Christianity Quickly Shrinking in US

[Fantine]

Christianity in the U.S. is quickly shrinking and may no longer be the majority religion within just a few decades, research finds

Most people leave Christianity between the ages of 15-29.

The article doesn't postulate reasons--just looks at things like demographic trends to see how immigration and other factors could affect the numbers.

What do you think some of the reasons are?

My possibilities:
- Christian hypocrisy and the vast gap between what is preached and what is practiced.
- Religion has become too politicized.
- Science disproving much of the "literal" interpretation of the Bible, and preachers insisting on a literal interpretation
- authoritarianism? Patriarchy?

What are some reasons you can think of? I think the first one I gave accounts for the greatest defections.

 

[RELSavedByGrace]

I would add:

1) Lack of knowledge - I am guessing that only a small part of those falling away have read and studied the Word and so they are likely spiritual infants "tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming." Ephesians 4:14.

2) False prophets - Who dilute the Word of God with empty human philosophies. - "Don't let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ." Colossians 2:8

 

[Handmaid for Jesus]

What are some reasons you can think of? I think the first one I gave accounts for the greatest defections.

I think the Christian nationalism movement is driving young people away from the faith.

 

[Tolworth John]

Christian hypocrisy and the vast gap between what is preached and what is practiced.

Children are parents harshes critics, they see all to clearly the difference between what they say and what they do.

Science disproving much of the "literal" interpretation of the Bible,

Science depends on a Christian world view, without it it cannot explain anyhing.
Scientists are biased agaionstthe idea of the supernatural as it leads to God.
Where the church fails and lets young people doen is in not explaining how science and the bible work together and in not teaching them how to defend there beliefs.

 

[DragonFox91]

I blame parents. They were taught not to indoctrinate their kids. So what happened was the world took them as their own.

Growing up, I was part of a church that didn't even bother teaching the youth b/c they were scared of indocrinating & had the attitude 'you'll believe if you'll believe.'
The church became theologically liberal over time. Needless to say, it eventually closed its doors.

I think the Christian nationalism movement is driving young people away from the faith.

I think young people don't see the difference between secularism & theologically liberal churches so stay secular.

 

[Halbhh]

Christianity in the U.S. is quickly shrinking and may no longer be the majority religion within just a few decades, research finds

Most people leave Christianity between the ages of 15-29.

The article doesn't postulate reasons--just looks at things like demographic trends to see how immigration and other factors could affect the numbers.

What do you think some of the reasons are?

My possibilities:
- Christian hypocrisy and the vast gap between what is preached and what is practiced.
- Religion has become too politicized.
- Science disproving much of the "literal" interpretation of the Bible, and preachers insisting on a literal interpretation
- authoritarianism? Patriarchy?

What are some reasons you can think of? I think the first one I gave accounts for the greatest defections.

Those are accurate main reasons (by polling) that many leave churches.

Of course, those who leave will be some that still have faith and will find another church, either soon, or later. Some will have had their faith very weakened, and seemingly destroyed, and some might never recover. Christ said it would be better for someone to have a millstone tied around their neck and be thrown into the sea rather than to be responsible for some young person losing faith. Finally, the last group, also sizable, would be those that simply grew up and didn't believe. Interestingly, some of them will come to faith later in time, and some will not.

But hopefully all that recover or return will find better churches that don't teach falsehoods like the false idea that science is against God, or that imply that God could not make the 'days' of creation however long He chose, and such. The speculative Young Earth idea/theory has certainly been one of the most damaging in the last century to the faith of the young, when some people preach Young Earth as if their theory is the gospel.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Christianity in the U.S. is quickly shrinking and may no longer be the majority religion within just a few decades, research finds

Most people leave Christianity between the ages of 15-29.

The article doesn't postulate reasons--just looks at things like demographic trends to see how immigration and other factors could affect the numbers.

What do you think some of the reasons are?

My possibilities:
- Christian hypocrisy and the vast gap between what is preached and what is practiced.
- Religion has become too politicized.
- Science disproving much of the "literal" interpretation of the Bible, and preachers insisting on a literal interpretation
- authoritarianism? Patriarchy?

What are some reasons you can think of? I think the first one I gave accounts for the greatest defections.

This PEW report is just another report of the same ol' report which this same research group has been putting out almost every year for a decade or more now.

It's nothing new and nothing we all don't already know is going on. But they keep reporting it because that's what they do. As to "why," though, this trend is snowballing, that remains on an individual case level with each young person who separates himself from the faith. I'm sure it reflects the same reasons that it has been for some time--the inroads of tensions of political ideology through social media.

 

[chevyontheriver]

Christianity in the U.S. is quickly shrinking and may no longer be the majority religion within just a few decades, research finds

Most people leave Christianity between the ages of 15-29.

The article doesn't postulate reasons--just looks at things like demographic trends to see how immigration and other factors could affect the numbers.

What do you think some of the reasons are?

My possibilities:
- Christian hypocrisy and the vast gap between what is preached and what is practiced.
- Religion has become too politicized.
- Science disproving much of the "literal" interpretation of the Bible, and preachers insisting on a literal interpretation
- authoritarianism? Patriarchy?

What are some reasons you can think of? I think the first one I gave accounts for the greatest defections.

Religion has become too politicized.

 

[Justin-H.S.]

 

[Halbhh]

This PEW report is just another report of the same ol' report which this same research group has been putting out almost every year for a decade or more now.

It's nothing new and nothing we all don't already know is going on. But they keep reporting it because that's what they do. As to "why," though, this trend is snowballing, that remains on an individual case level with each young person who separates himself from the faith. I'm sure it reflects the same reasons that it has been for some time--the inroads of tensions of political ideology through social media.

