The post Faith and Family Under Fire: Why Apologetics is Failing in the 21st Century; a Front Line Report appeared first on Athanatos Christian Ministries.
]]>Email Anthony at director@athanatosministries.org
I have been analyzing trends related to the rise and decline of Christian faith for some time. My own apologetics ministry has roughly coincided with the dramatic drop in the number of Christians since 1990 and the astonishing ascent of the religiously unaffiliated in the same time (as of this writing, almost 25-30% of adults now say they have no religion, and an increasing share of these call themselves atheists).
About a year ago, I decided it was time to gather up my research and start drawing some conclusions from it. Not long after that, I was asked to give some presentations on apologetics at a pastor’s conference. The two ideas came together over the summer of 2016 as I delved more deeply into understanding why there appears to be a precise moment in time when the trend began (about 1992; see chart below). I realized I needed to write up a report calling attention to this trend and offering my own explanation for it.
I did not finish the report in time to distribute at the pastor’s conference, although I basically made the case that is in the report. I also made the case in a series of presentations at St. John’s Lutheran Church in West Bend, WI, but the actual report was not yet finished. Many people told me that my proposed explanation lined up very well with their own experiences. A draft of the report was read by Dr. Ryan MacPherson, a scholar who is knee-deep in data related to these issues who indicated that my findings are consistent with his own.
A summary of conclusion of the report:
The transmission of the faith from one generation to the next is intimately tied to one’s family life.This is borne out in the Scriptures and it is also borne out in sociological research. People growing up in broken homes are less likely to be receptive to the Gospel of Christ. The truth of Christianity, even when presented powerfully and persuasively, will struggle to overcome attitudes that are established while one is growing up. The highest quality Christian education is no match for the absence of godly parenting. The influence of the father, in particular, is decisive.
The reason the rise of the ‘religious nones’ begins so dramatically in the 1990s is because it is right about that time that the children born during the ‘sexual revolution’ of the 1960s and 1970s are themselves finally coming of age. The take away: any attempts to deal with this issue without making ‘family ministry’ the controlling context for those attempts will fail. Meanwhile, it must be understood that many of the factors that undermined happy, healthy, intact families during the ‘sexual revolution’ are still very much with us today. Christians must get their own house in order, or else, in America at least, there won’t be much ‘house’ left within a generation.
This report is hereby submitted.
In Christ,
Anthony Horvath, PhD
Because I consider this information to be very important, I am making the report available via download. Permission to re-distribute it is hereby granted. Bulk discounts on the print edition are available, as well. However, if you consider it so important that you want to share it widely, I hope you will also recognize how important it is to support the ministries of Athanatos Christian Ministries. Please take a moment to make a donation–not so much to pay for the download and the costs of producing such a report, but to help equip us to continue to carry out our work. This work includes calling attention to the findings included in this report! Click here to view donation options.
Download the report: FaithUnderFireReportAnthonyHorvath
The video below is ‘part 3’ in my series delivered at West Bend, where, having wrapped up my case in the previous two parts, am offering recommendations on how they ought to proceed. To have me present for your church or organization, email me at director@athanatosministries.org.
The ‘rise of the religious nones’ chart, mentioned above (and addressed in the report)
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]]>The post Anthony Horvath Presents at St. John’s Lutheran in West Bend, WI appeared first on Athanatos Christian Ministries.
]]>I had the pleasure of presenting on three consecutive Sundays at St. John’s Lutheran Church in West Bend, WI in January of 2017.
My topic: how the transmission of the faith is intimately tied to happy, healthy families–the very thing that has been under attack in American society since the sexual revolution of the 1960s.
During the month of January I was compiling the research that informed these presentations into a report which had not been finished yet. It is now finished and available. Learn more about my Faith and Family Under Fire: Why Apologetics is Failing in the 21st Century.
Week 1:
Week 2:
Week 3:
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]]>The post What if you never found your favorite elements in any books you read? appeared first on Athanatos Christian Ministries.
]]>YOU TELL US: What if you never found your favorite elements in any books you read – would you have to become a writer and put them in your own stories? What is missing from stories that you could contribute?
We wanted to share with you a response from Deb Elkink, author of Wet Thaw, a compilation of two short stories, Wet and Thaw, the latter of which won The Graham Greene Award in Athanatos’ 2013 Short Story and Poetry Contest, and invite you to add your thoughts in the comment section, or email them to office@athanatosministries.org:
“This is exactly what I’m trying to do as a writer—bring meaning back to fiction. (And I so appreciate your Athanatos Ministries—was sad to see the end of your short story contests, as I’d received your 2013 Graham Greene award and wanted to try it again. Short story is making a comeback, I’ve heard!)
“I love fiction! I mean by that not simply that I love to read (in fact, I don’t devour everything in sight—and I strictly avoid the genre of so-called “Christian fiction” that is often shallow and silly) but that I love the idea of fiction as much as the existence of fiction. The British novelists had implicit spirituality written into so much of their work, but in our age their biblical basis isn’t even recognized, much less appreciated. My favourite current-day novels that do contain aspects of spirituality of course fall short because (1) it’s a pagan spirituality and (2) even that is not taken far enough to actually make reviewers sit up and take notice. An example is Joanne Harris’s Chocolat (made into the Johnny Depp movie, where it lost much of its literary value)—incredibly sense based, mythical in tone, romantic in the sense of dealing with great literary motifs, rich in symbolism.
“I would like to write like Harris does—what a gift!—but I would add the symbolism inherited from Scripture and promoted/developed by the great (implicitly Christian) British writers such as Dickens, Chesterton, Lewis (of course), and so on. I would bring back the symbolism (and develop new symbolism for our postmodern culture) in order to point readers back to Scripture—the only “real” literature that brings about lasting change.”
Thanks for asking!
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]]>For ACM, every tool is on the table... the arts, sciences, education, etc...
It will be an uphill battle, but ACM believes it is worth fighting- so long as it is the right hill.
The post Apologetics as keeping Christians from falling away in the first place appeared first on Athanatos Christian Ministries.
]]>In 2007, my claim that the Church is producing atheists was aired on the ChristianPost.com and I received a flood of emails and contacts, most of them Christians who completely agreed.
Today, the claim is not controversial because it is obvious to everyone.
When I made that claim, I had already been thinking about ways in which this trend can be addressed and corrected. The broader vision of Athanatos Christian Ministries is to raise awareness and to try to create and implement solutions to this particular issue.
Ultimately, there will have to be some discussion about how we educate our young, what unspoken positions we promote regarding study and learning, and probably how we do ”church” in the first place.
Such topics are controversial by their very nature. Unfortunately, a lot of folks are battling over the ‘wrong hill.’ They are defending the wrong ‘front line.’ ACM aims to devote its energy to fighting the real fights of our time, choosing wisely which hill is worth ‘dying’ on.
The core truth driving the ministries of ACM at this point is that the transmission of the Christian faith in America is broken. To fix it, we ought not abandon anything good, wherever it is found, as all good things come from God (James 1:17) and he has given them to us.
For ACM, every tool is on the table… the arts, sciences, education, etc…
It will be an uphill battle, but ACM believes it is worth fighting- so long as it is the right hill.
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