At what point will we have to close Christianity.StackExchange.com for being too localized? [closed]

Question

Fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, I have a deep concern in the future of our beloved Christianity.SE. As many of you know, Christianity has been losing steadily to reason and logic, and even to some degree those who identify with it: we call them apostates, but they prefer the term atheists.

They're winning this battle of the minds at an alarming rate. Religiosity in the US dropped 13% since 2005.

I'd like to raise a few points,

• We should start to consider a threshold at which point we fold up the site. Maybe when religiosity hits 5% of the population we can give back the hard drive space to Stack Exchange so they can use it for something more versatile than Christian Theology.
• Perhaps Christianity.SE should consider re-theming itself in Ghana-ese. 96% of Ghanians identify as religious. This is a substantial market we should be serving.
• Alternatively, we should consider some sort of radical action that will allow us to regain our numbers and set back the heathens. One idea that comes up in my local Bible study is an armed crusade to California. They have a problem with rampant pot use and homosexuality. These are symptoms of the Satan-dilema.

Even if this proposal is not to Christianity.SE's liking, I think it would benefit all of us if we would plan, at least to some degree, to become a niche theology in the eyes of the masses (like neo-Paganism), or to seriously consider reversing this trend/descent.

May God be with everyone who believes in our God.

Answer 1

Ok, I'm going to start at the beginning.

• This is perhaps the most disingenuous opening I've ever seen. You are not (and don't claim to be) a follower of Christ, so addressing us as fellow brothers and sisters is inane at best, and offensive at worst. Heck you are a primary organizer of a group of atheists.

• This would assume that we agree with you that Christianity has been losing reason and logic. On the contrary, since the reformation reason and logic have been strong factors, particularly in churches that belong to the reformed circles. to the point where some churches are in fact accused of failing in spiritual matters in favor of logical thought.

• Atheism is not Christianity, you know this as an atheist yourself. This post is quite simply an attempt to discredit this site, which happens to currently be thriving.

• Rates of Christianity dropping in the US does not mean much at all. Christians understand that a lot of folks claim Christianity because it is a popular religion, most of these folks will move on to whatever becomes the popular religion of their culture. Rates of religiosity really don't concern Christians at all.

• Establishing a threshold of the world's population is ludicrous. This site was founded, got through beta and will continue to exist because it has an audience, a steady supply of questions and and steady supply of answers. If any of those go away it may well close.

• Christians of all stripes are welcome here, American Ghanaian and any other nationality. The only restriction is that they must ask and answer from the perspective of a group that claims to be Christian, and that posts have to be in English which, conveniently, just so happens to be the official language of Ghana.

• That's not the purpose of this site. This site exists to educate people about the various doctrinal positions that exist within the name "Christianity" and diverse set of opinions. If you'd like to know more you're welcome to read the site. A crusade against California is not currently on our agenda, and considering that some of members find neither pot smoking nor homosexuality to be a sin (though others certainly would) I doubt the impetus to begin one exists.

• Lastly, whether or not Christianity becomes a niche theology is not within the power, scope or imperative of this site or any SE site for that matter. Whether or not something is too localized is up to the amount of traffic the site receives, not it's subject matter. That said, Christianity has survived, nay thrived, for a bit over 2000 years. A bit of a down period really isn't anything special. The power of Christ cannot be stopped, and Christianity will continue to exist long after this world has been destroyed and made new again.

That said, I do hope you'll take the time to read the scriptures and consult with a local pastor, You might find some truth.

Answer 2

With the alarming fallout rate for religious types, I guess it's a good thing this is a secular site. That will save us a lot of trouble in the long run. Already it so much easier to manage than a church¹, you wouldn't believe.

This arrangement not only allows us to include subject matter from all different branches and sects of Christianity, but it allows us to band together on the same footing as other QnA sites covering religious topics such as Islam and Judaism.

But more directly related to your question, I think it is in the best long term interest of this site to involve more history questions. They tend to be more expert oriented, but they also tend to be more revealing about the true nature of Christianity. In a culture that has set a trend of forgetting, re-learning the faith of our Fathers will be an increasingly important activity. I hope this site can serve some role in this no matter what the current trends are.

Finally, we² can take heart in this: The future is not bleak. We look forward to a time when all things will be made new. No matter what the rest of culture does around us, we must never give up confessing him as Lord now while we freely can before the day when all nations will do so under compulsion. Jesus Christ is Lord!

As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
   and every tongue shall confess to God. — Romans 14:11

_{¹ I don't use the initials much, but if it makes a difference this statement is being said by Rev. Caleb.}

_{² Please note that by "we" I do not mean to include "you". That is a reference to Christians - to those who profess Jesus Christ as LORD. To my knowledge this is not a belief you hold or a confession you make. In fact I have seen several statements to the contrary. I find it rather disturbing, dishonest and possibly offensive for you to pretend in this post to be something you are not.}

Answer 3

I'd challenge that while churches may be in decline, the Church is on the rise. Also, keep in mind it would be best to look at world numbers not US numbers.

Historically, Christianity has been the cultural norm and thus many have identified as Christian simply because it's what their family did. After generations of this, people are only now starting to realize how meaningless this is. Thus, those who do not and have never believed are declaring such instead of riding along on cultural coat tails.

This is a good thing for the Church as it sheds a lot of hypocritical weight that identified itself as Christian but didn't behave as such or even have a remotely Christian faith. The Bible seem to be pretty clear that Christianity will not disappear from the planet until Christ returns, so don't be worried about it becoming so irrelevant that it isn't worth some hard drive space to discuss the theology and history of the religion.