Posted on 08/28/2016 2:41:41 PM PDT by Salvation
The Surprising Reason Why More Americans Are Not Going To Church
The standard narrative of American religious decline goes something like this: A few hundred years ago, European and American intellectuals began doubting the validity of God as an explanatory mechanism for natural life. As science became a more widely accepted method for investigating and understanding the physical world, religion became a less viable way of thinking—not just about medicine and mechanics, but also culture and politics and economics and every other sphere of public life. As the United States became more secular, people slowly began drifting away from faith.
Of course, this tale is not just reductive—it’s arguably inaccurate, in that it seems to capture neither the reasons nor the reality behind contemporary American belief. For one thing, the U.S. is still overwhelmingly religious, despite years of predictions about religion’s demise. A significant number of people who don’t identify with any particular faith group still say they believe in God, and roughly 40 percent pray daily or weekly. While there have been changes in this kind of private belief and practice, the most significant shift has been in the way people publicly practice their faith: Americans, and particularly young Americans, are less likely to attend services or identify with a religious group than they have at any time in recent memory.
If most people haven’t just logicked their way out of believing in God, what’s behind this shift in public religious practice, and what does the shift look like in detail? That’s a big question, one less in search of a straightforward answer than a series of data points and arguments constellated over time. Here’s one: Pew has a new survey out about the way people choose their congregations and attend services. While Americans on the whole are still going to church and other worship services less than they used to, many people are actually going more—and those who are skipping out aren’t necessarily doing it for reasons of belief.
There were at least three fascinating tidbits tucked into the results of the survey. First, people who report going to worship services less frequently now than they used to overwhelmingly say the logistics of getting there are the biggest obstacle.Second, a significant number of people who said they’re not part of any particular religion expressed mistrust of religious institutions, suggesting these organizations’ reputations have something to do with why people are dropping out of public religious participation.
Finally, and perhaps most interestingly, the country seems to be split in half in terms of how often people get to services. Roughly 51 percent of Americans say they go to church or another worship service somewhere between once a month and multiple times per week, while 49 percent said they go rarely or never. But within that 51 percent, more than half of people said they go more often than they used to—in other words, about quarter of Americans have gotten more active in their religious communities in recent years, not less.
On the other hand, fewer than half of the people who rarely or never go to church said this has been a new decline in the last few years; a greater portion of that group said they’ve always stayed home on Sundays. All of this is a way of saying that, comparatively speaking, there’s more activity happening on the devout side of the spectrum than the drop-out side; this study suggests that even in a time of religion’s public decline, some people are experiencing religious revival.
According to the survey, about one-fifth of Americans now go to religious services a few times a year, but say they used to go a lot more. Roughly half of this group stopped going as often because of what the researchers called “practical issues”: They are too busy, have a crazy work schedule, or describe themselves as “too lazy” to go. Others said they just don’t care about attending services as much as doing other things.
While it’s easy to empathize with the hassle of trying to wake up and rally kids to go sit still for several hours every Sunday morning, this explanation is interesting for a slightly different reason: It suggests that many people view religious services as optional in a way they might not have in the past. Fifty or 60 years ago, churches, in particular, were a center of social and cultural life in America. For many people, that’s still the case, but the survey suggests that many people may be creating their social lives outside of a religious context—or perhaps forgoing that kind of social connection altogether.
The experience of those who are losing their religion shouldn’t obscure those who are finding it.
The sidelining of services may connect to another factor indicated in the survey: Among people who were raised religiously and who fell away from religion in adult life, roughly one-fifth said their dislike of organized religion was the reason. Another 50 percent said they stopped believing in the particular tenets of the faith they were raised in. Insofar as the decline in U.S. religious affiliation is an intellectual or philosophical story, it seems to be this: Fewer people are willing to sign on with the rules and reputations of institutions that promote faith. That doesn’t mean people don’t care about religious ideas or questions—many of those who are unaffiliated with a particular group still consider themselves “religious” or “seeking”—but they might not be as sold on the religious institutions themselves.
The experience of those who are losing their religion shouldn’t obscure the experience of those who are finding it, though. Twenty-seven percent of people in the survey say they’re attending services more often than they did in the past, cutting against the country’s overall decline in religious practice. This was most common among evangelical Protestants, three-quarters of whom say they go to church at least once or twice a month. Half of the people who said they’re going to services more often explained the change in terms of their beliefs: They’ve become more religious; they found that they need God in their life; they’ve gotten more mature as they’ve aged. By contrast, relatively few said they started going to church more often for practical reasons. Belief brings people to worship, it seems, while logistics keep people way.
The survey offers evidence that at least some Americans find worship services less relevant than other things they could be doing with their time, or perhaps they’re too hard to make time for. But the biggest takeaway is the variety of religious experience in America. Just as some people are drifting away from religion, others are moving toward it—and no matter what they might do on Sunday mornings, many people seem to find religious thinking still relevant to their lives.
Protestantism taught me I do NOT need a priest or pastor as an intermediary for my relationship with God.
