Posted on 08/03/2023 8:05:45 PM PDT by anthropocene_x
About 40 million Americans have stopped going to church in the past 25 years. “That’s something like 12 percent of the population, and it represents the largest concentrated change in church attendance in American history,” he writes.
The Great Dechurching, a forthcoming book analyzing surveys of more than 7,000 Americans conducted by two political scientists, attempts to figure out why so many Americans have left churches in recent years.
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.
The economists of the early 20th century did not foresee that work might evolve from a means of material production to a means of identity production. They failed to anticipate that, for the poor and middle class, work would remain a necessity; but for the college-educated elite, it would morph into a kind of religion, promising identity, transcendence, and community.
Workism doesn’t deliver on these promises. Even so, for those who have come to view work as the guiding principle of life, other priorities can quickly fall by the wayside. “The underlying challenge for many is that their lives are stretched like a rubber band about to snap—and church attendance ends up feeling like an item on a checklist that’s already too long,” Meador writes.
"American efficiency culture” makes it so that we’re just not incentivized to take it slow, sit down, and meet someone new.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Pastors are either corrupt or lukewarm.
I believe the Bible called it “the great falling away before the end”.
I go regularly, just not weekly. I enjoy more alone time talking with Him.
The American church is feminist and woke. This isn’t a problem in Africa or elsewhere outside the Western World.
For various reasons I’m not as mobile as I used to be. But I do listen to an old TV sermon from the late, great Charles Stanley every Sunday.
Does that count? I think it should.
Going to church is not equivalent to being a Believer. Sometimes people leave church because THAT is where the “falling away” is being born.
If your pastor didn’t tell you to go see Sound of Freedom, then you’re in the wrong church.
Liberal hypocrisy.
If your pastor failed that test, then leave your church because he’s either corrupt, a coward or incompetent.
I talked to god in a foxhole in Vietnam.
I had no need of churches after that.
Because Woke has infiltrated the churches in most Western countries. This includes nearly all denominations.
The one denomination that has for the most part escaped Woke (not entirely, but mostly) is the Orthodox Christian church.
The other issue, especially with the Protestant/Evangelical church is shysters/con-artists duping their congregants out of Millions.
most people are not stupid. the church, much like government, believe the people are stupid. the church believes they can act any way they want, but just have to say a few words and the congregation plates will continue to runnith over!!
a contractor doesnt last if he doesnt service their customers. same goes for the church!!
Amen... our pastor is on FIRE for Jesus and since covid we have seen our attendance triple. People are HUNGRY for God’s Word and His Hope...
Our society and government used to encourage church attendance through things like “blue laws.” In my upstate NY town in the 60s, no stores were allowed to be open on Sunday. The law granted an exception to the local pharmacy, but it could not open until 1 p.m. so its employees could attend church on Sunday morning. Even gas stations weren’t open on Sundays. Now, Sundays are basically seen as just another day of the week, and not as a special day for rest and worship.
I don’t know why, or even if it is true, but to accept The Atlantic’s summary is absurd. The rabid leftists want us to take them seriously. NONSENSE!!!!!
The cult I was raised in required you to attend every Sunday and on holy days so that I could listen to a closeted homo tell me a Necco Wafer was the actual body of Jesus. If church is your thing that’s cool but I’d rather spend my Sunday laying mulch.
As a Southern Baptist, I disagree.
Not only did our pastor tell our congregation to see the film, we SHOWED it in our CHURCH and had the producer of the film there that night!!!!!!! Thank God for Jack Hibbs.
Oppsssss.... wrong info on the film. We showed it in our church, but it was another film we had the producer of the film there... sorry.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.