The Decline of Christianity in America:

Notes from an eight-session class — Part Six of Eight

A Cannon Valley Elder Collegium course: “Is The Decline of Christianity in America A Good Thing, Bad Thing, Neither or Both?” Led by Jan Linn.

The goal of this course is not to arrive at a definitive answer, but rather create a diversity of thought — These are my thoughts.

Week six of eight: Should American Christians Be Alarmed by this Decline?

Part 1: 7 Reasons Not To Freak-Out About Decline of US Christianity, by Michael Atencio, Associate news editor, sojourners.net, September 21, 2022

In September of 2022, Pew researchers, based on current data, “projected that the U.S. population who identify as Christian would decrease from 64% in 2020 to between 35–54% in 2070.”

The four models used to make these projections were presented to seven religious thinkers, and asked for their responses.

Vincent Lloyd, director of Africana studies, Villanova University.
“The good, the true, the beautiful. Black Christians have long had the experience of living faithfully as a minority, and all Christians anticipating a future as a minority should turn to the lessons they have gifted the Church.”

Traci C. West, professor of Christian ethics and African American Studies at Drew University Theological School.
The gospel of liberation will continue “…to build even stronger compassionate and just solidarities that reject fear, bigotry and violence across racial and religious differences.”

Reed. Letiah Fraser, pastor with the Church of the Nazarene and organizer with the Poor People’s Campaign.
“Christianity…has been more oppressive than liberating…,I wonder if becoming a minority religion will refocus our priorities on loving God and neighbor, care for the poor, and justice for those being oppressed.”

Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty (BJC) and organized with Christians Against Christian Nationalism.
“The Christian calling to love God and Love our neighbors endures…”

Danté Stewart, author of Shoutin’ in the Fire: An American Epistle.
“Christians, be sure to be on the side of those who want more people free and not on the side of those who want to take away that freedom. If we can, then faith in public will be seen as a public good rather than a public vice.”

Kevin Nye, author of Grace Can Lead Us Home: A Christian Call to End Homelessness.
“I’m…encouraged by how many parables of Jesus describe the Gospel as something small that grows and permeates organically, like a mustard seed in a garden, or a bit of yeast in dough. In that sense, the decline of the Church in America is, for me, a sign of hope rather than something to fear.”

Marlena Graves, author of The Way Up Is Down: Becoming Yourself is Forgetting Yourself.
“Originally, Christians were the minority in the oppressive Roman Empire. Those who want to follow Jesus are to be servants, not masters. Our sustenance is to do the will of God whom we serve: loving God, neighbors, and enemies in practical ways, not in our imaginaries.”

Part 2: New poll finds growing ‘religion gap’ between old, young Americans — Catholic Review, January 19, 2012

I asked people why they’re leaving Christianity, and here’s what I heard, Brandon Flannery, December 13, 2022, Baptist News Global.

We spent a lot of time looking at statistics, and as such analysis goes, focused on the top reasons, which I highlight below. However, a good scientist also looks at outliers, the items at the bottom of the list of reasons. I would have liked to talk with these people as well. However, from the one-word descriptions it seems these people are rebelling against the top-down thinking of a hierarchy.

With that, the following three things standing out.

1. Religion is more important for older people than younger people. However, “Young, middle-aged and older respondents cite morality and ethics in roughly equal proportions….”
2. The vast majority of people leaving Christianity are Protestant at 61.5% and Catholics at 11.6%, with “unspecified” at 15.5%.
3. The biggest reason for leaving given is treatment of LGBTQ people at 21.7%, behavior of believers at 16.1%, and intellectual integrity (not being rational) at 12.1%.

The 21.7% selecting “treatment of LGBTQ people’’ were both those identifying as such, but mostly those not so identified who wanted to support their LGBTQ friends. It is possible that the other two reasons included concerns about the LGBTQ issue.

The next question asked was: What was the final straw that made you leave? 24.7% selected the LGBTQ issue, 16.4% Behavior of believers, and 11.9% religion in politics.

