In the April 13th edition, the day after Easter, Newsweek will hit the shelves with an article that portends the End of Christian America. The prediction is based upon a ten percent decline in self-identified Christians over the last 20 years. In a blog post, Greg at Pryomarketing points out that the article "makes no mention of Newsweek's own mortality despite a 17% circulation decline in just two years. Oh the irony. The terminally ill patient is worried the doctor looks a shade pale." He goes on to say the following:
If you're a Christian, then you may be looking for water cooler ammunition come Monday and be interested in the following facts lifted from the first chapter of my book. If you're not a Christian, but are interested in getting your facts straight, then you should take note as well. To paraphrase Mark Twain, it seems reports of Christianity's death have been greatly exaggerated.
- There were more Americans in church Super Bowl Sunday morning than watched the game itself worldwide.
- There are more Christian Americans than white Americans
If the Newsweek cover story bothers you and you're looking for ways to let others know, then let me suggest some ideas.
- Post this church sign photo on your blog, Facebook page, MySpace, or print it and hang it by your desk as a sign of protest. Just right click it and choose "save image as" to save it to your computer. Then upload it to your Facebook or Blog or print it the way you normally would. [Robin here: Click the photo in this post for larger image, then save.]
- Link to this blog post from your social media, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
- Can't remember those statistics? That's okay, just direct your friends to www.faithbasedmarketing.com where Bob Hutchins and I share them in video format.
- Whenever you use Google from April 13th through Friday April 17, search the name "Jesus" before searching for anything else. If enough people do this, then the name Jesus will rise to the top of Google Trends as the most-searched term that week and help reveal to America just how many Christians there really are. Get your friends, family...your entire church to join you and then monitor the results at http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?sa=X
I'll watch Google Trends too and when I see Jesus on the rise, I'll alert the media with a press release.
To the 7.3% of religiously unaffiliated Americans hoping that America's 76% Christians are going away, I have another Mark Twain quote to consider. "Let your sympathies and your compassion be always with the under dog in the fight--this is magnanimity; but bet on the other one--this is business."
Robin here again: I'm with Greg. Let's participate to let folks know we are here.
~rlh~
