Tapping the Market for Gay-Friendly Churches
By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
Over at Religion Dispatches, Pastor Dan—of Street Prophets fame—takes me to task for pointing out that churches that condemn homosexuality are the ones experiencing growth, while the more liberal mainline Protestant traditions watch their memberships dwindle. While he recognizes those trend lines, Dan argues that within the mainline, the gay-friendly denominations are shrinking more slowly:
The big losers among mainline denominations are United Methodists, who shed nearly 20% of their members between 1990 and 2008, according to the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS). The Methodists do not ordain gays and lesbians. Presbyterians and Lutherans each lost about 5-6% of their members. Episcopalians went down 20% as well, but on a much lower scale than Methodists: in 1990, there were about 3 million Episcopalians in the US. In 2008, there were around 2.4 million. Not chump change, to be sure, but nothing like the staggering 3 million Methodists who disappeared in the same period.
It's fuzzy math to argue that the 20 percent slide is Episcopal membership is less dramatic than the 20 percent drop-off in the United Methodists' numbers, of course.
And while Dan notes that the gay-friendly United Church of Christ has grown since 1990, the bigger story is that the church has shrunk by half since 2001 and now includes fewer than 750,000 Americans.
Dan makes a valid point, however, in spotlighting one gay-friendly tradition that is experiencing tremendous growth: those belonging to no religion whatsoever. These "religious nones" have nearly doubled in size since 1990, to more than 34 million Americans.
A good number of these religious exiles were turned off by their churches' conservative views on social issues like homosexuality and abortion. Roughly a third of former Roman Catholics or Protestants who are now unaffiliated say they just haven't found the right faith tradition yet.
Those stats suggest that there's a growing market for churches that have the personal and spiritual appeal of the evangelical tradition without the conservative politics. So far, though, neither the Episcopal Church nor the other mainline traditions have figured out how to fill that niche.
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Reader Comments
FIlm about this very subject
It's so interesting that people still use the bible to condemn homosexuality, while they continue to turn a blind eye to other portions of "God's Law". There was no word for homosexual, in either ancient greek or hebrew.
There is documentary that I saw in Rhode Island recently that actually uses theologians, religious and greek scholars to debunk what the church has used as the 7 biblical versus against homosexuality. Sodom and Gomorrah included. It's called Fish out of Water. For those of you who wish to use the bible to condemn homosexuality and believe in Christianity, please read the book the way it was written. Fish out of Water will certainly help you understand what the ancient languages meant to say. This is a socially twisted issue. It has nothing to do with Jesus' teaching.
God bless.
@Chris "Unchanging"
It is clear that you completely missed the point here. And you use a wild exaggeration to attempt to make yours. Of course I do not stone my children, nor do I demonize homosexuals. You confuse Christianity with Islam. One can disagree and refuse to condone behavior without demonizing the individual. Otherwise, disciplining our children would be considered 'demonizing' them. As far as the nature vs. nurture argument, the jury is still out on that one my friend, in spite of the homosexual activists out there who push so hard to have their lifestyle accepted. As far as it being 'natural', that is also hotly debated. If the purpose of sexual intercourse is to propagate the species, then homosexual behavior is a dead end. Sure you can find isolated instances of animal behavior straying from the norm, but the overwhelming numbers of heterosexual relationships both in the animal kingdom, and in Homo Sapiens Sapiens is testament to what the 'natural' order is. As far as human relationships, homosexuality, throughout history, has never been a widely accepted practice. The largest example used is Rome and its acceptance of the practice of homosexuality. However, Rome's overall societal structure, values, and mores led to its collapse. I would prefer not to go the way of Rome...
US News Sees 'Growing Market' for Non-conservative Evangelical Churches
US News 'God & Country' Blogger Sees 'Growing Market' for Non-conservative Evangelical Churches
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/ken-shepherd/2009/07/21/us-news-god-country-writer-paints-churches-brands-competing-market-sha
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