The "Shambles" of the Mainline
In his now notoriously controversial speech at Ave Maria University in 2008, Rick Santorum warned that Satan had attacked the mainline Protestant churches in America, leaving them "in shambles" and "gone from the world of Christianity." Pundits and commentators on the 24 hour news cycles pounced, mocking Mr. Santorum's fiery religious rhetoric and questioning his electability. But putting his laughable qualifications for judging who the "real Christians" are to the side (including President Obama's [ mainline Protestant ] " phony theology "), no one is really arguing whether or not the mainline churches are in shambles. The decline of the mainline is just one part of a larger demographic shift that is reshaping American religion in a breathtakingly short period of time. White Catholics are leaving their church in droves. Evangelical growth is stalling . And in what TIME magazine dubs the " rise of the nones ," the fastes...