“Master status” is the status by which one is known in the area under consideration.  In this posting we are examining American religious status in which “nonverts” are gaining in popularity at a rapid rate.

The word “nonverts” is a term that has come into play over the past few years as people leave the traditional churches and identify with the world around them.  Nonverts state that they are not “converts” to any particular religious organization, denomination, faith, etc.  As stated, nonvert numbers have been rising as converts (a.k.a. “the saved”) have been losing ground.  For example, 1972 a national poll revealed that 95% of Americans reportedly embraced the Christian religion at that time.  In 2022 65% of the population claim to have no church affiliation.  In just 50 years a significant percentage of Americans have dropped out of the “churched” group and into the “unchurched” group.  The study pointed out that the majority of those leaving the church had been born into church families.  These are people who, like myself and millions more, were “born in the church” and raised by church parents.  Like the 65%, I am a dropout but not a nonvert.  I have been converted to true Bible-based Christianity.  My family on both sides were, and continue to be, uber-religious, three-times-a-week church goers.  Nationally, these types of families are producing church dropouts at an ever-increasing rate.  The question is, why?

In my case God had called me during my childhood to serve Him in this most unusual ministry in which His Word as it is printed is put forth as His Truth in His Holy Bible.  Having answered His call later in life, I had no choice but to leave Satan’s Catholic/Protestant Church System in that there is no place for a true believer in the confines of professing Christendom.

Unlike me and a few thousand others, those who are leaving the Institutional Church are doing so for other reasons.  I know of no study that explains the reasons for leaving given by those who have done so over the past half century.  But obviously very, very few are leaving so that they can be free to obey God in the privacy of their own homes.  Though there are no studies that reveal why so many people are leaving “the church,” I have some thoughts along those lines.  My reasoning follows two avenues of thought which ask two questions relative to why people are giving up Catholic/Protestant church membership: 1) Why waste the time? and 2) what’s the point?  I have no way of proving my beliefs, but I believe that they would be at the top of the reasons list if such a list existed.  Let us begin with question #1: Why waste the time to go through the religious motions of professing Christendom?

I have noted in past postings that the only difference between the churched and the unchurched is where the former spends a couple of hours each Sunday morning.  Excluding that two-hour interruption, those in both groups live basically the same life-styles.  Those in both groups watch the same t.v. programs, troll the same aps on their hand-held life support systems, read the same books, watch the same movies, listen to the same music, tell the same jokes, laugh at the same jokes, wear the same clothes, talk about the same subjects, etc.  So what is the difference between the churched and the unchurched?  The churched go to a particular building on Sunday; the unchurched sleep in.  The churched dress up in their “Sunday best;” the unchurched snuggle in for a few more winks.  The churched glance at their watches to see if they will be let out of church in time for the kick-off; the unchurched glance at the clock to make sure they are awake in time for the kick-off.  A fellow who pastored a local church before his untimely death allowed the males in his congregation to leave early if he was going to preach past 12:00 noon, which he had a habit of doing.  To make things convenient he provided a lounge area complete with chairs and a t.v. just down the hall from the “Worship Center” so that the ballers would not miss the kickoff.  This false prophet brought user-friendly religion to a new height.  Why waste time dressing up, carrying a Bible, listening to the same “you’re saved, it’s all good” message every Sunday, then spending the next 168 hours doing exactly what the unchurched do?  Why not stay home and get two more hours of sleep?  And if one happens to have a t.v. in the bedroom ….  Could life be any better?

Question number two asks “What’s the point in going to church, etc?”  What is the point of going through all the motions of owning a Bible and studying and believing it when the church welcomes people whom God condemns in that same Bible?  Ignoring His Word, the church simply has the condemned to follow a prescribed ritual, the awards them the same status as those who believe what God says about them and what they do.  Look at the number of churches that are allowing in queers, transes, adulters, liars, etc. into the church as fellow members of the Body of Christ, but do not require them to change their likestyles to match God’s commands.  This makes the queer, the adulterer, the liar, etc. the same kind of Christian as those who are straight, chaste and honest.  If Jesus loves both groups the same, and if both are saved and born again, and if both are going to heaven, etc., what is the point in going through the religious motions?  Why pretend that the Bible matters when it obviously does not?  So why not stay home and do something useful like, for example, mow the yard or wash the car?  If Bible obeyers and Bible disobeyers are equal in the eyes of the Author of the Bible, what’s the point of going through the prescribed hypocritical motions?

I understand why people are leaving the Institutional Church in droves.  GOD IS NOT THERE.  L.J.