Southern Baptist Denomination In Decline

[JakeD]

Good fucking riddance.

For most of four decades, Southern Baptists could boast of rising membership even as more moderate and liberal Protestant denominations lost members in droves.
But with membership slightly down last year, and flat for the past five, Southern Baptists face a growing anxiety about their future as they gather for their annual meeting Tuesday in Indianapolis.

"We have peaked," Southern Baptist statistician Ed Stetzer wrote in an online commentary on the latest statistics from 2007. "...For now, Southern Baptists are a denomination in decline."

What worries Southern Baptist leaders even more than the membership numbers is a steady decline in the conversion ritual that gave their denomination its name — baptisms.

Annual rates of baptisms have steadily declined not only in recent years, but also during the past 35 years. In 2007, Southern Baptist churches reported 345,941 baptisms. That's down 12% from 2002 and 22% from 1972.

[James]

"We have peaked," Southern Baptist statistician Ed Stetzer wrote in an online commentary on the latest statistics from 2007. "Oh no, wait, it turns out we're just fucking crazy racist intolerant pricks and no one wants to be one of us."

[JakeD]

I'd love to dry-hump the sign of the very last standing Southern Baptist church just so that I could feel the final death-shudder of that hateful, contradictory fucking religion.

And then I'd spunk on it.

[Isotrip]

..."Oh no, wait, it turns out we're just fucking crazy racist intolerant pricks and no one wants to be one of us."


Hmmmm.... You say that like it's a bad thing...? :eek:

[Bones]

Hey man, I was raised Southern Baptist. I left the church because it wasn't for me. But there are some people in that church that I love. They aren't all bad.

[Unforgiven]

Fewer Southern Baptists? Oh, the horror.

[JakeD]

They aren't all bad.

No, just most of them.

[Bassmama]

After I found my birthmother (from Stockbridge, GA) one of the first things she asked me was what religion I was raised in & am I still religious. She wasn't terribly happy that I wasn't raised Baptist (I was raised in fucking New York... Come ON!) but at LEAST it was Congregationalist Protestant... until I told her that I do not believe in the "G" word OR religion. She got over it rather quickly after I pointedly inquired about the last time SHE was in her Baptist church & how many times she'd attended in the past 50 some years.

I will miss the videos of the snake dancing & the swooning, though. Gotta have SOME fun now & again..

[Bones]

God made snakes poisonous to protect them from snake handlers.

[entipy]

I was raised Southern Baptist. And I didn't turn out so bad.

:p

Seriously, though. More people are growing beyond religion which I see - often - as a good thing.

[MeLsWeEtiE]

I grew up in southern baptist churches and seeing the little boards up in the front of the church would make me sick. They would always detail how many people attended and how mi h was collected in tithes. It was really prevalent in the smaller churches. They were always pushing for numbers.

Like entipy said, some of us didn't turn out so bad.

[JakeD]

I went to Southern Baptist churches too for a while, and while I'm not too incredibly fucked up (depending on who you ask), I'm convinced that half of the people I grew up with in those churches went on to be serial killers or sex offenders.

[Isotrip]

I went to Southern Baptist churches too for a while, and while I'm not too incredibly fucked up (depending on who you ask), I'm convinced that half of the people I grew up with in those churches went on to be serial killers or sex offenders.


Well at least they weren't sex offending serial killers!!!

[Unforgiven]

Well at least they weren't sex offending serial killers!!!

Maybe they serially kill sex offenders?

[entipy]

Maybe they serially kill sex offenders?
That would make them worthwhile.

[Unforgiven]

That would make them worthwhile.

What if they kill serial killers' cereal?

[Bones]

I went to Southern Baptist churches too for a while, and while I'm not too incredibly fucked up (depending on who you ask), I'm convinced that half of the people I grew up with in those churches went on to be serial killers or sex offenders.

Sex with me can be pretty offensive. :p

[James]

Sex with Cereal is very offensive, and a waste of food. How dare you even suggest it.

[Bassmama]

/me hides the Cheerios