Anda di halaman 1dari 3

Oxendine 1

Hannah Oxendine
Professor Malcolm Campbell
English 1103
6 October 2015
The Rise of the Nones and the Decline of Christianity in the Post-Modern Age
Introduction/Overview
I will be examining the correlation of the decline in Christianity and the rise of the nones
across generation X. The first question that must be answered to better understand this topic is
What is a None? In James Emery Whites book Rise of the Nones, he gives statistics to
help better define this population.
1. Male: 56%.
2. Young: 33% under 30 years old.
3. White: 71%.
4. Not necessarily atheist. 68% have a vague sense of God.
5. Not very religious. 72% are not engaged in religion.
6. Democrats. 75%.
7. In favor of abortion and same-sex marriage. 72%-73%.
8. Liberal to moderate; 75%.
9. Not hostile to religious institutions.
10. Westerners. Most in the West, least in the South.

Commented [AT1]: What do these statistics mean?


Explain.

Nones are spiritual but not religious. They have gone from I believe, to Maybe, to Who
knows? This trend is big, broad, and spreading. The nones now make up the worlds third
largest religion. The total number of mainline adults dropped by 5 million from 41 million in

Commented [AT2]: What are mainline adults?

Oxendine 2

2007 to 36 million in 2014. Among the larger Christian bodies, only the historically black
Protestant church- counted separately from mainline churches- have held steady through the
years of change at nearly 16 million adults.
Many people today do not realize that the nones even exist, especially older
generations in the south. The idea of the nones is rather new, and secularism has been at its
root. Churches, who claim that they desire to spread the message of Jesus Christ To everyone,
often ignore this group. They refuse to believe that a post-Christian culture could ever become
a reality, and therefore, do nothing to stop it. The few churches that are attempting to reach the
nones are the ones that are obtaining the most growth today; however, within the Christian

Commented [AT3]: Who? For example.

community, very few people have looked in depth as to why the nones have become so
prevalent in our society and why church attendance has decreased. One of the most expansive
recorded observations(and one of the only ones) upon the nones was written in 2014 by Dr .
James Emery White and it is titled The Rise of the Nones.
Initial Inquiry Question(s)
Why has the none population become increasingly prevalent in this post-modern age?
What are Christian churches doing to push people towards this decision to be a none? What
can Christian churches do to effectively combat this? What are they doing currently? What is
working, and what is not? How have Christian church attendances dropped as a result of the
nones. Which types of churches have seen the most and least growth and drops in relation to
the nones?

My Interest in this Topic

Commented [AT4]: I really like the questions that are


asked here. I believe these questions will be a good lead for
your EIP.

Oxendine 3

I am interested in the rise of the none population because, growing up in the church
that I attend, my pastor has been an advocate for trying to combat this trend. He has shaped our
church, its staff, and its members to take a different view on bring non-believers to Christianity.
Rather than preaching at them to tell them that they are going to hell in a handbasket with the
rest of this generation, he makes the love of Jesus something exciting and something you want
to be a part of. He takes an intelligent standpoint on it, and makes people realize that a
relationship with Christ is the best decision that they will ever make. I know some things that my
pastor has taught me. I know a few of the common reasons that people want to be nones, such
as simply growing apathetic to all religion because of its constant controversy and its difficulty
to follow. I hope to learn more of the reasons that people specifically leave Christianity to be
nones.
Next Steps
I want to read James Emery Whites book Rise of the Nones, find more scholarly articles
through the libraries resources, and maybe talk to some of the religious studies professors at
UNC- Charlotte. In addition, I will be looking at news articles that have been published in
reliable places such as CNN, Fox, and the Huffington Post.

Commented [AT5]: I feel like this thought is incomplete,


what has he taught you?

Anda mungkin juga menyukai