Mormons surge, Catholics decline in US; half of Americans are nonadherents [CWN]

CWN News · #1 May 3, '12, 4:20 am

The number of Mormons in the United States increased by nearly 50% between 2000 and 2010, while the number of "active members" of the Catholic Church declined by 5%, according to the ...

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Nec5 · #2 May 3, '12, 10:31 pm

Not surprising.

Bob Crowley · #3 May 4, '12, 12:17 am

My old pastor, whose predictions were usually pretty accurate, thought the Mormon Cathedral in Salt Lake City would become the devil's cathedral in due course.

But we'll have to wait and see.

**Holly3278** · #4 May 4, '12, 4:00 am

How very sad.

BettyBoop416 · #5 May 4, '12, 7:55 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Crowley

My old pastor, whose predictions were usually pretty accurate, thought the Mormon Cathedral in Salt Lake City would become the devil's cathedral in due course.

This is just about as offensive as the "Whore of Babylon" venom that is sometimes spewed by fire and brimstone types. Your old pastor sounds like a real gem.

7 Sorrows · #6 May 4, '12, 8:05 am

i have heard for several years how quickly the Mormon religion is growing. i know many Mormon people and they are very nice and very family oriented, but there are still some aspects of Mormonism that i just don't understand how people can adhere to, but there are probably many people who can't adhere to everything Catholicism teaches also.

Publisher · #7 May 4, '12, 8:11 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by BettyBoop416

This is just about as offensive as the "Whore of Babylon" venom that is sometimes spewed by fire and brimstone types. Your old pastor sounds like a real gem.

Friend you speak my mind.....amazed that Catholics can bristle at "whore of babylon'...yet turn around and speak just as offensive toward other faith traditions.

**Joe 5859** · #8 May 4, '12, 8:11 am

About 8 years ago, I read some sociologist who said that, since its inception. Mormonism is growing at basically the same rate that the early Church grew in the first few centuries after Christ. I guess we'll see how long they're able to maintain that growth.

**Ridgerunner** · #9 May 4, '12, 9:56 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe 5859

About 8 years ago, I read some sociologist who said that, since its inception. Mormonism is growing at basically the same rate that the early Church grew in the first few centuries after Christ. I guess we'll see how long they're able to maintain that growth.

Absolutely. If I start a church and one person joins, that's a 100% increase in one day. Percentage increase doesn't tell me anything about eventual numbers. Six million is not a whole lot of Mormons.

In my opinion, there is going to be a significant decrease in those who actually adhere to the Catholic Church very soon. Obama is determined to carry away a significant number from fidelity, and I genuinely believe he'll get it done. He already has with some, they just haven't admitted it yet. It might or might not call itself Catholic or pretend to be a part of the Church. But it will be Obama's church, not Christ's.

Luna Lovecraft · #10 May 4, '12, 1:31 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Publisher

Friend you speak my mind.....amazed that Catholics can bristle at "whore of babylon'...yet turn around and speak just as offensive toward other faith traditions.

The hypocrisy is stunning, isn't it?

sw85 · #11 May 4, '12, 2:04 pm

Funny; we're shrinking even though we've thrown our borders wide open to the at-least-nominally Catholic nation to the south!

If the polls are any indication, it probably doesn't help that nearly no one accepts the Church's teaching on contraception anymore.

**Ridgerunner** · #12 May 4, '12, 3:08 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by sw85

Funny; we're shrinking even though we've thrown our borders wide open to the at-least-nominally Catholic nation to the south!

If the polls are any indication, it probably doesn't help that nearly no one accepts the Church's teaching on contraception anymore.

Long ago I was intrigued by someone's statement (might have been Kenneth Clark or Will Durant, I can't remember) that in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, people sinned with gusto and repented with gusto, but that in our own era we neither sin well nor repent well.

There's some truth to that. We have become accustomed to "fuzzing over" the difference between virtue and sin. As a consequence, we do neither thing well.

I have long been fascinated by the refusal to simply admit that, in using contraception, one was sinning, and to confess it and at least have SOME kind of purpose of amendment. We sin all the time, and usually in the same ways. Why are we so unwilling to admit it now? Do we really believe ourselves to be sinless? Why do we fight accepting the reality so?