A quote by Caitlin J. Stout, a lesbian Christian, “A friend asked the other day what percentage of people I went to a youth group with “deconstructed” and what percentage remained evangelical. As I thought about it, I realized that for the most part it was the kids who took their faith the most seriously who eventually walked away.”

The article goes on: “Christianity is a religion that boasts about its love, but people are not seeing it, and they’re walking out the door. With this in mind, it’s no wonder that loving and accepting people is the second most valuable quality people gain when they leave Christianity.”

When asked what they gained by leaving Christianity, 34% said freedom (to express their loving beliefs), 22.5% said Love and the acceptance of others, and 20% said removal of guilt/shame.

And finally the survey asked: What do you miss most? The overwhelming response was community at 50%.

If you are more interested in the data simply jump to the links provided above.

“…what happens when people reject the church because they think we [the Church] reject Jesus and the gospel? People have always left the church because they want to gratify the flesh, but what happens when people leave because they believe the church exists to gratify the flesh in orgies of sex or anger or materialism?” — From a speech by Russell D. Moore, Christianity Today’s Editor in Chief.

Part 3: I asked people why they’re leaving Christianity, and here’s what I Heard — Brandon Flannery (December 13, 2022)

First: The rejection of marginalized people.

Second: The behavior of “Christians.” Trump being the last straw, up and against “The best argument for Christianity is Christians: their joy, their certainty, their completeness.”

Third: Political involvement and Christian Nationalism.

“Christianity is a religion that boasts about its love, but people are not seeing it, and they’re walking out the door. With this in mind, it’s no wonder that loving and accepting people is the second most valuable quality people actually gain when they leave Christianity.”

The final question asked was what people missed about Christianity. For many, it won’t be a surprise that the number one thing respondents listed was community, and by an overwhelming amount. Strange that community could not be found in church.

I have only attended a megachurch service once. We arrived just as the previous service was letting out, and and the feeling that came over me was panic. People everywhere but no people to talk with, head turning this way and that way, looking for a familiar face and not finding one.

My experience of church has always a slow departure, with people lingering, listening to the musical prologue or chatting in small groups, greeting one another as those filing out, single file, are greeted at the exit by a smiling pastor.

Part 4: Opinion I left the church — and now long for a ‘church for the “nones’” By Perry Bacon Jr.

“I’m currently a ‘none’ or, more precisely, a ‘nothing in particular.’ But I want to be a something.”

“I can easily imagine a ‘church for the ‘nones’.” (It would need a more appealing name.) Start the service with songs with positive messages. Have children do a reading to the entire congregation and then go to a separate kids’ service. Reserve time when church members can tell the congregation about their highs and lows from the previous week. Listen as the pastor give a sermon on tolerance or some other universal value, while briefly touching on whatever issues are in the news that week. A few more songs. The end. An occasional post-church brunch.

During the week, there would be activities, particularly ones in which parents could take their kids and civic-minded members could volunteer for good causes in the community.

I don’t expect the church of the “nones” to emerge. It’s not clear who would start it, fund it or decide its beliefs. But it should.

“And personally, I really, really want it to. Theologically, I’m comfortable being a none. But socially, I feel a bit lost.”

If you want to check out the whole series, the links are here.

• Part one: Is the brand “Christian” in decline?
• Part two: A short history of the Christian church.
• Part three: Is religion helping or harming us?
• Part four: Is Christianity’s Decline a Bad Thing for America?
• Part five: Is Christianity’s Decline a Wash for America?
• Part six: Should American Christians be Alarmed by this Decline?
• Part seven: Does Christianity Need to be the Dominant American Religion?
• Part eight: Tying up Loose Ends.
• Third Way Thinking: Embracing Unity of Opposites

Gary L. Engstrom, author, Living the Beatitudes: The Way to a Most Excellent Life.

Facebook

Linkedin

Next class session: Does Christianity Need To be The Dominant American Religion?