Posted on 03/31/2022 7:01:56 PM PDT by lightman
With COVID-19 cases decreasing and pandemic restrictions lifting all over the U.S., many churches and other houses of worship have returned to their pre-pandemic services. But that return to normal has not corresponded with worshipers returning for in-person services, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.
The survey asked U.S. adults who say they attend religious services whether their house of worship is currently open and holding services the same way it did before the COVID-19 pandemic. A new high of 43% of respondents say their congregation has returned to normal services, which is an increase of 14 percentage points in the last six months and 31 points since last March.
A larger plurality of 47% say their church or house of worship is open, but with some modifications like mask requirements or social distancing still in place because of the pandemic. Only 5% of respondents said their place of worship is still closed. According to Pew Research, the number of U.S. worshipers who say their congregation is open for in-person worship has not increased over the last six months, but fewer people say their services include COVID-19 precautions.
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But even though many churches are open for worship under normal conditions, the number of people attending worship in-person has not changed since fall, following a period of growth between July 2020 and September 2021.
In July 2020, four months after "15 days to slow the spread," only 13% of U.S. adults told Pew Research they had attended religious services in person during the previous month.
About 27% of U.S. adults now say they attended a religious service in person during the previous month. That's not much more than the 26% who reported the same in September 2021 and 17% in March 2021.
At the same time, the number of Americans who say they have streamed religious services online or watched them on TV in the past month fell from 36% in July 2020 to 28% in September 2021. Now that figure stands at 30%.
Regular church attenders are more likely to be physically present at worship services. Nearly one-third of U.S. adults, 32%, say they typically attend religious services at least once or twice a month. Of this group, 67% report they have attended an in-person service in the last month, while 57% say they have watched services online or on TV during that period.
There were noteworthy differences in church attendance among Christian denominations.
Protestant congregants of historically black churches were the group most likely to have only watched religious services online or on TV in the last month, without about one-third (35%) reporting they had done so. They were also least likely to say they had attended church services in person in the last month (48%) compared to evangelical Protestants (75%), mainline Protestants (68%), and Catholics (69%).
Mainline Protestants have seen the largest rise of in-person attendance since September 2021, when 56% reported attending an in-person service in the previous month. Now 68% report attending church in-person in the last month, a 12-point increase.
For many denominations it’s is a good thing for the people who have said “So long, it’s been good to know you”.
I read the newsletter today from a rural, “red America” Protestant congregation....on Easter Sunday they will offer Communion in their traditional way for the first time in two years, but emphasized that everyone preparing the Communion (as well as the Pastor serving) will have used hand sanitizer.
In the same newsletter they report that because “some people are not comfortable with holding rehearsals” there will still be no choir.
So sad for those still cowering in fear rather than walking by faith.
Church leaders who refused to lock down showed they believed in God and His gift of reason.
Isn’t that the point? To remove religion from peoples lives? Along with trust? To divide and conquer? To create arguments and division between parents and their children? Blacks and whites? Men and women? Is it not the intent?
One of the biggest disappointments for me during the last two years has been the number of Christians who didn’t stand up to this tyranny and who bought into the fear.
I fought back, and I got our church to reopen for in-person services in June 2020 when many churches around us remained closed. However, I was saddened by the number of people in our conservative church who were afraid to show up or who dutifully wore their masks even though we could safely “distance” in our large sanctuary.
Our Lutheran Church has allowed our AA meetings to continue as before.
My church never shut down!
Jdfarag.org
I haven’t been back to Mass for 2 years now. I was so angry and saddened to see the Catholic Church bow down to fear over Covid. I would much rather have had them say they’d stay open as usual and their parishioners could make the decision for themselves as to whether or not they would attend. They behaved like cowards, IMO.
For the Fauxites, prolonging the Plannedemic Puritanism appears to be the goal.
If a third Thanksgiving, a third Christmas, a third Easter, and a third Independence Day, can be squelched through fearmongering (if not outright government oppression) it may not be much longer before people will not only not wish to return to pre-Plannedemic celebrations—being deathly afraid of what “might” happen-- but will actually begin to lose the memory of what such celebrations were like.
This is the CCP’s Global “Cultural Revolution”.
Do you attend online, or in person? Great preaching! I listen to the prophecy updates. Gave up attending our church due to myself being burned out.
There has been a …
Sifting.
During the great plagues REAL Bishops (Like Pope Saint Gregory the Great) led penitential processions through the streets of Rome even amidst people literally falling over and dying.
What we saw two years ago were hierling Hierarchs.
Both. I love my church!
This is the problem. The churches are pushing the fear.
Evangelicals for the win!! :)
Yes they did and still do. The church has no leadership.
I was horrified.
But I remind myself not just to focus on the many shepherds who seemed to abandon ship - but the few who led and remained steadfast.
If the denominations endorsed COVID lockdowns and other COVID related measures like vaccines and masks perhaps some folks said that’s the last straw for me.
I read Peter Hitchens once saying that the endorsement of World War I by religious leaders in the UK discredited the Christian faith and contributed to its decline in that country.
Yes. The great reformer Hus died of the plague as he took plague victims in his home.
I am no Roman Catholics but credit where credit is due -
father Damien went TO the lepers. Etc.
These are the Christ like actions.
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