The U'S's fertile soil for new religious movements

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The U.S.s fertile soil for new religious
movements

• 10 reasons for the lengthy list of options
  populating Americas religious menu

Howard Culbertson Southern Nazarene University
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1. Secularism

• Secular people
• May look religious, but live without a daily
  awareness of or reference to God and His church
• Think God and His people are irrelevant
• Find Christianity boring and perhaps even untrue

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2. Anxiety over threats to human survival
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3. Uncertainties produced by complexity of modern
existence
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4. Betrayals by political and religious leaders
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5. Intense longing for transcendence
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6. Breakdown of family and neighborhood groups
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7. Feeling of lostness which moral relativism
accentuates
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8. Naïve openness to religious imports
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9. Affluence and consumerism

• Religion comparison chart of skit in Worldview
  Boutique video

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10. Failures in the church

• Inadequate Biblical teaching
• sub-Christian gospel of success
• Extreme individualism
• Sterile liturgy
• Overemphasis on doctrine
• Lack of authentic Christian community

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The U.S.s fertile soil for new religious
movements

• End