A great interaction between PCA denomination leaders Ligon Duncan and Tim Keller on the last day of the 41st General Assembly. An excerpt:
“We both believe that we are in a new cultural moment,” said Duncan. “We need to know where we are, how we’ve gotten here, and how we can forge a biblical, faithful consensus on how we’re going to address that together.”
Keller picked up the conversation by painting a bleak picture of where America is as a culture: “This is an unprecedented time in human history. There have always been relativists. There have always been doubters of God. There have always been atheists. What’s new is the breadth of conviction that there is no such thing as truth. There have never been whole societies built on that idea. Never.”
He explained that the fallout from this conviction is seen in myriad ways: from the collapse of popular opposition to same-sex marriage to the increasing hostility to Christianity in cultural institutions (academia, the arts, etc.) to what Keller likes to call the rise of “the nones,” a reference to a recent Gallup survey reporting on religious affiliation.
“For many, many years in America, a very small percentage of people said ‘no religious preference.’ Now it’s up to 20 percent.”
Read the whole thing. I believe Keller is referring to an October 2012 study from Pew Research Center. The 20 percent figure is overall. For 18-29 year olds, it’s a whopping 32 percent–almost one in three.
HT: Tim Castell