Bachmann Bows Out

By Matthew Santoro

After a poor performance last night’s Iowa Caucus — with a sixth place finish and only 6 percent of the evangelical vote — U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann announced earlier today that she is suspending her campaign for President of the United States.

While a surge of evangelical support pushed former Sen. Rick Santorum within eight votes of first-place finisher Mitt Romney, the evangelical vote was much more fractured than in 2008, when former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee took about half of the demographic.

Some 58 percent of yesterday’s caucus-goers identified as evangelical Christian.

Questioning Its Commitment to Social Justice, Young Evangelicals Are Leaving the Church

By Matthew Santoro

Quit hitting the snooze button.

It’s time for the church to wake up!

According to a Laura Sessions Stepp at CNN.com, evangelical churches are finally acknowledging a trend that statisticians have been tracking for years: young evangelicals are leaving the church in droves.

In the new report, You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church and Rethinking Faith, Barna Group President David Kinnaman notes a 43 percent drop in Christian church attendance between the teen and early adult years.

Perhaps most intriguing is that research indicates younger people are not only departing from their elders on “social issues,” such as same-sex marriage and abortion, but on wealth distribution and care for the environment, as well.