I eventually found more spirituality in the Rooms of Bill Wilson’s followers.
And there it remains.
So, we agree that there is a change in the ceremonial law. And Paul admonishes us not to dispute matter such a Sabbath days.
So, the Christian church observes a one-in-seven day of rest. You have not shown a compelling reason why it must be Saturday, since we have shown that ceremony can be altered without violating God’s Law.
The ceremonial laws were abolished at the cross.(Col 2:14). I hope that clears things up. I'm going to bed now.
The one-in-seven, sure. The ceremonial observance was historically changed to honor Christ’s resurrection from the grave, and the establishment of the Christian church.
I should have followed Paul’s admonishment not to dispute the Sabbath days. I will not do it any more, and leave you to the last words.
SDG,
K51
Thank you and I do like it
Informal relationships with the many and different Disciples has pleased me over the years and I do not feel unfulfilled, I have been asked to join and I understand what that unity means to those that ask and how they want to share that unity with me.
I never can explain why I won’t choose one... best I can say is I see every Denomination as good, I am not a judge, I enjoy them all and belonging to just one Church and excluding others would not feel right. It may go back to the years of Military Services I attended with my friends of many Denominations, we were just Christians.
“For as the body is one, and has many members; and all the members of the body, whereas they are many, yet are one body, so also is Christ”
Again Thank you ...
Not biblical:
Heb 10:22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Heb 10:23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) Heb 10:24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Heb 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
The CHURCH (*Ekklesia) Jesus is building is not a 'visible' church, it is a spiritual church, a Body of those who believe in Jesus as The One God sent for our salvation. Here is what JESUS said about spirit:
6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Don’t be astonished that I told you, ‘All of you must be born from above.’ 8 The wind blows where it wants to. You hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. That’s the way it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”John 3
And here is what JESUS said of spiritual birth (not an institutional thing like catholiciism):
3 Jesus replied to him, “Truly, I tell you emphatically, unless a person is born from above he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
4 Nicodemus asked him, “How can a person be born when he is old? He can’t go back into his mother’s womb a second time and be born, can he?”
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, I tell you emphatically, unless a person is born of water and Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Don’t be astonished that I told you, ‘All of you must be born from above.’
As to WHO is protecting from error, catholiciism is racked with blasphemous rituals, yet we have the Word of God in the Bible, so we may rightly concluded that it is GOD Who protects from error ... and yet the Catholic Bible, the Douey-Reims Bible, has changes made to the Word of GOD in their institutional attempt to give foundation to their heresies -- like the change in Genesis which has been brought to your attention on more than one occasion.
Sounds like this ‘survey’ has something for everyone in it!
Best Church ever. God is good!
Book, chapter, verse??
Where I’ve attended since ‘81, I got to less services.
We used to have midweek services as well as Sunday evening ones.
Both are gone.
As our youth grew up and moved away from the area, they go either elsewhere or not at all, and the demographics of the neighborhood has shifted..
However, our church has MORE services than ever before!
“How does THIS work?”, you ask?
Well; we have THREE congregations using the same physical buildings: a mostly black congregation has worship and praise times 1/2 hour after the original, mostly white congregation has finished on Sunday morning.
There is also a smaller, mostly Hispanic group that meets in the fellowship hall as well.
It’s been an interesting 5 years now!
The Word is being preached and is getting out!
Since the Bible, the revealed word of God, is Truth, it contains no error and because it does not change, it doesn't need to be promised to be protected from error. Cause it's TRUTH.
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 17:17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
The claim that Jesus promised to protect the Catholic church from error in doctrine or the pope from error when speaking about faith and morals, is a vain bid to try to force people to accept whatever it says, even if it contradicts Scripture or itself from previous pronouncements.
They knew that everything didn't always fit and to claim that their sacred tradition was on par with the God breathed, Holy Spirit inspired Scripture, they had to come up with something to snow the masses. Stuff like the concept *doctrinal development*, for example, aside from the previous claims. (Which was a great move on Newman's part as it gave lots of Catholics an easy out for something that could not be rationalized away)
God NEVER promised one church in all of Scripture that it was free from error. On the contrary, a casual reading of Scripture, just the book of Acts even, shows that error was creeping in from almost the very beginning.
By the 15th chapter of Acts, they were already having the Council at Jerusalem to deal with error creeping into the church.
If more churches stuck to the word itself, there wouldn't be a problem with error. It's the ones which have stopped believing that the Bible is the word of God and is enough which have fallen into error the fastest.
Once a church started teaching that any part of it is fairy tales or didn't really happen, it was just allegory, the descent has begun.
Psalm 14:1 New International Version
For the director of music. Of David. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.
Don’t forget the psychologists.
Well...
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Are you still killing your unborn? -- GOD |
You are letting your DOUBT rule you.
Well; what's it to be?
Destroyed or Reinforced?
No kidding? It would take Darth Vader 6 minutes to convert me to the dark side.
Glad he’s not around!!
In the end it’s all about faith.
How about the words?
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