Theos-Talk Archives (January 2002 Message tt00460)

Larry,

Your presence adds something to the list and I welcome the kind of 
contributions you make below:
> 
> This liberal/fundimentalist trend is not unique. In Protestant
> Christianity, all the old mainline churches which now view 
themselves as liberal, are in decline. Methodists, Lutherans, 
Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Reformed, all these have lost 
significant membership in the last thirty to forty years. 

Disciples of Christ also. But one non-mainstream church that is 
liberal is definitely not declining: the Unitarian Universalists are 
growing at a rapid rate last I read. Another liberal success story 
is the Unity School of Christianity, pretty expansionary if I recall 
correctly. Note that these two consist of converts, whereas the 
mainline losses are to people born into the faith.

> On the other side, the Southern Baptists,

Actually, I just read recently that the SBC had its first year of 
declining numbers. THANK YOU, JESUS.

> Pentacostals, Holiness and other more conservative sects are still 
on the rise.

Some conservative sects are in steep decline too. But by and large 
the fastest growing groups are conservative, e.g. the Seventh-day 
Adventists.

Once, the Methodists were in that position. I guess that's cycles
> in action.
> 

The ARE is one of the most intriguing examples of membership booming 
and busting; 17k when I first joined in 1977; up to almost 100k in 
1989, back down around 20k now. Lots of discussion about why that 
happened.

As for Theosophy, I don't know about numbers but the impression of 
vitality was generally strong in the late 70s and 80s, across the 
board-- Adyar, Pasadena, ULT. I don't get the same impression now.

Cheers,

Paul