Considering 85% of the USA is Christian (the third highest concentration in the world)?

Question

shouldn’t we have lower poverty rates and crimes rates then other countries?

Or is Christianity just all talk?

Answer 1

Having lived in a third world country for 10 years and being somewhat well traveled, I guarantee you there are people all over this world who would give anything to be poor in the USA. What we consider poverty would be a joke to them.

I'm not dodging the question. I just don't think sweeping indictments are helpful.

Re crime, well I know you've read Jeremiah 17: "9The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" Those words apply to all of us, including Christians.

Edit: Looked up crime stats and the USA is #24 (see link). The US %s are miniscule compared to others, and when compared with countries that do better, there's almost no difference. So actually we already do have much less crime.

Link #2 shows the results for poverty. They're not numbered, so to save you time, start reading from the bottom of the list and work your way up.

Answer 2

The USA is at most 40% Christian.

I suspect the real number is considerably less than that.

The only times in my life I've ever had encouters with the law is when some who were pretending to be Christians, but who really were not, made false reports about me.

Each time time I was vindicated, and at no time was enough evidence produced to convince the police to even arrest me. The last few times false reports were made about me, the police investigated and decided I had done nothing wrong without even contacting me about it.

As a Pastor, part time prison/jail chaplain, I've been visiting people behind bars on a regular basis since, about 1976, and I can't remember a single person who had been locked up who had been a genuine Christian at the time of their arrest.

Of course many have become Christians while in prison.

The vast majority of the prison population today are Muslims and those who claim to be atheist or agnostic.

Stateville Prison in Joliet, Illinois has over 2,000 inmates and about 65 each week attend Christian religious services.

Pastor Art

PS: Obviously I've heard on the news about an occasional Pastor being sent to prison, but the reason these make the news is that those occasions are so rare.

Answer 3

For Many Christians they just see it as something that they do only on Sundays and certain days of the year (Christmas, Easter and the like). Those Christians have not gotten the MESSAGE the Jesus came to spread throughout the World. That message was "LOVE". Those folks sem to think that they can go to church, accept Christ and then after Chruch go around behaving like total jerks, because they have a ":get out of Hell Free" card. All they have to do is ask for Christ's forgiveness and they get to begin again with a "clean slate". I'd estimate that our of the 85% of those who SAY that they are Christian that 60% of THOSE feel the way I just described. That leaves 40% of the remaining 85% who DO live their lives according to the MESSAGE of Christ Or about 35% of the people in the U.S.. That's a tiny minority of folks who are truly following the TRUE ways of Christianity, the rest are either deluding themselves OR just outright NOT following the dictates of their conscience.

Raji the Green Witch

Answer 4

My take is that people SAY they're Christian because they believe in it. However, one of my favorite analogies is that believing in art doesn't make a person an artist.

If the 85% of the people in the US who claim to be Christians were actually LIVING it, we would have lower poverty and crime rates.

And no, Christianity is not "all talk." Some people are, though.

Answer 5

Hmm, that's difficult - are Christians doing what they are told to do by God in the bible? Hmmm, are you sure all those 85% of professed Christians are actually Christians? Or do they just say they are?
I am an atheist, but live by the beliefs and tennets that I was brought up with, i.e. Christianity, yet I don't give all my wealth to those less well-off than myself, and I have been know to break the law (speeding).
Anyway, don't most religions have the same basic tennets? What's Christianity got to do with it?

Answer 6

I was shocked to see that as of 2001, it was indeed 85% in the USA.
I have to say that I believe a fair amount of those are not what one would call practising Christians, and that peer pressure plays an enormous part in whether people say they are religious or not.

Answer 7

Too many Christians around here don't practice true Christianity. Jesus taught to help the less fortunate; but here in the Bible belt, a lot of church money goes to putting in indoor swimming pools, running "information stands", etc. Can't see how that stuff helps the less fortunate.

Don't mention a certain church's multi-million dollar fireworks display in Springfield, Missouri.

Answer 8

I have under no circumstances heard any person name the US a 3rd international nation nevertheless it IS flagging in distinctive places like wellbeing care and schooling, as a result making it no longer the best location to reside that it most likely might be on the grounds that all of the cash it has and chooses to spend on wars and killing folks instead than therapy its possess population.

Answer 9

The US is about, depending on survey, 80% Christian, and about 5-8% atheist.

When a person is processed into a prison, they are asked their religion, for demographic and accomadation purposes.

At the time of in-process, ruling out prison conversions, over 95% of prisoners are Christian and fewer than 0.5% are atheist.

If Christians and atheists were equally law abiding, one would expect the ratios to be identical. They are not, with far more Christians among the criminal ranks.

Only two conclusions are thus possible:

1.) Atheists are more law abiding than Christians,
or,
2.) Atheists are smarter than Christians on average and thus better able to plan their crimes.


It has further been shown that levels of religiousity and levels of crime directly correlate -- in areas with high religiousity, crime rates are higher, areas with low religiousity, crime rates are lower.


Both lines of inquiry come to the inevitable conclusion that Christianity in specific, and religion in general, are harmful to modern society.

Answer 10

I'd be interested to hear how you make the connection between being christian and having lower poverty and crime. Christians are no less human than anyone else in the world and even the bible tells us that poor people will always exist.

Perhaps a better question would be: "Considering that the vast majority of the middle east is Muslim, and Muslims consider themselves to be a religion of peace, why do Muslim fundamentalists continue to turn themselves into human bombs for the express purpose of killing and/or maiming innocent bystanders?"