Welcome

Results of a PEW survey were summarized in the May 16 issue of the Cape Cod Times in an article entitled, “U.S. has become notably less Christian." 

Consider the following results from PEW’s surveying 35,071 U.S. adults last summer:  “…The decline, however, has been sharpest among Americans born since the mid-1960.  And in those groups, organized religion does not appear to be gaining adherents as people age.  

In 2007, for example, about one-quarter of Americans aged 18-26 said they had no religion. Today, in that same age cohort, now 25-33, just over one-third say they have no religion…The people who are churchgoers are an aging generation, and they’re not being replaced by younger people...”

The Granlund cartoon offers a response to these findings: “We need better PR – better public relations.”   Therefore, we need a PR person who knows how to sell a product, in this case – Christianity.   And, we have one.

Pope Francis gives us the text to put on our “welcome” sign.  It doesn’t read: “Abandon all hope ye who enter here” (inscription at the entrance of hell, according to Dante and his Inferno).    It reads:  “Receive hope and mercy you who enter here.”  It’s up to all of us to give flesh to this text.  Otherwise, the line at the Sports Bar will keep lengthening especially with those in their 20s and 30s. 

Deacon David Pierce