For Andrew Walker, the current \u201cpost-Christian\u201d state of American culture has posed a serious challenge to the faithful.<\/p>\n
For a variety of reasons, fewer and fewer Americans now have a grasp of the fundamentals of orthodox, biblical teachings, says Mr. Walker, director of policy studies for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. Like many who keep attuned to the country\u2019s religious landscape, he notes, too, the dramatic rise of the so-called \u201cnones,\u201d especially among the young, who may believe in God, but have begun to refuse to identify with a particular religious group.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey grew up in a nominal Christian culture, where it\u2019s no longer of a cultural or social benefit to identify as a Christian,\u201d he says. \u201cTo add to that is, there\u2019s often not only no social prestige to gain, there\u2019s also social prestige to lose, if you say you are a Christian in our society.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s one piece of a cultural shift that has begun to affect even the nation\u2019s most vibrant religious groups. The Southern Baptist Convention, one of the more conservative evangelical Protestant denominations, has lost more than a million members over the past decade. Still the largest single Protestant group in the nation with more than 15 million members, its network of churches nevertheless haven\u2019t baptized so few a number of people in 70 years, the denomination\u2019s research shows<\/a>.<\/p>\n