The declining number of young Catholics is consubstantial (pun intended).
I think the drop in apparent numbers is due to the fact that not belonging to any church is much more socially acceptable than it was just a few years ago.
Used to be that folks were ashamed to say they weren't believers, so even if they hadn't been near any church since they were baptized or went to Sunday School as a kid, they would fudge and claim to be some variety of Christian.
Now they're emboldened by the social acceptance of atheists and just lukewarm nonbelievers. They'll still think up some excuse why they don't go, if asked, but they just don't care any more.
The rise in unaffiliated is just a reflection of how many liberal denominations have run off their supporters. For example, many PCUSA churches are now unaffiliated. Same with American Baptist. On and on. That does not necessarily mean anything more.
The Pew study found a slight drop - about 1 percent - in the evangelical share of the population, which now comprises a quarter of Americans. But the overall number of evangelicals rose to about 62 million people. Pew researchers said Christian losses were driven by decreases among mainline, or liberal, Protestants and Roman Catholics. Mainline Protestants declined by about 5 million to 36 million between 2007 and 2014. Pew found 13 percent of U.S. adults are former Catholics. The study put the number of Catholic adults at 51 million, or just over one-fifth of the U.S. population, a drop of about 3 percent over seven years. In 2007, Catholics made up about one-quarter of Americans.
However, Pew researchers acknowledge those conclusions differ from those of some other major studies that found only slight declines or even a slight uptick in the numbers of Catholics in the last couple of years. Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, which tracks American Catholicism, puts the U.S. adult Catholic population at 61 million.
PFL
Very misleading headline. The drop is in association with churches, not in faith or belief...
My personal view is that churches are needed so that people of like faith can join together, share their faith and strengthen one another. Groups (churches) also can pool resources to be about the ministry that Christ called us to perform in the world.
exactly what “morals” govern an atheist or agnostic....
apparently only the “law” of man...
and why are we allowing muslims into the ussa?
did we let nazis and japs in during ww2?
we are at war with radical jihad and we are unable to determine the mindset of these people.. they lie and support jihad..its mandatory part of their “religion”...
THE POLITICIANS LIKE TO PLAY WITH FIRE AND LET THE FOLKS GET BURNED WHILE THEY OCCUPY THEIR IVORY TOWERS.
Numbers of Non-Believers have been Rising for a long time and there will be tons more when they take off the blinders and find out you don’t need to be in this club
Thank you for posting a decent article. I think we need to remember the following, though, this is already a year old.
**The survey of 35,000 people, titled “America’s Changing Religious Landscape,” was conducted in English and Spanish from June 4 through Sept. 30 of last year and has a margin of error of plus or minus 0.6 percentage points.**
There’s your hope and change.
With all the illegal Mexicans flooding across the border, I find it difficult to believe Catholicism is declining, since they are practically all Catholics.
I’m not religious.
I’m a Christian.
I’m a follower of Christ, not a religion.