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The Surprising Reason Why More Americans Are Not Going To Church
The Atlantic via msn ^ | 08-2016

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.


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Evangelical Christian; Mainline Protestant; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: catholic; christians; church; evangelical; postchristian; protestant; trends; unchurched
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To: ADSUM
I really appreciate that Jesus is there in the Eucharist.

I appreciate that where two or three are gathered...

261 posted on 08/29/2016 7:13:00 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie

There were two separate laws. One was ceremonial and was spoken by Moses to the Israelites and one was a permanent Commandment and not only spoken but written in stone by God. (See post 183). It takes context to see which one each author is referring to. These laws each had a separate purpose and one had an expiration date and the other did not. The Ten Commandments were for everyone in the universe because it commemorated the creation of the universe. This was set in stone (literally). I hope I have made myself clear.


262 posted on 08/29/2016 7:13:06 AM PDT by BipolarBob (Our security has been hacked, media and politicians bought off and we're being brainwashed.)
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To: MHGinTN; ADSUM
The CHURCH (*Ekklesia) Jesus is building is not a 'visible' church, it is a spiritual church...

Matt 5:14-16

263 posted on 08/29/2016 7:14:36 AM PDT by FourtySeven (47)
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To: BipolarBob

Galatians 3

1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.
2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard?
3 Are you so foolish?
 
 

264 posted on 08/29/2016 7:15:27 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: tellw
It's too complicated for most all-volunteer choirs to do on a Sunday morning.

It's called PRACTICE.

265 posted on 08/29/2016 7:16:55 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie

That’s nice. I fail to see the relevance but you seemed to quote it accurately.


266 posted on 08/29/2016 7:17:20 AM PDT by BipolarBob (Our security has been hacked, media and politicians bought off and we're being brainwashed.)
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To: tellw
If I am a stranger in a new town on a Sunday morning, I make a beeline and walk right out of a church if I see a drumkit up in front.

GOD forbid that there was any DANCING going on; too!!


“Praise Him with the timbrel and dance.. ” Psalm 150:3-6

267 posted on 08/29/2016 7:19:46 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: BipolarBob
The Law is the standard by which requires us to follow.


 
 
 
 

 
Micah 6:8
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.


John 6:28-29
Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?
 Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."


1 John 3:21-23
Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him.
And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.


James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
 

 
 
 

268 posted on 08/29/2016 7:21:50 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie

r comment: “we also must obey his commandments.”

Yes. Keeping His commandments requires works - actions - prayers.

How can we have faith in God if we do not act on that faith and keep His commandments to love God and our neighbor?

Protestants are known their slogan that we are justified by “faith alone,” but the expression “faith alone” only appears once in the Bible—in James 2:24—where it is rejected. This is a burr under the saddle for Protestants, for, if they wanted to use terms the way the Bible does, they would have to give up their chief slogan.


269 posted on 08/29/2016 7:23:08 AM PDT by ADSUM
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To: kosciusko51
(for, being a Jew, he would have used “Sabbath” if he meant the Sabbath).

What a concept!


270 posted on 08/29/2016 7:23:13 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: glock rocks
They can be quite the distraction out of season.

They just teasin' you!

271 posted on 08/29/2016 7:24:48 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: kosciusko51

At least’ why couldn’t pinking shears be used?


272 posted on 08/29/2016 7:26:12 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie
. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

It would be rather difficult to act justly without following the Ten Commandments. You remember the one that says "Thou shalt not murder." Thou shalt not lie or bear false witness. And some others.

273 posted on 08/29/2016 7:26:50 AM PDT by BipolarBob (Our security has been hacked, media and politicians bought off and we're being brainwashed.)
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To: BipolarBob
...the Ten Commandments that were for all mankind and will stand forever.

THIS I'd like to read about!


Exodus 20:22-23

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites this: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven: 23 Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold.

274 posted on 08/29/2016 7:28:50 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie

Indeed. He did tell them. And they were to listen. They were to ready the world for our Redeemer. They were to evangelize the whole world. They failed.


275 posted on 08/29/2016 7:32:34 AM PDT by BipolarBob (Our security has been hacked, media and politicians bought off and we're being brainwashed.)
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To: truth_seeker

I had to look it up!


276 posted on 08/29/2016 7:32:51 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie
...the Ten Commandments that were for all mankind and will stand forever.
THIS I'd like to read about!

I agree. You must! get thee hence to a Bible and start reading the Good News!

277 posted on 08/29/2016 7:34:29 AM PDT by BipolarBob (Our security has been hacked, media and politicians bought off and we're being brainwashed.)
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To: dp0622
It would take Darth Vader 6 minutes to convert me to the dark side.

Oh course!

Who can resist the smell of the freshly baked cookies!

278 posted on 08/29/2016 7:36:09 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: ADSUM
The Catholic Church has been here for 2000 years and the other christian church left the Catholic Church over doctrine or split off from the other protestant churches, some 30,000+ different churches.

I see you STILL want to push this UNDOCUMENTED claim.What's UP with you Catholics??

279 posted on 08/29/2016 7:37:50 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: ADSUM
The Catholic Church has been here for 2000 years and the other christian church left the Catholic Church over doctrine or ...


2 Corinthians 6:16-17

What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.”

“Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”



Pope Stephen VI (896–897), who had his predecessor Pope Formosus exhumed, tried, de-fingered, briefly reburied, and thrown in the Tiber.[1]

Pope John XII (955–964), who gave land to a mistress, murdered several people, and was killed by a man who caught him in bed with his wife.

Pope Benedict IX (1032–1044, 1045, 1047–1048), who "sold" the Papacy

Pope Boniface VIII (1294–1303), who is lampooned in Dante's Divine Comedy

Pope Urban VI (1378–1389), who complained that he did not hear enough screaming when Cardinals who had conspired against him were tortured.[2]

Pope Alexander VI (1492–1503), a Borgia, who was guilty of nepotism and whose unattended corpse swelled until it could barely fit in a coffin.[3]

Pope Leo X (1513–1521), a spendthrift member of the Medici family who once spent 1/7 of his predecessors' reserves on a single ceremony[4]

Pope Clement VII (1523–1534), also a Medici, whose power-politicking with France, Spain, and Germany got Rome sacked.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bad_Popes

280 posted on 08/29/2016 7:40:55 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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