"While much of the rest of the industrialized world has become more secular over the last half-century, the United States has appeared to be an exception.

Politicians still end their speeches with “God bless America.” At least until recently, more Americans believed in the virgin birth of Jesus (66 percent) than in evolution (54 percent).

Yet evidence is growing that Americans are becoming significantly less religious. They are drifting away from churches, they are praying less and they are less likely to say religion is very important in their lives. For the first time in Gallup polling, only a minority of adults in the United States belong to a church, synagogue or mosque. (Most of the research is on Christians because they account for roughly 90 percent of believers in the United States.)

“We are currently experiencing the largest and fastest religious shift in the history of our country,” Jim Davis and Michael Graham write in a book published this week, “The Great Dechurching.”"

The big religious shifts of the past were the periodic “Great Awakenings” that beginning in the mid-1700s led to surges in religious attendance. This is the opposite: Some 40 million American adults once went to church but have stopped going, mostly in the last quarter-century.

“More people have left the church in the last 25 years than all the new people who became Christians from the First Great Awakening, Second Great Awakening and Billy Graham crusades combined,” Davis and Graham write.

This “dechurching,” as they call it, is apparent in most denominations, reducing the numbers of Presbyterians and Episcopalians and also of evangelicals like Southern Baptists. White and Black congregants have left churches in similar percentages, but Hispanic religious attendance has dipped less.

To be clear, the United States remains an unusually pious nation by the standards of the rich world. Pew reports that 63 percent of American adults identify as Christian — but that’s down from 78 percent in 2007. And in that same period the percentage of adults who say they have no religion has risen to 29 percent from 16 percent.

If this trend continues at the same pace, by the mid-2030s fewer than half of Americans may identify as Christian.

On Thursday, August 24, 2023 at 8:01:09 AM UTC-4, ltlee1 wrote:
> "While much of the rest of the industrialized world has become more secular over the last half-century, the United States has appeared to be an exception.
>
> Politicians still end their speeches with “God bless America.” At least until recently, more Americans believed in the virgin birth of Jesus (66 percent) than in evolution (54 percent).
>
> Yet evidence is growing that Americans are becoming significantly less religious. They are drifting away from churches, they are praying less and they are less likely to say religion is very important in their lives. For the first time in Gallup polling, only a minority of adults in the United States belong to a church, synagogue or mosque. (Most of the research is on Christians because they account for roughly 90 percent of believers in the United States.)
>
> “We are currently experiencing the largest and fastest religious shift in the history of our country,” Jim Davis and Michael Graham write in a book published this week, “The Great Dechurching.”"
>
> The big religious shifts of the past were the periodic “Great Awakenings” that beginning in the mid-1700s led to surges in religious attendance. This is the opposite: Some 40 million American adults once went to church but have stopped going, mostly in the last quarter-century.
>
> “More people have left the church in the last 25 years than all the new people who became Christians from the First Great Awakening, Second Great Awakening and Billy Graham crusades combined,” Davis and Graham write.
>
> This “dechurching,” as they call it, is apparent in most denominations, reducing the numbers of Presbyterians and Episcopalians and also of evangelicals like Southern Baptists. White and Black congregants have left churches in similar percentages, but Hispanic religious attendance has dipped less.
>
> To be clear, the United States remains an unusually pious nation by the standards of the rich world. Pew reports that 63 percent of American adults identify as Christian — but that’s down from 78 percent in 2007. And in that same period the percentage of adults who say they have no religion has risen to 29 percent from 16 percent.
>
> If this trend continues at the same pace, by the mid-2030s fewer than half of Americans may identify as Christian."

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/23/opinion/christianity-america-religion-secular.html

On Thursday, August 24, 2023 at 8:16:37 AM UTC-4, ltlee1 wrote:
> On Thursday, August 24, 2023 at 8:01:09 AM UTC-4, ltlee1 wrote:
> > "While much of the rest of the industrialized world has become more secular over the last half-century, the United States has appeared to be an exception.
> >
> > Politicians still end their speeches with “God bless America.” At least until recently, more Americans believed in the virgin birth of Jesus (66 percent) than in evolution (54 percent).
> >
> > Yet evidence is growing that Americans are becoming significantly less religious. They are drifting away from churches, they are praying less and they are less likely to say religion is very important in their lives. For the first time in Gallup polling, only a minority of adults in the United States belong to a church, synagogue or mosque. (Most of the research is on Christians because they account for roughly 90 percent of believers in the United States.)
> >
> > “We are currently experiencing the largest and fastest religious shift in the history of our country,” Jim Davis and Michael Graham write in a book published this week, “The Great Dechurching.”"
> >
> > The big religious shifts of the past were the periodic “Great Awakenings” that beginning in the mid-1700s led to surges in religious attendance. This is the opposite: Some 40 million American adults once went to church but have stopped going, mostly in the last quarter-century.
> >
> > “More people have left the church in the last 25 years than all the new people who became Christians from the First Great Awakening, Second Great Awakening and Billy Graham crusades combined,” Davis and Graham write.
> >
> > This “dechurching,” as they call it, is apparent in most denominations, reducing the numbers of Presbyterians and Episcopalians and also of evangelicals like Southern Baptists. White and Black congregants have left churches in similar percentages, but Hispanic religious attendance has dipped less.
> >
> > To be clear, the United States remains an unusually pious nation by the standards of the rich world. Pew reports that 63 percent of American adults identify as Christian — but that’s down from 78 percent in 2007. And in that same period the percentage of adults who say they have no religion has risen to 29 percent from 16 percent.
> >
> > If this trend continues at the same pace, by the mid-2030s fewer than half of Americans may identify as Christian."
> https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/23/opinion/christianity-america-religion-secular.html

"The Great Dechurching finds that religious abuse and more general moral corruption in churches have driven
people away. This is, of course, an indictment of the failures of many leaders who did not address abuse in
their church. But Davis and Graham also find that a much larger share of those who have left church have done
so for more banal reasons. The book suggests that the defining problem driving out most people who leave is
… just how American life works in the 21st century. Contemporary America simply isn’t set up to promote mutuality,
care, or common life. Rather, it is designed to maximize individual accomplishment as defined by professional
and financial success. Such a system leaves precious little time or energy for forms of community that don’t
contribute to one’s own professional life or, as one ages, the professional prospects of one’s children. Workism
reigns in America, and because of it, community in America, religious community included, is a math problem
that doesn’t add up.

The tragedy of American churches is that they have been so caught up in this same world that we now find they
have nothing to offer these suffering people that can’t be more easily found somewhere else. American churches
have too often been content to function as a kind of vaguely spiritual NGO, an organization of detached individuals
who meet together for religious services that inspire them, provide practical life advice, or offer positive emotional
experiences. Too often it has not been a community that through its preaching and living bears witness to another
way to live."

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/07/christian-church-communitiy-participation-drop/674843/