Interesting article from the Associated Press and Tom Breen.
The article begins, "In 'American Religion: Contemporary Trends,' author Mark Chaves argues that over the last generation or so, religious belief in the U.S. has experienced a 'softening' that effects everything from whether people go to worship services regularly to whom they marry. Far more people are willing to say they don't belong to any religious tradition today than in the past, and signs of religious vitality may be camouflaging stagnation or decline...."
Here are some other notable quotes:
1. Today, as many as 20 percent of all Americans say they don't belong to any religious group. It was 3% in the 1950's.
2. 92 percent of Americans still profess belief in God, they just don't use religion as part of their identity.
3. Chaves found that between 1991 and 2008, the percentage of Americans who strongly agreed that religious leaders should stay out of politics rose from 20 percent to 44 percent.
4. At the same time, those who remain devout have become more conservative. Regular churchgoers are far more likely to be Republicans than Democrats.
5. "It's not random who's leaving churches," said Bradley Wright, a University of Connecticut sociologist who studies American Christianity and wrote the 2010 book "Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites...and Other Lies You've Been Told." "As Christians affiliated more through the Republican Party, liberal, marginal churchgoers became offended and left," she said.
6. The notion of decline misses important developments, like the enthusiastic devotion of Christian immigrants.
7. Polarization is a better description than decline. He recently plotted survey data over the last 25 years recording what Americans say about the importance of religion in their lives. Those who say it's extremely important have grown slightly, along with those who say it's not at all important. But the number of people who said it was "somewhat" important dropped from 36 percent to 22 percent in about 20 years.
8. Churches are likelier today to consist largely of a "hard core" of believers, and to have fewer casual or lukewarm members that used to swell the ranks.
9. These trends developed slowly over decades, Chaves said, and he doesn't think they can be reversed by ramped-up evangelism or other conscious decisions by religious groups. The main force may be demographic, since the data show that the households most likely to be devout consist of two parents and children. As fewer people have children and more couples split up, religious institutions see their numbers dwindle....."Religious leaders know this," Chaves said. "That's why they look for ways to attract single people and people without kids. But it's hard, because on the whole, mainstream religion is kind of geared toward families."
10. Older people are more likely to be religious than the young, and America is on the cusp of having the largest elderly population in its history (Good news).
11. Immigrants to the U.S. also tend to be active religious believers, and birth rates may also favor the faithful (Good news).
12. There's an extraordinary amount of good will toward religious faith in the U.S., especially in contrast with other Western countries (Good news).
You can read the entire article here:
http://www.urbanchristiannews.com/ucn/2011/08/new-book-by-duke-prof-warns-americans-are-losing-faith-in-religious-leaders-church.html
What questions does this stir up with you?
What solutions should the church pursue as is seeks engaged the polarized masses of our generation?
Do you agree there has been a "softening of religiosity" and is this good, bad or neither?
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