{"id":22276,"date":"2013-10-24T08:50:11","date_gmt":"2013-10-24T13:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=22276"},"modified":"2013-10-25T21:38:43","modified_gmt":"2013-10-26T02:38:43","slug":"only-15-of-us-millennials-call-themselves-christian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2013\/10\/24\/only-15-of-us-millennials-call-themselves-christian\/","title":{"rendered":"Only 15% of US Millennials Call Themselves Christian (?)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. As if there isn&#8217;t enough of that about secularism.<\/p>\n<p>As <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.christiancentury.org\/article\/2013-10\/baptism-rates-slide-despite-high-profile-boosts\" target=\"_blank\">Christian Century<\/a><\/em> reports, Thom Rainer of the Southern Baptist Convention has research showing that only 15% of millennials call themselves Christian:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The SBC, which considers baptism a key marker of Christian faith and also denominational vitality, tallied 314,959 baptisms in 2012 \u2014 a low not seen since 1948.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a sad situation,\u201d said Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources. \u201cIn 1948 we had 6 million members of the SBC but today we have (nearly) 16 million members.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yet, Rainer called himself an \u201cobnoxious optimist.\u201d Although his research on the nation\u2019s 80 million \u201cmillennials\u201d (born between 1980 and 2000) shows that only 15 percent call themselves Christian, Rainer said those youth are \u201con fire\u201d for faith.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It\u2019d be interesting to know what \u201ccall themselves Christians\u201d meant in this study \u2013 did it count if they checked the Baptist (or Lutheran or Catholic or whatever) box, or did they have to say they\u2019ve accepted Jesus as their savior and sought baptism? It doesn\u2019t say.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever the def, by my calculation, Rainer\u2019s study shows that the SBC Baptists had about 19 members for each baptism in 1948, but now they have about 51 members for each baptism. And we all know that the societal trends affecting Baptists are affecting all of us \u2013 I suspect the numbers in many of our churches would show similar declines.<\/p>\n<p>And here&#8217;s Cathy Lynn Grossman\u00a0over at RNS on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.religionnews.com\/2013\/10\/22\/baptism-rates-slide-despite-high-profile-boosts\/\" target=\"_blank\">sliding baptism rates<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>awr<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. As if there isn&#8217;t enough of that about secularism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[357,379,33],"tags":[2672,118],"class_list":["post-22276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-demographics-and-sociology","category-young-adults","category-youth","tag-lifeway-christian-resources","tag-millennials"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Only 15% of US Millennials Call Themselves Christian (?) - Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2013\/10\/24\/only-15-of-us-millennials-call-themselves-christian\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Only 15% of US Millennials Call Themselves Christian (?) - Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. As if there isn&#039;t enough of that about secularism.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2013\/10\/24\/only-15-of-us-millennials-call-themselves-christian\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-10-24T13:50:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-10-26T02:38:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/pt.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"411\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"90\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anthony Ruff, OSB\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anthony Ruff, OSB\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2013\\\/10\\\/24\\\/only-15-of-us-millennials-call-themselves-christian\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2013\\\/10\\\/24\\\/only-15-of-us-millennials-call-themselves-christian\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Anthony Ruff, OSB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1f253be22c50796444dc3d93f75cb50a\"},\"headline\":\"Only 15% of US Millennials Call Themselves Christian (?)\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-10-24T13:50:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-10-26T02:38:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2013\\\/10\\\/24\\\/only-15-of-us-millennials-call-themselves-christian\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":253,\"commentCount\":18,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"LifeWay Christian Resources\",\"Millennials\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Demographics and Sociology\",\"Young Adults\",\"Youth\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2013\\\/10\\\/24\\\/only-15-of-us-millennials-call-themselves-christian\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2013\\\/10\\\/24\\\/only-15-of-us-millennials-call-themselves-christian\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2013\\\/10\\\/24\\\/only-15-of-us-millennials-call-themselves-christian\\\/\",\"name\":\"Only 15% of US Millennials Call Themselves Christian (?) - Home\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-10-24T13:50:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-10-26T02:38:43+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2013\\\/10\\\/24\\\/only-15-of-us-millennials-call-themselves-christian\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2013\\\/10\\\/24\\\/only-15-of-us-millennials-call-themselves-christian\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2013\\\/10\\\/24\\\/only-15-of-us-millennials-call-themselves-christian\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Only 15% of US Millennials Call Themselves Christian (?)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Home\",\"description\":\"Worship, Wit &amp; 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Anthony Ruff, OSB, is a monk of St. John's Abbey. He teaches liturgy, liturgical music, and Gregorian chant at St. John's University School of Theology-Seminary. He is widely published and frequently presents across the country on liturgy and music. He is the author of Sacred Music and Liturgical Reform: Treasures and Transformations, and of Responsorial Psalms for Weekday Mass: Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter. 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