Moderate churches face a particular challenge
New research predicting the rise of religious progressives and a conservative decline presents a challenge to those in the middle, including moderate Baptists, according to some leading Baptist and other Christian activists and thinkers.
The Public Religion Research Institute survey released in July examined the intersection of economics, politics and faith. Predicting the rise of religious progressives (currently at 19 percent) and the decline of conservatives (28 percent), it shows moderates firmly in the middle with the greatest numbers of all (38 percent).
The poll goes on to focus mostly on the interplay between progressives and conservatives, attributing the latter’s decline to younger Americans seeking more action-oriented and less doctrinal expressions of faith.
