Acceptance of Birth Control Doomed Mainline Churches

The decline membership in of mainline churches over the last century had more to do with sex than theology, research by a trio of sociologists suggests.

Differences in fertility rates account for 70 percent of the decline of mainline Protestant church membership from 1900 to 1975 and the simultaneous rise in conservative church membership, the sociologists said.

“For most of the 20th century, conservative women had more children than mainline women did,” three sociologists—Michael Hout of the University of California-Berkley, Andrew Greeley of the University of Arizona, and Melissa Wilde of Indiana University—wrote in Christian Century.

“It took most of the 20th century for conservative women to adopt family-planning practices that have become dominant in American society,” the writers said. “Or to put the matter differently, the so-called decline of the mainline may ultimately be attributable to its earlier approval of contraception.”

While mainline churches could claim 60 percent of the total Protestant congregants in 1900, their share fell to 40 percent in 1960. Many religious observers and some sociologists attributed the drop—and simultaneous growth of conservative churches—to the lethargy of liberalism....

“Higher fertility and better retention...account for the conservatives’ rising share of the Protestant population,” they concluded.

However, the authors suggested, the trends underlying the mainline’s decline “may be nearing their end.”

Fertility rates are now virtually the same between the two groups and will produce only a 1 percent decline in mainline membership over the next decade, they noted.
“Unless conservative Protestants increase their family size or mainline Protestants further reduce theirs, this factor in mainline decline will not be present in the future.”

[Makes sense to me. God considers children a blessing. The modern American church considers them a burden.]

Here's what the instructions are from the Source of All Instruction:

“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth." (Gen. 9:1)

"El Shaddai bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples." (Gen. 28:3)

"I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you." (Gen. 17:6)

"The people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them." (Exodus 1:7)

"Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Sons are indeed a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the sons of one's youth.
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them."
(Ps. 127:1,3-4)

The Muslims and the Mormans haven't bought into the lie of the humanists. Why can't the Christians figure it out? Until we do, expect to continue to see decline.