As secular culture seems to often supercede the place of faith-based culture, the Barna Group has released a list of the most post-Christians cities in the U.S.
Barna is a Christian research group, specializing in surveys and polls having to do with religion and faith. In order to determine America’s top 10 most post-Christian cities, Barna based the research on 16 different criteria:
“To qualify as ‘post-Christian,’ individuals had to meet nine or more of the following factors. ‘Highly post-Christian’ individuals meet 13 or more of the factors (out of these 16 criteria).”
Some of the criteria included “Identify as atheist or agnostic, Have not prayed to God (in the last week), Disagree the Bible is accurate, Have not attended a Christian church, and Not Born Again.”
Based on these criteria, the top 10 most post-Christian cities turned out to be:
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Portland-Aurburn, ME
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Boston, MA-Manchester, NH
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Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY
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Providence, RI-New Bedford, MA
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Burlington, VT-Plattsburgh, NY
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Hartford-New Haven, CT
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New York, NY
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San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, CA
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Seattle-Tacoma, WA
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Buffalo, NY
Church attendance is decreasing and the number of people who believe in God, pray regularly, and read their Bible has also been dropping. “By consequence,” says Barna, “the role of religion in public life has been slowly diminishing, and the church no longer functions with the cultural authority it held in times past. These are unique days for the church in America as it learns what it means to flourish in a new ‘Post-Christian’ era.
Photo courtesy: ©Thinkstock/SeanPavonePhoto
Publication date: July 17, 2017
