"If Christianity is on the decline in an increasingly secular society, it is chiefly because it is increasingly perceived as not being among the options for anyone of any intellectual integrity."

It is not only a perceived lack of "intellectual integrity" that Christianity has been saddled with. I believe that Christian's most certainly have themselves to blame for their decline, at least in our own country. There seems to be so many Christian groups in the news that have taken on a hostile and/or anti-social tone or that have embraced a platform that reeks of hate, intolerance, anti-science or misogyny. Groups like Westboro Baptist Church, "Yearning for Zion", Creationists/ID'ers, anti-gay/anti-choice, plus, the pedophile priest debacle that has forever stained the Catholic church. Just look at Heritage Church in our own community that hosted the Creationism forum recently, taking on science and evolution. I find this absolutely distasteful that a church would embrace the anti-science mantra of creationism/ID and I would personally have a difficult time taking my children to a church like this, especially now when my own child is learning about evolution in her science class. Talk about a total disconnect!

Christian churches have thrust themselves into the political arena and they have lost members and converts because of their actions. I honestly believe that this is the main reason for declining numbers in Christianity. When I was growing up in California during the 60's, we attended a Presbyterian church fairly regularly. During one of the many anti-war rallies in Berkeley during that time, a Presbyterian minister hand-cuffed himself to an anti-war protestor who was being arrested, thereby, getting himself arrested in support of the protestor. I remember distinctly my mother saying that she would never go back to our church again because the Presbyterian's had become "too political" for her. We never did go back and found another church to attend that was very a-political in nature and in the business of "saving souls" so to speak. It was actually a really nice church, very warm and welcoming, full of love and kindness for everyone, no mention of anti this or anti that. Church, was again, a place for my family to congregate and receive a wonderful message of love, kindness, forgiveness and hope. A message many modern churches have forgotten and placed on the back-burner. Instead, there is now an underlying message of all things political and it makes most people squirm in the pew when they hear political thought in church.

Churches have changed because our world has changed. I also believe that declining numbers can be attributed to 9/11 and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. It sickens people to see suicide bombers blow themselves up, taking innocents with them, in the name of Allah/God. The message so many of us are receiving these days is that "religion kills" or "religion is hostile." What do our kids see on the news everyday? War between the religions, whether it is between the Jews and Arabs or the U.S. and Iraq/Afghanistan. And the underlying reason for these conflicts is religion. No longer is religion/church a safe haven for some of us to congregate and "feel the love" and escape the atrocities of the world that we see on the news everyday. The church has brought the atrocities and absurdities into the sanctuary, politicized it, and also require their members to embrace it in order to feel accepted within the congregation. And this is what has become unacceptable to many of us.

Should modern day churches embrace modern day issues? Maybe not. Does Joel Osteen preach about gays and abortion? Or does he talk about love and kindness and offering the gardener a Coca-cola? Maybe this is why his simple message of love and tolerance has been embraced by so many followers.

I think you've hit upon a bit of a sore point in modern day Christianity: the rise of Christian anti-intellectualism.

I think the beginnings of modern Christian anti-intellectualism took root in the late 1990s. In a nutshell, Christian anti-intellectualism could be summed up as "God said it, I believe it, the end."

President Bush made anti-intellectualism somewhat trendy in the 2000 debates when he was asked who is favorite philosopher was (Jesus, of course) but couldn't explain why Jesus' teachings were important, only that they WERE important. I think that line of reasoning has a tremendous appeal to a certain strata of society, those that are absolutely sure of their beliefs to the point that they'd never bothered to investigate the foundation of those beliefs.

There is a common belief (no pun intended) that the Republican party co-opte the Christian message over the last quarter century and infused and grafted their own message on top of Christian beliefs (remember "Jesus wanted big nuclear weapons systems", anyone?). I'm not sure if this is still true (or if it was, indeed, ever true) but the Republican party has been complicit in helping "dumb down" the Christian message for the masses, turning Christian thought into bumper-sticker theology, more or less.

There comes a point of diminishing returns, though, a point where the proverbial Everyman takes notice and frowns and says "now wait a gosh-darn minute here...." The overreach of Christian dogma began to infuse both the little debates (the Grand Canyon bookstore hawking Christian propaganda that the Earth was only 6000 years old) to the big debates (a clump of cells in a petri dish is the functional equivalent of a human being). (Sorry, Muddle, couldn't resist).

I think that certain Christians are bewildered when mainstream America "pushes back", hence the feeling of their values being "under attack". And I think it's a direct consequence of attempting to foist Christian values coercively upon the public via force of law and presidential signing statements, as opposed to good ole fashioned "retail Christianity", the hard business of saving one soul at a time.