U.S. Church Membership Falls Below Majority for First Time

[SaysWho?]

U.S. Church Membership Falls Below Majority for First Time

NEWS.GALLUP.COM

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For the first time in Gallup's polling history, less than half of U.S. adults report belonging to a church, synagogue or mosque.

 

 

 

 

There are more charts in the link.

[skillzdadirecta]

How does this compare to other Western Countries?

[SaysWho?]

1 minute ago, skillzdadirecta said:

How does this compare to other Western Countries?

 

This is four years old but is the most recent I saw from Pew Research. It's not exactly the same but I think weekly worship is the closest thing to church membership I could find.

 

[LazyPiranha]

[Keyser_Soze]

26 minutes ago, SaysWho? said:

This is four years old but is the most recent I saw from Pew Research.

 

 

[thewhyteboar]

Good. The fewer evangelicals the better.

[Comet]

[SaysWho?]

4 minutes ago, thewhyteboar said:

God. The fewer evangelicals the better.

 

i c wut u did thar

[thewhyteboar]

Just now, SaysWho? said:

 

i c wut u did thar

Divine intervention.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

57 minutes ago, thewhyteboar said:

Good. The fewer evangelicals the better.

I’ve got some terrible news for you about the rise of evangelical Christianity in Central and South America 

 

[finaljedi]

I have a friend who is religious who during COVID took a hell of a long time to find a church that wasn't shit, so many he talked to didn't care one bit about COVID restrictions, then many others still would roll pretty hard on Republican political shit.

[CayceG]

1 hour ago, finaljedi said:

I have a friend who is religious who during COVID took a hell of a long time to find a church that wasn't shit, so many he talked to didn't care one bit about COVID restrictions, then many others still would roll pretty hard on Republican political shit.

 

 

Same issue here. I became bored of the church I was attending during Covid and about a year in, they went back to normal--even after they cancelled the 2020 Christmas service because the entire leadership got Covid. Between that and a really anemic response to the George Floyd discourse in 2020, I was pretty much done. But Covid kept me from visiting new places. 

 

Many other places nearby either didn't bother with Covid precautions or were politically apathetic or right wing. The ones that weren't were still evangelical. So I started looking outside of that umbrella. I'm just now getting to where I might target an Episcopal church to visit because some friends go there, but it's just such a slog. And here in Nashville there are multiple churches in literally every neighborhood. And a lot of them might as well be the same. There are too many choices and it makes the decision very difficult. Especially when they aren't explicit about things like racial injustice or pandemic response. 

[Kal-El814]

I honestly feel that this is the natural evolution of a more personal relationship with god, to some extent, for Christians.

[Firewithin]

ATTACK AND DETHRONE GOD

[Ghost_MH]

22 minutes ago, CayceG said:

Same issue here. I became bored of the church I was attending during Covid and about a year in, they went back to normal--even after they cancelled the 2020 Christmas service because the entire leadership got Covid. Between that and a really anemic response to the George Floyd discourse in 2020, I was pretty much done. But Covid kept me from visiting new places. 

 

Many other places nearby either didn't bother with Covid precautions or were politically apathetic or right wing. The ones that weren't were still evangelical. So I started looking outside of that umbrella. I'm just now getting to where I might target an Episcopal church to visit because some friends go there, but it's just such a slog. And here in Nashville there are multiple churches in literally every neighborhood. And a lot of them might as well be the same. There are too many choices and it makes the decision very difficult. Especially when they aren't explicit about things like racial injustice or pandemic response. 

 

This is exactly where I've found myself. Local church did its best to skate around COVID restrictions, especially in regards to capacity limits. What? Or entire choir caught COVID? Church is cancelled because the entire leadership team is positive? Cool. Cool. Other nearby churches weren't much better and then there were a bunch of right-wing crazies where sermons didn't sound any different from a Tucker Carlson rant.

 

So many Christian churches in this country just fully tied themselves to the political right that's it's become a purity test I just can't get behind. My wife and I were talking about just finding some Christian church with a rainbow flag out front because maybe that'll find us some actual nice people.

[CastlevaniaNut18]

Good. 
 

I honestly hated church even when I was Christian. I was forced to go and it was boring. 

[CayceG]

3 minutes ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

So many Christian churches in this country just fully tied themselves to the political right that's it's become a purity test I just can't get behind. My wife and I were talking about just finding some Christian church with a rainbow flag out front because maybe that'll find us some actual nice people.

