Here is the review of the best links of 2009’s 12th week.

U.S. Christians are Dwindling
The percentage of Christians in America, which declined in the 1990s from 86.2 percent to 76.7 percent, has now edged down to 76 percent. Ninety percent of the decline comes from the non-Catholic segment of the Christian population, largely from the mainline denominations, including Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians/Anglicans, and the United Church of Christ. Baptists have increased their numbers by two million since 2001, but continue to decline as a proportion of the population. (via)

Most Mainline Protestants Say Society Should Accept Homosexuality
Among mainline Protestants overall, 56% say homosexuality should be accepted, compared with only about one-in-four evangelical Protestants and four-in-ten members of historically black Protestant churches.

Brain ability declines after age 27
Brain ability peaks at age 22 and mental powers begin to dwindle at age 27, Virginia University researchers found.

More Babies Born in 2007 Than Any Other Year in U.S. History
The 4,317,119 births in 2007 topped a record first set in 1957 at the height of the baby boom. Births to unwed mothers reached an all-time high of about 40%.

Happiness is contagious
Knowing someone who is happy makes you 15.3% more likely to be happy yourself. A happy friend of a friend increases your odds of happiness by 9.8%, and even your neighbor’s sister’s friend can give you a 5.6% boost.

10 Reasons Why Homeless People Choose To Be Homeless
The tenth reason: “A large percentage of homeless shelters have a religious affiliation. Not all but many of those that do have one impose a requirement to attend religious services in order for a person to be granted access to their food and shelter facilities. This can, of course, be offensive to some and particularly those who belong to an ethnic minority, which tend to be over-represented amongst the homeless population.”

More Senior Citizens are Using the Internet
Internet usage among people ages 70 to 74 increased by 19 percentage points from 2005 to 2008. For people 75 and older, the increase was 10 percentage points.

What About Asexuals?
A survey carried out in 1994 found that 1.05 per cent of respondents had “never felt sexually attracted to anyone at all”.

Women talk three times as much as men
The average woman says 20,000 words in a day. The average man says 7,000 words in a day.

THE REVIEW OF 2008
- Americans’ Most Important Relationship

THE REVIEW OF 2007
- 3 Keys to Avoiding Failure with Good Communication
- Understand Your Community with Claritas’s Segmentation Research
- Mount Paran Church of God’s New Children’s Ministry Sanctuary
- Ed Young Jr. on Great Leadership in the Church
- Attendance at Church is Scarce for a Third of America
- 10 Tips for Great Preaching