Notice again the greater rate of decline in the last decade than the previous decade. At this rate, only half of religious Americans will belong to a church in 2028-2030.
Posted on 04/05/2021 9:37:29 AM PDT by Heartlander
Church is essential. That’s what many of us have said in the face of ongoing COVID restrictions. But to a growing number of Americans, church is not essential — even among those who believe.
Gallup surveys the religious attitudes and practices of Americans twice each year. They roll this data into three-year chunks for comparison over time. From 1998-2000, 69% of American adults were members of a church, synagogue, temple, or mosque. By 2008-2010, that figure had dropped to 62%. And by 2018-2020, just 49%. So over one decade, a drop of 7%. Then over the next decade, a drop of 13%. This also marks the first time, in 80 years of polling, that Gallup found church membership to be less than half the population.
A caveat: It’s not clear that Gallup asked people about church participation vs. membership. Some folks attend church but haven’t joined a church. This dovetails with a larger trend of people today opting for less social or civic commitment to organizations, not just houses of worship.
The drop in church membership is primarily a function of the growing number of Americans who have no religious preference. The percentage of Americans who did not affiliate with any religion has grown from 8% in 1998-2000 to 21% from 2018-2020. Only 4% of non-religious Americans belong to a house of worship. That may seem obvious: If you’re not religious, why be in a church? Well, from 1998-2000, about 10% of non-religious Americans belonged to a church, synagogue, or mosque.
So, there are two things happening here. One, far more Americans today lack a religious affiliation. Two, within this (much larger) non-religious group, a smaller portion belong to a house of worship. The good news, then, is that church membership is more pure — increasingly...
(Excerpt) Read more at stream.org ...
Notice again the greater rate of decline in the last decade than the previous decade. At this rate, only half of religious Americans will belong to a church in 2028-2030.
Hierarchs and local pastors made a nearly fatal mistake by allowing worship and other church ministries to be categorized as “non-essential”.
It planted a seed of darnel into believers and non-believers alike.
Now reap the whirlwind, suckers!
The question is, does lukewarm church really matter?
Ping.
The pope is a communist.
Franklin Graham is pushing vaccines.
What could go wrong?
Good one.
Yes, but this survey is a pre-covid survey.
I imagine COVID is accelerating the trend.
I live in the county of Hawaii in the state of Hawaii.
In a nearby town( we don’t have cities here) Waimea, officially postal wise called Kamuela, had at one time the highest church Per capita count in America.
My nearby town has a population of a little over 2,500 people.
There are at least eight churches here, ranging from Catholic, to Buddhist, to Mormon, and beyond.
I don’t go to any of them.
I stream my Aunties church and do bible study with them.
That church is 2,500 miles away.
My point is this,
it is not who does a thing like voting or going to church,
that is important, it is the people that count the church goers, or votes, that count.
My apology to Stalin for butchering his very wise phrase.
Never trust the counters, verify always
Democrat socialists hate God - who they say does not exist.
Pastors, etc. who obeyed evil political orders have lost members to other churches that follow the bible.
Sure it does. At very least it fosters community involvement and interaction. One of the most annoying things to me is how many people have sort been backed into believing that their taxes help those in need so they don’t need to be charitable themselves. Either that or they can barely afford to be charitable.
Good point.
I think it is preferable and better to be a faithful Christian rather than a religious one. When you belong to a religion (Catholicism, Lutheranism, etc.) you are required / expected to adhere and accept all its teachings. I have witnessed the ELCA devolve into a homosexual centric institution that rewrites 2000 year old scripture in favor of inbracing sexual deviancy. If that’s religion, then I don’t want or need it. I’ll keep my faith and they can keep their religion.
Note the current pope.
Note Jewish temples run by women.
Note the rise in covid and the cure only available through the state.
Nobody gives a damn about God till they are on their death bed or about to meet their maker!
Inbracing = embracing
Dang autocorrect.
Leftist’s are successfully destroying all our institutions.
Hard to add to comments except the communist pope also pushes vaccines.
The kid diddlers, protectors of kid diddlers, and theiving televangelists didn't do church any favors either.
I read to where it mattered - the conservative churches are growing. The mainline “churches” are dying the death and that is good, they no longer preach the gospel.
Yes of course.
I left the building long before COVID 19. Actually it left me far behind and was not God honoring much less a true beacon to a lost world.
I do have a home church and meet every Sunday. Just not going into the building to be counted.
They say man never painted a picture of Christ until they lost sight of Him in their hearts and I think it is the same with the buildings we call the church..mostly social groups.
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