 

This is genuinely what it's coming down to. Churches are either fully on one side of equality or another. And if they aren't taking a stand, they're tacitly endorsing inequality. The political lean of evangelical churches is uniformly right-wing and that's why I'm fully breaking with it. Even my mom and brother are there and are in the process of moving on themselves. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

The "downside" of this is the not-insignificant potential that religious non-churchgoers will start to develop "do-it-yourself" theologies and practices that are completely untethered from the formal structure and doctrines of churches.  That formality and the community aspect of church attendance could at least provide some constraints on the beliefs and actions of believers.

 

Absent those constraints, the net results could be both unpredictable and undesirous for society at large.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

14 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

The "downside" of this is the not-insignificant potential that religious non-churchgoers will start to develop "do-it-yourself" theologies and practices that are completely untethered from the formal structure and doctrines of churches.  That formality and the community aspect of church attendance could at least provide some constraints on the beliefs and actions of believers.

 

Absent those constraints, the net results could be both unpredictable and undesirous for society at large.

We’ve already got a massive social isolation problem (thanks car dependent suburbs) and the already weak social bonds we do hold are fraying. There’s no easy way out of this for sure, but that one of the last institutional social groups with widespread hold is politically right wing should terrify anyone who is not that

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

21 minutes ago, CayceG said:

 

This is genuinely what it's coming down to. Churches are either fully on one side of equality or another. And if they aren't taking a stand, they're tacitly endorsing inequality. The political lean of evangelical churches is uniformly right-wing and that's why I'm fully breaking with it. Even my mom and brother are there and are in the process of moving on themselves. 

My dad was a Methodist pastor and was pushed out of the church because he wasn’t political/politically conservative enough. And this was at least ten years ago. 

[Guest]

18 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

The "downside" of this is the not-insignificant potential that religious non-churchgoers will start to develop "do-it-yourself" theologies and practices that are completely untethered from the formal structure and doctrines of churches.  That formality and the community aspect of church attendance could at least provide some constraints on the beliefs and actions of believers.

 

Absent those constraints, the net results could be both unpredictable and undesirous for society at large.

The rise of “spirituality” is the pretty obvious data point backing this up. People like to believe in something, so when they leave the structure of any organization, they tend to create a new individualized systematic theology if you will.

[CayceG]

2 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

My dad was a Methodist pastor and was pushed out of the church because he wasn’t political/politically conservative enough. And this was at least ten years ago. 

 

 

Lots of denominations have undergone divisive splits like that, Methodists being one relatively recently. 

 

 

[Zaku3]

2 hours ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

I’ve got some terrible news for you about the rise of evangelical Christianity in Central and South America 

 

 

Damn heresy

[Keyser_Soze]

32 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

The "downside" of this is the not-insignificant potential that religious non-churchgoers will start to develop "do-it-yourself" theologies and practices that are completely untethered from the formal structure and doctrines of churches.  That formality and the community aspect of church attendance could at least provide some constraints on the beliefs and actions of believers.

 

Absent those constraints, the net results could be both unpredictable and undesirous for society at large.

 

On the plus side Egyptian gods might find a rise in popularity again!

[Mr.Vic20]

5 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

On the plus side Egyptian gods might find a rise in popularity again!

[Comet]

38 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

On the plus side Egyptian gods might find a rise in popularity again!

As one of those Egyptian gods uttered this past week via their avatar in Moon Knight: “[they] didn’t abandon humanity, humanity abandoned [them].”

[finaljedi]

1 hour ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

The "downside" of this is the not-insignificant potential that religious non-churchgoers will start to develop "do-it-yourself" theologies and practices that are completely untethered from the formal structure and doctrines of churches.  That formality and the community aspect of church attendance could at least provide some constraints on the beliefs and actions of believers.

 

Absent those constraints, the net results could be both unpredictable and undesirous for society at large.

 

I'm not even sure if that really matters.  There are plenty of churches that rally their congregation around the immoral side of conservatism and gives them plenty of peers to reinforce shitty beliefs.  At least with DIY religion you might get called a weird asshole without a crowd to shrink into.

[GeneticBlueprint]

1 hour ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

The "downside" of this is the not-insignificant potential that religious non-churchgoers will start to develop "do-it-yourself" theologies and practices that are completely untethered from the formal structure and doctrines of churches.  That formality and the community aspect of church attendance could at least provide some constraints on the beliefs and actions of believers.

