Elwood Watson sees the decline of religion in the United States and believes it gives us cause for concern.
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A few weeks ago, the Pew Research Center For Religion and Public Life released results of a detailed poll in regards to the state of American religion that was received with a great degree of interest from many segments of the public. The study represents the responses of 35,000 American adults.
Among the study’s findings:
- The share of Americans who say they are “absolutely certain” that God exists has dropped 8 percentage points, from 71 percent to 63 percent, since 2007, when the last comparable study was made.
- The percentage of adults who describe themselves as “religiously affiliated” has shrunk 6 points since 2007, from 83 percent to 77 percent.
- The shares of the U.S. adult population who consider religion “very important” to them, pray daily and attend services at least once a month have declined between 3 and 4 percentage points over the past eight years.
What was even more notable was the fact that the fewer birthdays a person has had, the less likely they are to embrace any form of religion. Skepticism about religion is especially evident among people under 35. The Pew study found that barely a quarter of “millennials,” generation Y (1980 and 1998) attend church services on a weekly basis, compared with more than half of U.S. adults born before 1946. Only 40% say religion is important in their lives, compared with more than 50% of generation X’ers (1965-1979) and baby boomers (1946-1964) including two-thirds of those born before 1946, the silent generation (1925-1945). It appears that millennials appear to have abandoned any sort of organized religion, period..
There a number of people of all age groups, (especially millennials) who harbor a deep degree of ambivalence and skepticism toward religion…
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It is probably safe to say that a large number of these unaffiliated millennials (like their brethren in older generations) did not suddenly “turn a corner” so to speak and decide to turn their backs on the church. Rather, it is more likely that a significant number of these young men and women grew up in households, environments and communities where the attitude or commitment to religion or religious worship was weak, tenuous or indifferent at the least. Religion had never inhabited a major influence in their upbringing. Moreover, any interest they had in religion was marginal at best.
Another factor that has been well documented is that many studies have revealed that millennials are the least conservative group of Americans. There a number of people of all age groups, (especially millennials) who harbor a deep degree of ambivalence and skepticism toward religion, in particular organized religion. Even among those millennials who identify as politically conservative, they are still very apprehensive to fully embrace contemporary religion, given the fact that many of them tend to espouse liberal, progressive and or libertarian views on many cultural issues such as gay marriage and drug use. The former issue is still one that has caused deep political rifts within many religious conservative circles, due to the fact that many younger conservatives (like their liberal counterparts) support gay marriage, whereas, on the contrary, the vast majority of their conservative elders (like many older conservative democrats) reject such a notion.
In addition, the staunchly harsh rhetoric that has emerged from some of the more extreme segments of the conservative right, particularly among its evangelical base, has likely contributed to the less than enthusiastic support from young conservatives. Politicians and ministers arguing that rape is a part of God’s plan or that Satan is campaigning against you is not exactly the type of inspirational and positive rhetoric that is inclined to endear younger people (or many middle-aged and older ones) toward the message you are championing, regardless of what other potentially feasible ideas you may have.
If the individuals polled by Pew Research are indeed indicative of the larger public, the fact is that it appears that Americans of all age groups — millennials, generation Xers, baby boomers, the silent generation — are walking a fine line these days when it comes to the issue of religion. Such news in and of itself should be of great concern to those in the clergy.
The millennial situation is particularly alarming, given the fact that these are the young men and women whose presence will be crucial in populating houses of worship as time progresses and as elder Americans pass on. The ongoing decline in religious activity and affiliation among the larger populace could have demonstrably massive implications for the future of the nation and should be an issue of great concern to all those for whom religion is the focal point of their livelihoods or at least a crucial part of their existence.
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Photo credit: peasap/flickr
You look at Europe and their people are no longer going to mass anymore; however, they have free/affordable education, free medical care, good transportation system that runs on time, developing their solar/wind while here in America, we have expensive medical care, expensive college/vocational education, a crumbling transportation system good labor unions, and the Koch Brothers are trying to stop solar and wind industries from developing tells me that the Europeans don’t believe that praying and worshiping God has brought them all these good things. Those people have their priorities straight and are willing to put the time, people, and resources… Read more »
Given that the countries of the world that have the lowest violent crime rates are the most secular, and religion’s long and colorful history of inspiring hate, war, atrocities and witch hunts against one’s fellow man, I would hardly describe the decline of religious affiliation in the United States as a “crisis”. “Progress” is more like it
The church of Oprah is not doing it for modern men.
Jesus The Really Good Boyfriend. Does nothing for me.