We just went through Mt. Vernon, IL last weekend. Had lunch, took the grandchildren to a park, and got gas on the return trip. Seems like a decent town or small city. I'm sure Burge did everything he could to "save" the church, whatever that means, and unlike some, I'm reluctant to second-guess his efforts.
One related thought did occur to me. This was how frustrated Gary North's Tyler (TX) bunch was with the churches there. Tyler is considerably bigger than Mt. Vernon, but is similarly the main city in an otherwise rural area of East Texas. It's a very nice, small city, in a bastion of the Bible belt, and you'd assume the churches are mostly pretty solid, but apparently they suffered from the same foibles and growth struggles American churches seem to encounter everywhere.
The data Burge compiles is certainly interesting (his stuff almost always is), but too much can be made out of it. For pretty much all of my adult life we've seen the electoral tides slosh back and forth, and with decreasing magnitude, every two or four years. Parties that proclaim "Permanent" or "emerging" majorities end up looking quite foolish after the next time at the polls disabuses them.
Re: Why is it so hard to accept that it is happening out of choice?
Sure, but choice is not random and generally not based on mere caprice. Our choices are motivated by external influences and limits. For example, I would love to travel to Europe, but I cannot afford to. I would love to visit Russia but the current tensions between the US and Russia make that seem quite ill-advised (a guy at my church, married to a Russian immigrant, has said the same thing, although his wife has gone back for some visits). And given current trends it appears that the biggest reason birth rates continue to fall is because partnering in relationships has also fallen off, especially for the young. "There's too few good women/men out there" or "I never meet the right guy/woman" has become a common complaint.
We just went through Mt. Vernon, IL last weekend. Had lunch, took the grandchildren to a park, and got gas on the return trip. Seems like a decent town or small city. I'm sure Burge did everything he could to "save" the church, whatever that means, and unlike some, I'm reluctant to second-guess his efforts.
One related thought did occur to me. This was how frustrated Gary North's Tyler (TX) bunch was with the churches there. Tyler is considerably bigger than Mt. Vernon, but is similarly the main city in an otherwise rural area of East Texas. It's a very nice, small city, in a bastion of the Bible belt, and you'd assume the churches are mostly pretty solid, but apparently they suffered from the same foibles and growth struggles American churches seem to encounter everywhere.
The data Burge compiles is certainly interesting (his stuff almost always is), but too much can be made out of it. For pretty much all of my adult life we've seen the electoral tides slosh back and forth, and with decreasing magnitude, every two or four years. Parties that proclaim "Permanent" or "emerging" majorities end up looking quite foolish after the next time at the polls disabuses them.
Re: Why is it so hard to accept that it is happening out of choice?
Sure, but choice is not random and generally not based on mere caprice. Our choices are motivated by external influences and limits. For example, I would love to travel to Europe, but I cannot afford to. I would love to visit Russia but the current tensions between the US and Russia make that seem quite ill-advised (a guy at my church, married to a Russian immigrant, has said the same thing, although his wife has gone back for some visits). And given current trends it appears that the biggest reason birth rates continue to fall is because partnering in relationships has also fallen off, especially for the young. "There's too few good women/men out there" or "I never meet the right guy/woman" has become a common complaint.