finds that "young Americans associate the word 'religion' with conservative politics, and many believe that picking the first means picking the second. Instead, many who identify as spiritual but not religious tend to sample spiritual practices.... In so doing, studies show they believe themselves to be expressing tolerance and pursuing the idea of authenticity. ...
"A reflexive adherence to the logic of branding and a knee-jerk suspicion of institutions can carry their own ills. They can deceive us into believing that we are entirely the products of our own decisions and choices, and that is a lie that can inflict paralyzing anxiety and deep loneliness.
"The truth is that our identities and convictions are assembled through relationships. ...
"Institutions such as churches are not simply bastions of dictates and authority. They also preserve traditions and provide community, things that teach us who we are."
Bowman (Chair, Mormon Studies, Claremont Graduate University) concludes: "Being spiritual but not religious can give us a clear-eyed view of where the limitations of institutions might lie. But being religious can guard us against the restless and impossible demands of self-creation. All institutions are flawed, but they are also what we have to come home to." <www.bit.ly/3YVXAUL>
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MORMONISM
"Why meteoric LDS Church growth has flamed out and what could relight the fuse" by Tamarra Kemsley (Salt Lake Tribune, Jan 1 '23) -- finds "worldwide growth may be over ... with total active membership likely to peak at or just below 6 million should current trends continue, according to a new study <www.bit.ly/3ZRzWK1> published in the inaugural issue of the Journal of the Mormon Social Science Association.
"The article, written by The Cumorah Project's David Stewart, <www.bit.ly/3lilCLU> represents a stark contrast to previous projections dating back to the 1980s and '90s. Back then, sociologists calculated from available data at the time that the Utah-based faith was well on its way to becoming a major world religion with anywhere from 36 million to 121 million members by 2020."
However, "In reality, the church has yet to crack 17 million followers - and that includes individuals whose names remain on the books but no longer identify as Latter-day Saints. ...
"By highlighting the proselytizing success of the Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses, Stewart argues that the church could reap much more from its own missionary efforts by jettisoning outdated practices concerned more with short-term quotas than 'durable' long-term growth. ...
"Particularly interesting to him is the addition and removal of Latter-day Saint congregations, known as wards and branches, which he uses as a proxy for estimating active membership. ...
"Stewart's current projections for Latter-day Saint membership in coming years and decades include:
• Growth through 2040 in total active Latter-day Saints and, by extension, the number of congregations, will likely fall below 1% annually....
• The number of active U.S. members will likely peak in the next few years, followed by a drop. ...
"What sets Stewart's analysis apart from recent examinations of the subject is the comparisons it draws with other U.S.-based, proselytizing-heavy Christian faiths, said Jana Riess, a Religion News Service columnist and managing editor of the new journal that published the study. ...
"Matt Martinich, who operates The Cumorah Project in tandem with Stewart, compiled a list at his ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com website, for instance, where the church grew fastest in 2020-21. Ten of the top 14 locations were in Africa. ...
"Despite this, the church's total membership in all of Africa (736,701 at the end of 2021) remains far 'below its major competitors,' Stewart writes, with Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses reporting 2019 memberships of 9.56 million and 1.7 million, respectively." <www.bit.ly/3To1BQz>
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SCHAEFFER, FRANCIS
"The Faith Crisis of Francis Schaeffer: How His Shadows Brought Light" by William Edgar; Professor Emeritus, Westminster Theological Seminary (Desiring God, Feb 4 '23) -- Schaeffer "married Edith and enrolled in Westminster Theological Seminary. But in 1937, the Schaeffers decided to leave Westminster with a group of separatists, led by the likes of Allan McCrae and the fiery Carl McIntire, to form the Bible Presbyterian Church denomination and Faith Theological Seminary, from which Francis graduated in 1938. ...
"[T]he most important factor that led to Schaeffer's crisis of faith was the lack of love that characterized the movement - and himself. ... They had expended more energy attacking fellow Christians than advancing the kingdom against secularism and unbelief. (*This hits close to home for many apologists.* -RP) ... In language Schaeffer would later stress, they were lacking reality - the need for cultivating closeness to God and depending on the Holy Spirit. ...
"Thus, Schaeffer was plunged into darkness. In the spring of 1951, he decided to put into question the basics of the Christian faith and the sincerity of his beliefs. For over two months, he paced and thought. ...
"As he put it, 'Finally the sun came out. I saw that my earlier decision to step from agnosticism to Bible-believing Christianity was right.' He experienced a spiritual renewal. He enjoyed God. He began to write poetry again. He was a free man. ...
"It was this realization, more than anything else - more than his apologetics, more than his official orthodoxy - that drove the work of L'Abri....
"Not everyone has to go through the kind of crisis Schaeffer experienced to arrive at reality.
"But some of us do."
Edgar concludes: "Schaeffer's story reminds us that if we seek God sincerely in our crises, we will find him (Jeremiah 29:13; Luke 11:9). And it gives us cause to be grateful that this man was led through his slough of despond to emerge as one of the most compelling voices of a generation." <www.bit.ly/3LpJszU>
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