Religion Conflict in America
America is largely a Christian country. According to a Pew Research survey the Christian population has dropped from 78.4% in 2007 to 70.6% in 2014. In contrast, nonaligned groups population increased from 16.1% to 22.8% in the same period. Protestant and Catholics greatly contribute to the decline. Church attendance diminishes in most churches and religious convictions continue to disappear. Does this mean that Americans are increasingly becoming less Christian than before? Pope Francis visit to the United States was of no concern to some Americans. The media predicted conflict between the pope and congress. The real conflict was not the pope’s opinion on climatic change but the people’s outlook of Catholicism. With a population of over 1 billion people worldwide and 68 million parishioners in
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Joel Boko a catholic priest is adamant the church is growing despite contrary belief. He considers media reports on the negative aspects of the church as unprecedented. Father Joel says although the number of parishioners leaving the church is significant, a large percentage is returning to the church. Such figures have been ignored by mass media.
“Most people who convert from the Catholic Church never go back to their former churches,” Rev. Joel Boko said. “The media has contributed in projecting the Catholic Church in a negative sense emphasizing the negative especially the sex scandals.”
According to Rev. Boko the percentage of Catholics who return to the church stay.
Protestant member George Mundia believes the Catholic priests sex scandals is the true image of the church. George is a member of Upendo Baptist church a community church in Dallas. He believes the Catholic Church scandals have put it in a bad light but insists the pope visit changed his impression. Pope Francis humility as portrayed on television gave a contrary perception of the church. Noticeably the media as gate keepers controls the mindset of the