We aren't Ste Thereses or others of that kind. Why do we insist that somehow we are, when the cost of that insistence is just living within a sin wallow of our own creation that just gets deeper and deeper?

It makes no sense to me at all.

Bob Crowley · #13 May 4, '12, 5:56 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by BettyBoop416

This is just about as offensive as the "Whore of Babylon" venom that is sometimes spewed by fire and brimstone types. Your old pastor sounds like a real gem.

He wasn't actually. He didn't go in for last days stuff much at all. In fact he found most of it, which originates in America, to be a 'bit weird'. And he was no fire and brimstone type.

However he accurately predicted, before his death in 1992 -

"An african american president.." (and the fact he'd use the 'racism' tag to get back at his critics) - I suppose you know who that is.

"A second Gulf War. I think the Americans will have had enough of Saddam Hussein, and they'll get rid of him. But I think they might lose a few men the next time", with an emphasis on "few" which implied it would be a good deal more than a few - War started in 2003, Saddam executed in 2006, and the US lost nearly 5000 men.

He also thought Fidel Castro might become Christian (Catholic), but "he'd leave it pretty late in the day". That hasn't happened yet, but Cuba is moving closer to the Catholic Church.

I could give a list of other accurate predictions he made, some of which have happened.

But I suppose you think there is some salvation on offer through the Mormon Church?

Bob Crowley · #14 May 4, '12, 8:46 pm

As a footnote to my post/s above, I'd better point out he made these predictions in private discussions in his office, not during sermons. He wouldn't have made comments like these in sermons.

I'm the one who's broadcasting them, on the net. Incidentally he also said "I think you'll use some of these comments of mine on the net." Now back then around 1991, the net was just starting up, and bookshops were full of books on computers. But I didn't have access to the net, at home or work, and it would be a few years before I did.

However the prediction that gets to me was a personal one to me - "I think you'll be doing a cleaning job. You won't like it much, and you won't be doing it for long, but I think the Lord will just want you to 'hear about a ghost'". That was pretty much his comment word for word, probably around 1991. I've written about this before, but I'll say it again to point out how accurate he was.

Now I knew by that time how accurate he was, but even I thought that was a bit silly. And I had a clerical job in a state goverment department at the time, and I had no intention of doing cleaning.

But in 2006, I did cleaning for a short time, didn't like it much, and heard about a ghost in a store at Ipswich, west of Brisbane. Apparently a former manager had committed suicide there.

Even after I started cleaning, I still didn't give the old pastor's prediction any thought, until the young bloke showing me the run suddenly remarked, "This place is haunted".

As he started explaining the background, the penny dropped.

So I like I said, he was accurate. And no fire and brimstone type.

As for justification for my original comment about the Mormon Cathedral, I'm sorry but I happen to believe (personal opinion of course) the anti-Christ will be an American politician (er... not the Pope). The closest he will allow to Christianity will be the Mormon Church, where Christ and Satan are regarded as brothers.

That's the theory, and as I said, all I can do is wait.

It might seem unjust regarding the USA in this regard, but the reality is that there is currently only one nation that could impose its will around the world if it wanted to.

And to top it off, he made one other comment regarding "Star Wars", the anti-ballistic missile shield mooted by Reagan, and that simply was "They've (US) have gone quiet about it. I think they've got it up and running." And that would have been way back in 1991.

If that's the case, the US is pretty well invulnerable to nuclear attack, except by smuggled weapons or sub launched cruise missiles. Which means the US could impose it's will pretty much free of concerns about retaliation.

And if you think a secret like that could not be hidden, I remember my own father commenting on the issue of the Gary Power's spy plane, which was shot down over Russia. He said, "We (the general Australian public) didn't have a clue such a thing existed." And the SR71 Blackbird was even then in production, and it was years before the general public was told about it.

**gilliam** · #15 May 4, '12, 8:53 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by CWN News

The number of Mormons in the United States increased by nearly 50% between 2000 and 2010, while the number of "active members" of the Catholic Church declined by 5%, according to the ...

Considering all that went on in those years, a 5% decrease is actually pretty good and I would expect the next 10 years to show a good increase.