 

Absent those constraints, the net results could be both unpredictable and undesirous for society at large.

 

I've noticed myself becoming more insular which is probably not good for an already introverted person. I'm not very spiritual or believing in higher powers anymore but I've been wanting to start going to this Anglican church close by just for the community aspect. I'm moving to SLC proper in two weeks and my brother is actually the organist at the large Anglican cathedral in SLC. That's probably a good excuse to just go there.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

2 minutes ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

 

I've noticed myself becoming more insular which is probably not good for an already introverted person. I'm not very spiritual or believing in higher powers anymore but I've been wanting to start going to this Anglican church close by just for the community aspect. I'm moving to SLC proper in two weeks and my brother is actually the organist at the large Anglican cathedral in SLC. That's probably a good excuse to just go there.

 

Have you considered joining a Unitarian congregation?

[Zaku3]

1 minute ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

 

I've noticed myself becoming more insular which is probably not good for an already introverted person. I'm not very spiritual or believing in higher powers anymore but I've been wanting to start going to this Anglican church close by just for the community aspect. I'm moving to SLC proper in two weeks and my brother is actually the organist at the large Anglican cathedral in SLC. That's probably a good excuse to just go there.

 

I really need to start going back to Church. Though I think I should try out this parish in Passaic sincr it's more active then my local ones.

[GeneticBlueprint]

20 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

Have you considered joining a Unitarian congregation?

 

I think the reason I'm leaning Anglican is because there's something I appreciate about the rituals and their connection to history. So I haven't really considered anything outside of Anglicans/Catholics. But one of the reasons I left my former religion is the poor LGBT treatment so I'm not eager to jump into Catholicism for the same reason. Anglicanism seems more tolerant in that regard. The only thing I'm basing that on is that my brother (the organist I mentioned previously) is gay and in a relationship and doesn't seem to have any issues there.

[CayceG]

2 minutes ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

 

I think the reason I'm leaning Anglican is because there's something I appreciate about the rituals and their connection to history. So I haven't really considered anything outside of Anglicans/Catholics. But one of the reasons I left my former religion is the poor LGBT treatment so I'm not eager to jump into Catholicism for the same reason. Anglicanism seems more tolerant in that regard. The only thing I'm basing that on is that my brother (the organist I mentioned previously) is gay and in a relationship and doesn't seem to have any issues there.

 

The other option could be Episcopalian if you can decipher the many stripes of that denomination. Anglicans also have some communions that can be less deferential to LGBT people than Episcopalians. 

 

The church I was looking to join recently was Anglican before I realized that they became Anglican because the priest started the church because the original congregation he was a part of was Episcopalian and they approved of ordaining a gay priest. So the other priest split and joined an Anglican communion. Which, I think is kinda weird because there are divisions of Anglicanism that are more or less accepting of LGBT people. 

 

 

It's all so complicated lol.

[Kal-El814]

Also I have absolutely no basis for this other than vibes, but as women continue to make strides towards social equality but religious institutions are, in general, bastions of patriarchy, we’re going to see this trend continue, as well as interest in things like astrology continue to increase.

[GeneticBlueprint]

11 minutes ago, CayceG said:

 

The other option could be Episcopalian if you can decipher the many stripes of that denomination. Anglicans also have some communions that can be less deferential to LGBT people than Episcopalians. 

 

The church I was looking to join recently was Anglican before I realized that they became Anglican because the priest started the church because the original congregation he was a part of was Episcopalian and they approved of ordaining a gay priest. So the other priest split and joined an Anglican communion. Which, I think is kinda weird because there are divisions of Anglicanism that are more or less accepting of LGBT people. 

 

 

It's all so complicated lol.

 

See I thought Episcopalian was just another word for Anglican or that they were some sort of sub-group. Complicated indeed. Haha.

[AbsolutSurgen]

Canada across the religious spectrum: A portrait of the nation’s inter-faith perspectives during Holy Week - Angus Reid Institute

ANGUSREID.ORG

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Seven-in-ten say freedom of conscience makes Canada better; many worried that freedom is weakening April 18, 2022 – For the first time since 2019, Canadians across the religious spectrum are

 

Similar (but slightly different) poll released in Canada today.

I think there are some people who "identify" as being part of a religion -- who really aren't.