Why Does The Church Not Matter As Much Today As It Did Back in The Day? [VIDEO] [POLL] KTSCW

A recent article in the Buffalo News reported that nearly half of all Buffalo-Niagara residents consider themselves unclaimed by an organized religion. Not saying that they are atheist, but simply that they do not identify themselves as a follower of a specific religion. This trend is not only in Buffalo, but on a national scale it was reported that "As much as 16 percent of the U.S. population—about 34 million people—professed no religious affiliation in 2009 according to the American Religious Identification Survey study. That number is up from 29 million in 2001 and from 14 million in 1990".

Relating this study to African Americans, is there a reason why African Americans are more religious than any other ethnicity? Nearly 87% of African Americans are affiliated with a religion; with Baptist being the largest segment at 45% and 71% cited that religion is a major part of their life. But even while the statistics are very high for African Americans participating in organized religion, there is still a small but steady increase in African Americans claiming to be non-denominational as well.

In respect to African Americans and organized religion, does the fact that Africans who were brought to America were converted to Christianity affect your views as to why the majority of African Americans are Christians today? Over generations a family forced against their will to convert may wholeheartedly adopt the new religion. What would the reasons be to force a religion upon a people? Scholars assert that it was used as a means to control and tells you what to think and how to think!