What’s Keeping People Out of Church?
The LA Times thinks it’s conservative politics : The most rapidly growing religious category today is composed of those Americans who say they have no religious affiliation. While middle-aged and older Americans continue to embrace organized religion, rapidly increasing numbers of young people are rejecting it. As recently as 1990, all but 7% of Americans claimed a religious affiliation, a figure that had held constant for decades. Today, 17% of Americans say they have no religion, and these new “nones” are very heavily concentrated among Americans who have come of age since 1990. Between 25% and 30% of twentysomethings today say they have no religious affiliation — roughly four times higher than in any previous generation. So, why this sudden jump in youthful disaffection from organized religion? The surprising answer, according to a mounting body of evidence, is politics. Very few of these new “nones” actually call themselves atheists, and many have rather conventional beliefs about God and theology. But they have been alienated from organized religion by its increasingly conservative politics. I have a hard time buying the idea that conservative politics are keeping people out of church because in the hundreds of churches I’ve been in (either as member or visiting singer) I’ve never seen any politics at all. Perhaps it’s not actual politics in church that’s keeping people away, but the media obsession against conservative politics and their efforts to link it to evangelical churches that’s doing it. This article talks about young people who have no interest in church, but I can tell you from firsthand experience there are plenty of older adults who have lost interest as well.
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on October 22, 2010. Filed under