Faith groups are vital to the social safety net. But volunteers they rely on are aging and ...
Last edited Sun Nov 22, 2020, 09:42 AM - Edit history (1)
I was at the library yesterday and saw this in Saturday's print edition of the Washington Post.
Faith groups are vital to the social safety net. But volunteers they rely on are aging and their denominations are shrinking.
By Bob Smietana
November 20, 2020 at 3:56 p.m. EST
CRAB ORCHARD, Tenn. On a Tuesday morning in early November, Sister Mary Lisa Renfer, dressed in a full habit, the wind whipping her veil behind her, stood in the parking lot of Crab Orchard Christian Church, where the mobile clinic she runs out of a 40-foot-long truck was parked. ... I am a rebel, said Renfer, a Catholic nun and family practice physician, before bursting out in laughter. ... Just kidding!
Renfer, a member of the Religious Sisters of Mercy, may not be much of a rebel. But shes definitely an outlier. The 32-year-old begins every day with prayer and Mass, then heads out to serve God and to try to make the world a better place as director of the St. Marys Legacy Clinic in East Tennessee. ... Among her millennial cohort, the Nones those who claim no religion as their own far outnumber Catholics. Only about half of millennial Americans identify as any kind of Christian, according to Pew Research. By contrast, 84 percent of Americans of the so-called Silent Generation, those born from 1928 to 1945, identify as Christians. Only 10 percent are unaffiliated.
The decline in religious affiliation is part of an overall decline in organized religion, which affects not just houses of worship but also religious nonprofits such as the St. Marys Legacy Clinic, the mobile rural health clinic where Renfer serves as director. Its part of a faith-based safety net of charitable work, funded and staffed mostly by religious Americans. ... Those organizations, which serve their local communities and rarely make headlines, face a future in which their traditional sources of funding and volunteers are shrinking. But they arent ready to give up yet.
St. Marys Legacy Clinic serves about 300 patients, scattered over six rural communities. Most have no insurance. Many have chronic conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension, and had been without regular medical care for years before coming to the clinic, Renfer said.
{snip}
This story is part of a series produced by the Religion News Service in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.
safeinOhio
(32,669 posts)that identifies as a Christian.
judesedit
(4,437 posts)so-called Christianity. The preachers at these establishments may speak Christ's words, but in no way, follow them. Therefore, the obvious fakers are losing followers. Thank you, Sister Mary Renfer, for practicing the lessons taught by Christ. Hopefully, you will have many helpers.
shrike3
(3,569 posts)I know two young men who are entering the priesthood: wonderful guys. Just wonderful. But the societal pressure to enter the clergy has vanished; not that that's a bad thing. Back in old Europe, the clergy used to be something to do with the second son. Give the older son the lands, put the younger one in the clergy. Church also used to be part of life. I don't know that everyone was rabidly religious. Church was more the place where you met your friends, went to have dinner, went for help, went to make business connections. In colonial America, belonging to the right church could make your career.
Now that church is no longer part of the fabric of life only the true believers are left, and true believers always make life hell for everyone else. There are no moderates or near atheists (and there used to be near atheists) to hold them back. It's a vicious circle: they become more and more strident, they drive more and more people away. It's sad. I don't see it ending.
KPN
(15,642 posts)I dont see it frankly. If the total numbers are down, that number is more than offset by astronomical growth in radical evangelism. Ive experienced it in my own relatively large family over the years and consequently was aware and watched it grow around me.
Religion, greed and power are and have always been the source of a lot of pain in our world.
AZ8theist
(5,453 posts)Just because Creflo Dollar needs a 4th private jet does not justify your criticism....
eppur_se_muova
(36,258 posts)There's no reason a post-religion society can't have stronger charities than the traditional religious charities. Would more people show up for soup kitchens and the like if they knew they wouldn't be forced to sit through prayers, sermons, etc. ? I know I would.
shrike3
(3,569 posts)Maybe a few outliers proselytize, but most do not. And I include Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Jewish. And, I imagine, Muslim.
There are many, many service organizations, not officiated with religion, which also have declining memberships. It used to be a thing, getting involved in civic matters; not anymore. Whole different world. Maybe because everything is on line.
I have high hopes that other secular groups will step up, because the need won't go away. They'll have to; somebody'll have to do it. A new kind of volunteerism: I am optimistic.
Response to eppur_se_muova (Reply #3)
CatLady78 This message was self-deleted by its author.
keithbvadu2
(36,752 posts)Control, Witness, and CBR (Cash Based Religion)
keithbvadu2
(36,752 posts)Rich televangelist Joel Osteen had to be shamed by bad publicity into opening his Megachurch to harbor hurricane victims.
The great unwashed are ok to get money from but not to help in Jesus' name.
https://www.google.com/search?q=osteen+hurricane&sitesearch=democraticunderground.com