LDS Church Is Contributing To The Secularization Of America

[Everybody Wang Chung]

Christians will be a minority in the U.S. by 2060 if current trends continue. Thanks in part to the continued and frequent slew of damaging LDS sex abuse scandals:

The drift away from Christianity is a trend across much of the developed world, hastened by a slew of damaging sex abuse scandals and cover-ups in the Catholic, Southern Baptist, Mormon and other churches.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... arism.html

[Res Ipsa]

The Pew report is pretty interesting. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/20 ... n-america/ The report examines several scenarios, all of which vary only in what they assume about rates of switching. The first scenario shows what would happen if no one switched in the future, to show the impact of demographics. Even then, Christianity's percentage continues to fall because the average Christian is older than the average unaffiliated person. The effect of age distribution swamps any effect of religious belief on birth rates. This scenario, which no one expects to occur, is the only one that shows Christians still representing a majority (54%) in the U.S. in 2070.

The second scenario assumes that the rate of in and out switching stays steady over time at the same rate we see today.
Because the rate of out switching from Christianity is higher than that for the unaffiliated, the percentage of Christians continues to fall and of unaffiliated continues to rise. In 2070, Christians are projected to be 46% of the U.S. population.

The third scenario takes into account the trends in the rate of switching over time. However, it caps the rate of out switching at the highest rates observed in european countries (50-55%). That results in a projection of 39% for Christians in 2070.

And if the caps are removed, the projection is that Christians will represent only 35% of the population in 2070.

Under the first two scenarios (no switching and constant switching), Christians will still outnumber the unaffiliated in 2070. But under the second two (trends in switching with limits and without limits), the projection is reversed: the unaffiliated will outnumber Christians in 2070.

Under all four scenarios, "other religions" will approximately double their share by 2070.

The Pew study did not examine causes.

[drumdude]

Mormon Argues His Faith Has Just As Much Legitimate Sexual Abuse As Any Other Religion


SALT LAKE CITY—Remarking upon the unfair bias of those who take a dim view of his belief system, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints argued Monday that his faith community had just as much legitimate sexual abuse as any other organized religion. “People think that because our religion is only 200 years old our sexual abuse cases are somehow less valid than those of other faiths, but to our church’s members, the sexual abuse they’ve felt is as powerful as it is real,” said Elder Steven Bingham, 23, adding that even though Roman Catholics get all the press for covering up molestations, that doesn’t mean their church’s leaders are the only ones to do so. “The LDS church is often considered some odd offshoot of Christianity, but we have a rich history of men using their power to sexually violate women and children. It’s easy to get hung up on the novel aspects of our religious practice, like our sacred undergarments or our baptisms for the dead, but our version of worship also contains a very common by-the-numbers traumatization of small children. If more people took the time to study the LDS faith and gain a bit more understanding of how much sexual abuse has taken place in our church, I feel like we’d be considered a more mainstream religion.” At press time, Elder Bingham explained how his church even referred to the same Scripture passages that other Christian sects referred to in order to justify sexual abuse.

https://www.theonion.com/Mormon-argues- ... 1849498587

[huckelberry]

Mormon Argues His Faith Has Just As Much Legitimate Sexual Abuse As Any Other Religion


...... I feel like we’d be considered a more mainstream religion.” At press time, Elder Bingham explained how his church even referred to the same Scripture passages that other Christian sects referred to in order to justify sexual abuse.

https://www.theonion.com/Mormon-argues- ... 1849498587

The story had some humor but I was curious if there were some scripture examples. Alas,the onion had peeled its last layer at that point.