This looks like an interesting book: The Fall of the Evangelical Nation:

[Ilsa]

The Fall of the Evangelical Nation: The Surprising Crisis Inside the Church (Hardcover)
by Christine Wicker (Author)

http://www.amazon.com/Fall-Evangelical-Nation-Surprising-Crisis/dp/0061117161

I saw it on the new book stack yesterday and read a few pages. It seems to refute some of the statistics we've been fed by the media about Christianity in the US.

Product Description

Evangelical Christianity in America is dying. The great evangelical movements of today are not a vanguard. They are a remnant, unraveling at every edge. Conversions. Baptisms. Membership. Retention. Participation. Giving. Attendance. Impact upon the culture at large. All are down and dropping. When veteran religion reporter Christine Wicker set out to investigate the evangelical movement, her intention was to forge through the stereotypes and shed new light on this highly divisive religious group. But the story soon morphed into an entirely new and shocking tale of discovery, as Wicker's research unearthed much more than she originally bargained for.

Everywhere Wicker traveled she heard whispers of diminishing statistics, failed campaigns, and empty churches. Even as evangelical forces trumpet their purported political and social victories on the national and local fronts, insiders are anguishing over their significant losses and preparing to rebuild for the future. The idea that evangelicals represent and speak for Christianity in America is one of the greatest publicity scams in history, a perfect coup accomplished by savvy politicos and zealous religious leaders who understand the weaknesses of the nation's media and exploit them brilliantly.

With her trademark vivid, firsthand reporting, Christine Wicker takes us deep inside the world of evangelicals, exposing the surprising statistics and details of this unexpected fall. Wicker shows us how the virtues of evangelicals are killing them as surely as their vices and that, to fully comprehend how and why this is happening, we'll need to understand both.


Editorial Reviews:
Diana Butler Bass, author of Christianity for the Rest of Us
"With careful analysis, Wicker reveals the spiritual downturn in the Religious Right, how it has lost its hold over contemporary America and what hope that offers the rest of us."

Spencer Burke, Creator of TheOOZE.com and Author of "A Heretic's Guide To Eternity"
"Finally a book that brings it all together, statistics and stories, devastating truth and compassionate hope, investigative reporting and home-spun wisdom. Christine Wicker holds up a mirror for the "Institutional Church" and reveals the nip-and-tuck tricks that have fooled us for the last few decades."

[Vincardog]

1. diminishing statistics, failed campaigns, and empty churches DUH Who should a thunk it

[Juche]

2. All true

I don't have statistics, but I think the % of people who consider themselves secular, agnostic or nonreligious doubled from 8% in 1990 to 15% in 2005.

I also think young people answer secular, agnostic or athiest about 20% of the time when asked religion. Of those who are evangelicals, many seem just as concerned with democrat principles like poverty, justice, global disease or fighting famine as well as abortion and gay rights.

So the old school evangelical movement is dying thank god. There are fewer evangelicals and the ones that are left want to broaden their horizons beyond gay marriage and abortion.

In fact secularists and people who rarely/never go to church are now as big of a voting demographic as the highly religious (43% secularist vs 42% weekly+ churchgoers). And we are just as partisan. People who never go to church have 24 pt margins for the dems, people who go more than 1x a week have 24 pt margins for the GOP.

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/US/H/00/epolls.0.html

VOTE BY church attendance: TOTAL Democrat Republican
More Than Weekly -----------(16%) --37%-- 61%
Weekly ----------------------(26%) --42%-- 57%
Monthly ---------------------(13%) --50%-- 49%
A Few Times a Year----------(28%) --55%-- 43%
Never -----------------------(15%) --60%-- 36%

[Ilsa]

3. The author discussed the assumed peer pressure to respond

affirmatively to questions about being a Christian. Maybe they didn't want someone preaching to them. Maybe they consider themselves Christian because their parents were.

One of the interesting comments was about how many southern Baptists there are, but the Annie Armstrong annual offering was only about $52 million, and the SBC was delighted with it. The thig was, it represented only a few bucks per person in giving, and this is supposed to be one of the major offerings during the year.

Anyway, that was what I got out of one of the chapters.