Author Eric Shuster will be providing a series of blog posts summarizing various sections of his upcoming book Where are the Christians? due to be released this spring from Cedar Fort, Inc. We will feature one post each week from now until May 2013. For more information visit www.findyourchristianity.com.

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SECTION 3: WHERE ARE THE CHRISTIANS?—A Categorization

Chapter 9: They’re Leaving—Losing Their Belief as Departing Christians

There are 2 billion Christians in the world today; nearly 250 million people in the United States who identify themselves as Christians giving America a Christian population that is over double that of the entire world on a per capita basis. Yet corruption, greed, crime and moral disintegration are all on the rise in the United States. In such a great country where Christianity abounds in vast numbers how can such a trend be? It causes one to ask… Where are the Christians?

The five chapters of Section 3 answer the question by revealing the five major types of Christians in America today—Departing, Adequate, Hesitant, Laboring and Latent—and how one can complete an exercise to identify themselves among these five.

The first Christian type to be explored is the Departing Christian. These are Christians who are literally or psychologically losing their faith. These are Christians that don’t believe as they once did (or perhaps never did), who are living watered down doctrines of Christianity, and losing their testimony of the Savior through inactivity and prolonged sin without repentance. Simply put, these are Christians who are leaving the faith.

The Departing Christian has lost faith in the scriptures. Although there has been 6 billion Bibles sold since its first publication, only 82% of Americans consider it to be sacred scripture and only 69% consider it to contain “everything a person needs to know to live a meaningful life” according to the American Bible Society. Other studies suggest lots of Bibles in American homes, but few that are being read.

The Departing Christian lives a watered down faith. Studies show Christians adopting beliefs and practices that are inconsistent with traditional Christianity. A 2002 Barna study showed 76% of Christians relying on personal scriptural interpretation while 51% believe in praying to deceased saints. A 2009 study by Pew Research revealed 65% of adults adopting elements New Age thinking, 25% believing in astrology, and 24% believing in reincarnation.

The Departing Christian is fed up, disillusioned and dismayed. Negative experiences such as the death of a loved one and natural disasters challenge the faith of the Departing Christian who loses hope and becomes dismayed as to why God would allow such events to take place.

The systematic decrease in the percentage of the American population that considers themselves to be Christian is shown in the National Council of Church’s Yearbook for 2012 where five of the ten largest Christian Churches reported a decrease in membership. Other studies show leading indicators of a waning Christian faith, many of which are likely Departing Christians.

German philosopher Hermann Keyserling introduced the phrase “Post-Christian” in his 1929 book titled America Set Free. Keyserling’s work grew legs into the 1960’s with the “death of God” movement leveraging the phrase used by Nietzche in the 19th century. While the population of Departing Christians may not be large, the elements that have led to their faithlessness are elements that are affecting many in America. Next we will examine the Adequate Christian.

Go to www.findyourchristianity.com to watch the book trailer, find out what type of Christian you are, and to order the book.

Author Eric Shuster will be providing a series of blog posts summarizing various sections of his upcoming book Where are the Christians? due to be released this spring from Cedar Fort, Inc. We will feature one post each week from now until May 2013. For more information visit www.findyourchristianity.com.

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SECTION 2: WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN?—a Definition

Chapter 8: It’s Complicated According to the Critics

Complicating matters in defining a Christian is the existence of Modern-day Pharisees—the “critics” among the Christian community. These critics are nothing new. Jesus Christ during his public ministry was often confronted by the Pharisees who challenged his authority and spiritual legitimacy.

The word Pharisee comes from the Latin word pharisæus, meaning “set apart.” The Pharisaical movement started around 140–37 BC, viewing themselves as defenders of the Mosaic Law and the oral Torah as part of a society that was devout, political, cultural, social, religious and educational. The Pharisees in our modern era view themselves similarly falling into the same prototypes leading to negative unintended consequences and complicating Christian matters unnecessarily.

The New Testament reveals a model of behaviors and attitudes among the Pharisees of Jesus’ time—the pharisaical pattern. This pattern can be observed today among the Pharisees of our time including three major components: 1) pride and hypocrisy; 2) panic and paranoia; and 3) contention and destruction. Modern-day Pharisees are oblivious to their attitudes and actions believing they are the defenders of the true gospel leaving a trail of division and contention among Christians in their wake.

By studying the Pharisees of Jesus’ time one can identify the same behaviors and attitudes in specific individuals in the modern era. For example, Jesus proclaimed the Pharisees to be hypocrites (or full of hypocrisy)—eight times in one continuous sermon as recorded in the 23rd chapter of Matthew. In our day well known cases of such pharisaical behavior can be found in TV Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart who globally preached the gospel of Jesus Christ only to be caught having sex with prostitutes in 1988 and again in 1991. There is Ted Haggard, former leader of the National Association of Evangelicals who publicly mocked Catholics, Mormons, and Jews and then admitted in 2006 to having sex with a male masseuse and purchasing illegal drugs.

One of the dangers facing Christians today is the reckless practice of spiritual profiling—judging someone based solely upon their denominational choice or specific outward behaviors. Shuster provides instructive examinations of America’s Founding Fathers (e.g. Washington, Jefferson, etc.), historical and modern-day individuals (Hitler, Jones, etc.), and even Biblical figures (David, Paul, etc.) to demonstrate show outward appearances can completely derail the accuracy of spiritual profiling.

Where are the Christians? offers an exercise that can be completed by the reader which calculates the degree to which the participant exhibits the pharisaical pattern—their tendency to be a Modern-day Pharisee (i.e. a Christian critic). The exercise is fun, enlightening and can be completed online at www.findyourchristianity.com.

Knowing who the Christians are historically from Section 1 and what a Christian is from Section 2, it is time for the next leg of the journey to explore the core question of “’Where are the Christians?” Although you may have your own answers to this thought provoking question, you may be surprised to learn the details behind the answers provided by the author.

Go to www.findyourchristianity.com to watch the book trailer, find out what type of Christian you are, and to order the book.