The Great Unchurching?

Is religion on the decline? In particular, is Christianity declining in the USA, Australia, Britain, New Zealand, and elsewhere? The answer everyone is saying is “yes.”

This has led to a discussion about the rise of the “nones,” the trend of “faith deconstruction,” and the parade of “exvangelicals.” And much discussion is indeed happening!

I have written on this before, in several pieces in Will Christianity Die Out by the End of this Century? and Losing our Religion: The Religious Decline of the West?

I’ve read a few articles on this subject just this week.

Russell Moore’s Diagnosis and Prescription for America’s Religious Malaise

First, Tish Harrison Warren interviews Russell Moore in the NYT about his book Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America, and one aspect of the interview really struck me. when Moore said:

When I first started in ministry, if someone came and said, “I’m losing my faith. I’m walking away from the church,” the cause was almost always one of two things. Either the person started to find the supernatural incredible, or the person thought that the morality of the church was too strict in some way, usually having to do with sex. I almost never hear that anymore. Instead, the people that I talk to often have a sense that for the church, the Gospel is a means to an end — whether that end is politics or cultural control or cultural influence or something else. And in many cases they’re starting to question not whether the church is too strict but whether the church actually holds to a morality at all. What is alarming to me is that some of the people I find who are despairing are actually those who are the most committed to the teachings of Christianity.

I’d agree with that, some people doubt and despair not about Jesus, but the hypocrisy and nakedly self-interested power plays of people who claim to represent him.

I also like Moore’s antidote to the current disgust with American Christianity:

It would mean a reordering of priorities. The church could see ultimate things as ultimate and other things as falling in line behind those ultimate things. That’s the fundamental shift. I do think that we need to have the right ordering of our priorities and our loves and also the right understanding of what it means to follow Christ. The figure of Jesus in the New Testament Gospels is not a frantic, angry culture warrior. He is remarkably tranquil about the situation around him. I think we need more of that. If our neighbors saw us loving one another and forgiving one another, even if they find our theological beliefs to be strange or even dangerous, that would be a good start.

Jake Meador Explains Why Church is Less of An Option

Jake Meador writing in The Atlantic, notes the dire situation:

Nearly everyone I grew up with in my childhood church in Lincoln, Nebraska, is no longer Christian. That’s not unusual. Forty million Americans have stopped attending church in the past 25 years. That’s something like 12 percent of the population, and it represents the largest concentrated change in church attendance in American history. As a Christian, I feel this shift acutely.

If I had an Atlantic subscription, I’d read more of the article, but it sure started well. I think many could relate to his experience.

Now, maybe I am flogging a dead horse, but I think religious decline is way more complex than people are letting on. Also, there are several things that are forcing me to change my thinking.

In terms of why the decline:

First, religious decline really started in 2008, roughly the same time as both the invention of the iPhone and the Global Financial Crisis. In other words, it is about technology and economics to some degree. People are absorbed into their i-devices, streaming services, others are focused on economic subsistence. Even religion can be consumed via you.tube, podcasts, social media, etc. Many institutions are declining, boy scouts, rotary, etc., not just churches. COVID lockdowns have accented and accelerated the way that we live our lives in the digital world and that includes how we “do” religion.

Second, for anyone under 30 in the west, expressive individualism and the sexual revolution are two sides of one religion. In other words, for nones the Holy Trinity is autonomy, sex, and identity; the only creator is a self-made identity; the only creed is “be true to yourself and follow your dreams”; the only baptism is “immersing yourself into yourself”; and the only confession is “There is no god but sex and pleasure is her prophet.” Hyperbole I know, written with the cynicism of a GenXer, but I think I’m on to something.

Third, because Christianity speaks against point 2, it is considered public enemy # 1, added to that is the terrible things people do in the name of Christ or even as Christians.

But I don’t think it’s all dire news.

I think the pursuit of authenticity as the goal of human existence is going to tank and be perceived as bankrupt.

Many immigrants and ethnic minorities may become the primary hubs of religious growth in the west.

There are pockets of revival and renewal, like recent events in Kentucky, and church growth in other places I’ve seen.

But otherwise, be prepared for the fact that one day, only 3-5% of the population in America, Australia, or the UK is actively involved in a church.

What are your thoughts on this? Am I right, mostly right, or utterly wrong?