{"id":2202,"date":"2013-01-07T23:11:52","date_gmt":"2013-01-07T23:11:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybirminghamgospel.com\/staging\/9111\/?p=2202"},"modified":"2013-01-07T23:11:52","modified_gmt":"2013-01-07T23:11:52","slug":"church-in-crisis-more-african-americans-are-becoming-atheists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybirminghamgospel.com\/staging\/9111\/church-in-crisis-more-african-americans-are-becoming-atheists\/","title":{"rendered":"Church in Crisis: More African Americans are becoming atheists"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--CusAds0--><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/atlantablackstar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/black-church-people-511.jpeg\" width=\"366\" height=\"237\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national\/on-faith\/poll-shows-atheism-on-the-rise-in-the-us\/2012\/08\/13\/90020fd6-e57d-11e1-9739-eef99c5fb285_story.html\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Global Index of Religiosity and Atheism<\/span><\/a>, a study released in August of this year, found that the number of Americans who say they are religious dropped from 73 percent in 2005 to 60 percent in 2012. A 2011 poll conducted by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.barna.org\/faith-spirituality\/510-major-faith-shifts-evident-among-whites-blacks-and-hispanics-since-1991\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Barna Group<\/span><\/a> revealed similar findings. Barna Group looked at church attendance from 1991 to 2011 and found that it dropped from 48 percent to 39 percent. A GIRA\u00a0poll found that Americans who identify as atheist rose from 1 percent to 5 percent.<\/span><\/p><!--CusAds0-->\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">That sounds like a lot of extra seats. Something that was unheard of from 2004 to 2006, considered the &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.communicorps.org\/learning\/articles_bydefinition\/page_bd_megachurch.htm\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">peak<\/span><\/a>&#8221; of mega-church popularity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Black folks have cherry-picked what days they want to attend church since&#8230;forever. That isn&#8217;t new. But what is new is the growing number of black people who are leaving the church, and their faith.<\/span><\/p>\n<!--CusAds0--><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Read more on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.loop21.com\/culture\/no-god-flow-black-church-driving-more-african-americans-atheism\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Loop 21<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Global Index of Religiosity and Atheism, a study released in August of this year, found that the number of Americans who say they are religious dropped from 73 percent in 2005 to 60 percent in 2012. A 2011 poll conducted by The Barna Group revealed similar findings. Barna Group looked at church attendance from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[543,544,545],"class_list":["post-2202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-atheism","tag-church-people","tag-megachurch"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Church in Crisis: More African Americans are becoming atheists - MyBirminghamGOSPEL.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mybirminghamgospel.com\/church-in-crisis-more-african-americans-are-becoming-atheists\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Church in Crisis: More African Americans are becoming atheists - MyBirminghamGOSPEL.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Global Index of Religiosity and Atheism, a study released in August of this year, found that the number of Americans who say they are religious dropped from 73 percent in 2005 to 60 percent in 2012. A 2011 poll conducted by The Barna Group revealed similar findings. Barna Group looked at church attendance from [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mybirminghamgospel.com\/church-in-crisis-more-african-americans-are-becoming-atheists\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"MyBirminghamGOSPEL.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-01-07T23:11:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/atlantablackstar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/black-church-people-511.jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mybirminghamgospel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@mybhamgospel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@mybhamgospel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"mybirminghamgospel\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mybirminghamgospel.com\\\/church-in-crisis-more-african-americans-are-becoming-atheists\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mybirminghamgospel.com\\\/church-in-crisis-more-african-americans-are-becoming-atheists\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"mybirminghamgospel\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mybirminghamgospel.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4c08af22b62a1f94cee8329f366c78ff\"},\"headline\":\"Church in Crisis: More African Americans are becoming atheists\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-01-07T23:11:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mybirminghamgospel.com\\\/church-in-crisis-more-african-americans-are-becoming-atheists\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":145,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mybirminghamgospel.com\\\/church-in-crisis-more-african-americans-are-becoming-atheists\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/atlantablackstar.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2012\\\/05\\\/black-church-people-511.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"atheism\",\"church people\",\"megachurch\"],\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mybirminghamgospel.com\\\/church-in-crisis-more-african-americans-are-becoming-atheists\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mybirminghamgospel.com\\\/church-in-crisis-more-african-americans-are-becoming-atheists\\\/\",\"name\":\"Church in Crisis: More African Americans are becoming atheists - MyBirminghamGOSPEL.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mybirminghamgospel.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mybirminghamgospel.com\\\/church-in-crisis-more-african-americans-are-becoming-atheists\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mybirminghamgospel.com\\\/church-in-crisis-more-african-americans-are-becoming-atheists\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/atlantablackstar.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2012\\\/05\\\/black-church-people-511.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-01-07T23:11:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mybirminghamgospel.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4c08af22b62a1f94cee8329f366c78ff\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mybirminghamgospel.com\\\/church-in-crisis-more-african-americans-are-becoming-atheists\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/mybirminghamgospel.com\\\/church-in-crisis-more-african-americans-are-becoming-atheists\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mybirminghamgospel.com\\\/church-in-crisis-more-african-americans-are-becoming-atheists\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/atlantablackstar.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2012\\\/05\\\/black-church-people-511.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/atlantablackstar.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2012\\\/05\\\/black-church-people-511.jpeg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mybirminghamgospel.com\\\/church-in-crisis-more-african-americans-are-becoming-atheists\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mybirminghamgospel.com\\\/staging\\\/9111\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Church in Crisis: More African Americans are becoming atheists\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mybirminghamgospel.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mybirminghamgospel.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"MyBirminghamGOSPEL.com\",\"description\":\"The place for gospel music, news, events &amp; 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