Monthly News Roundup (02.24.22)

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Plain Bible Teaching Podcast

This is the last episode for the month of February – time for our monthly news roundup. In this episode, we’ll be talking about the group who are most likely to still be missing from the local church, the number of babies born to unmarried mothers, and global persecution in 2021.

STORY #1 – The Group Most Likely to Still Be Missing From Your Church

“Prior to the introduction of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States in early 2020, nearly 9 in 10 American evangelicals (87%) were attending church on at least a semi-regular basis. Almost all of them (89%) stopped attending for at least a time because of the pandemic, according to the Grey Matter report.

“Of those who stopped attending church, most (77%) did so because their churches paused in-person services, but some (12%) chose to stop attending in person even though their churches continued to gather. The remaining 11% continued to attend in-person worship throughout the pandemic, according to the report.”

[…]

“Many who chose to stop attending services did so due to health-related concerns amid the pandemic, but research suggests that other reasons may have also played a role for some.

“Already infrequent churchgoers were much more likely to stop attending in-person worship than those who regularly attended church before, according to Grey Matter. Of those who attended church less than monthly before the pandemic, 25% chose to stop attending once the pandemic began. Only 11% of those who attended church at least monthly prior to the pandemic made the decision to stop attending in-person services.” (Lifeway Research)

Related material:

STORY #2 – CDC: 40.5% of U.S. Babies Born in 2020 Had Unmarried Mothers

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last week that there were 3,613,647 births registered in the United States in 2020 and that 1,464,121 of these—or 40.5 percent–were to unmarried mothers.

“‘The percentage of all births to unmarried women was 40.5% in 2020,’ said the CDC’s ‘Births: Final Data for 2020’ report.” (CNS News)

Related material:

STORY #3 – 1 in 7 Global Christians Faced Persecution in 2021

“While churches in the U.S. attempted to recover from the pandemic in 2021, many Christians around the world were trying to survive increased persecution.

“According to Open Doors’ World Watch List 2022, last year more Christians were detained or killed for their faith and more churches were attacked or closed than the year before.

“In the past year, 360 million Christians, or 1 in 7 believers around the world, suffered significant persecution for their faith. Every day in 2021, an average of more than 16 believers were killed for following Jesus. With close to 6,000 total martyrs, 2021 saw a 24% increase in Christians killed for the faith.” (Lifeway Research)