Well, always in the past (or at least when I was young in the 70s and actively walking up to people in churches and asking them questions face to face about what they thought of some key things in sermons like healing a blind person or such...), it's been the case that churches had a lot of people in them that did not believe, but instead were there because it was what you did, it was the social societal identity to go to church on Sunday and be seen and visit with people, and hopefully the sermon would be very short.

So, they've been leaving, those non believers.

It was always the case that many teens also did not believe. In the 70s, in the 80s, etc. That's unlikely to suddenly be different now I think.
What is different now is only that society no longer expects people to go to church, so in many churches it's gradually become the case that the social-only folks have less motive to attend. Depends on the local worldly culture. Also, it's now socially acceptable to say "other" or "no religion" on a poll, instead of feeling uncomfortable telling the truth, as one would have been in 1980 for instance. So, that's changed also. So, there are several trends in different groupings.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Well, always in the past (or at least when I was young in the 70s and actively walking up to people in churches and asking them questions face to face about what they thought of some key things in sermons like healing a blind person or such...), it's been the case that churches had a lot of people in them that did not believe, but instead were there because it was what you did, it was the social societal identity to go to church on Sunday and be seen and visit with people, and hopefully the sermon would be very short.

So, they've been leaving, those non believers.

I'm sure there are those younger church-goers who doubted all along, but I also think that a large number of young people who are distancing themselves from Christianity on the whole are doing so for a collection of reasons, reasons that are constantly being hoisted about by various hyper-skeptics in social media.

The New Atheists started the ball rolling almost 20 years ago and a new generation of Ex-Christians has taken the reigns from those few earlier pundits and have popularized the dissent from faith on a level consumable by today's Millennials and Generation Z.

 

[Halbhh]

I'm sure there are those younger church-goers who doubted all along, but I also think that a large number of those young people who are distancing themselves from Christianity on the whole are doing so for a collection of reasons being hoisted about about various hyper-skeptics in social media.

The New Atheists started the ball rolling almost 20 years ago and a new generation of Ex-Christians has taken the reigns from those few earlier pundits and have popularized the dissent from faith on a level consumable by today's Millennials and Generation Z.

Yes. And among the various groups, there will be some that leave that have had faith. That's a very interesting situation in one way: it's possible to disbelieve with one's head but to continue to have faith in one's soul, and not even realize it for a time, because it's hard to know your soul fully, especially when young.

 

[Ignatius the Kiwi]

It has nothing to do with the liberal priorities you imagine Fantine. Hypocrisy has existed throughout all of history and it didn't prevent Christians from being Christians. You're a hypocrite, does that stop you from being a Christian?

As for it being too political. When Christianity was at it's most political it was at it's strongest. Neutrality breeds apathy and if you aren't advocating for something then it fades into obscurity. Was Christianity weak when it politically confronted Pagan Rome? Or was it a strong vibrant force which sought to overturn an order it could not fully submit to? Christianity was also at it's strongest when Christianity was most Patriarchal and asserted it's authority. Becoming more feminine, becoming less zealous will not result in more Christianity.

Given that people also believe men to be women and women to be men, I hardly think scientism is the cause for people neglecting faith. Religion as a cultural force will always be with us in one form or another. It's just that the religion today is the sort of secular liberal religion you advocate for Fantine.

 

[Ignatius the Kiwi]

I think the Christian nationalism movement is driving young people away from the faith.

It probably does drive some people away, but what kind of person does it drive away? It drives away liberally minded people who think on a global level and reject particularism, either in religion or nationhood. Those sorts of people you probably want to avoid being Christian because they have universalist tendencies and no conviction in a single truth.

 

[DragonFox91]

Militant atheism becoming more popular.

 

[Joined2krist]

Are they being allowed freedom to learn about religion in schools? this is the reason

 

[Lady Bug]

Something doesn't have to be a majority to be true, though.

 

[Lukaris]

I think in the past the Christian Churches preached too much guaranteed damnation. Today, I think, too many just want to compromise and get along and that heaven is probably more wide open to unrepentant sinners than repentant believers. I believe in both cases a lack of wisdom towards the message of John 3:16-21 etc. has helped people to fall away etc.

I am referring more to mindsets than any particular Christian church bodies.

 

[Fantine]

Something doesn't have to be a majority to be true, though.

But these comments seem to indicate that the problem is not with "the truth" but with the failure of "the truth" to transform its believers.

 

[Jonaitis]

Christianity in the U.S. is quickly shrinking and may no longer be the majority religion within just a few decades, research finds

Most people leave Christianity between the ages of 15-29.

The article doesn't postulate reasons--just looks at things like demographic trends to see how immigration and other factors could affect the numbers.

What do you think some of the reasons are?

My possibilities:
- Christian hypocrisy and the vast gap between what is preached and what is practiced.
- Religion has become too politicized.
- Science disproving much of the "literal" interpretation of the Bible, and preachers insisting on a literal interpretation
- authoritarianism? Patriarchy?

What are some reasons you can think of? I think the first one I gave accounts for the greatest defections.

- Christian hypocrisy has existed since the first century.
- Religion was far more politicized in the past than now.

The decline of the Christian faith is likely to be the consequence of it being no longer an important aspect of society. In Islamic countries, Islam is practiced and believed widely because it is an important aspect of those particular societies. The collective are becoming more estranged from Christianity than our predecessors in the same manner that the collective was becoming more estranged from the pagan mythologies that our predecessors' predecessors once believed. So whatever is replacing Christianity in the West is a reminder of when Christianity replaced paganism. It is a cycle that has been tried to be adverted in the past (ex. Great Awakening), but was not ready for the changes that were soon to force its way into society regardless.