From a CNN article this morning:
‘Seventy-five percent of Americans call themselves Christian, according to the American Religious Identification Survey from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1990, the figure was 86 percent.
William Donohue, president of the Catholic League said he thinks a radical shift towards individualism over the last quarter-century has a lot to do it.
“The three most dreaded words are thou shalt not,” he told Lou Dobbs. “Notice they are not atheists — they are saying I don’t want to be told what to do with my life.”‘
Perhaps if American Christianity was more about Grace for sinners and less about telling people what to do, more about God’s “yes” in Jesus (2Co 1.19) and less “thou shalt not”, people would be more interested in going to church…
COMMENTS
19 responses to “America Becoming Less Christian, Less Religious”
Leave a Reply
In 1818 Blake wrote,
The Moral Christian
Is the Cause
Of the Unbeliever
And his laws.
R.-J., I believe your interpretation of the survey and of Herr Donohue’s comment is 100% on target.
Word.
I need to start reading more poetry
suggestions?
Go Trinity Bantams.
christians are awesome!
Hello,
I think that a trend moving away from spirituality is more important. Many people deny who they rely are (soul, mind, and body) and the result is the experience of misery and suffering. This is unnecessary but as long as people reject their oneness with One Source then they will probably not live a truly joyful life.
Ryan
Apologies for the discursive statement to follow, but I’m in a rush:
Thanks for commenting on this RJ, I saw this article today on another website and was not surprised. However, knowing what we know about human beings, why is this trend continuing at an increasing rate? Despite the fact that law and legalism have been around as long as the church (read Acts or the Epistles lately?), church attendance flourished in the Western world until fairly recently. Why the exodus? Every faction in the church has an answer: ‘liberal theology’, ‘the enlightenment’, ‘fundamentalism’, ‘preoccupation with tee-ball games’, etc. (probably some truth in all of these!)
Though there is a clear difference between ‘church attendance’ and ‘being a Christian’, but statistically speaking (given the pervasiveness of law-based preaching) shouldn’t this number be much higher if people are truly reacting to law? The real mystery is that they have remained in the pews this long.
I wonder if part of this departure is also explained by Clint Eastwood’s quote to the young priest in Gran Torino:
“Why don’t you like me?” whines the priest. “Because you are an over-educated 27-year-old virgin who likes to hold hands with superstitious old ladies and promise them eternity.”
Are we generally perceived as effete shysters who live in fantasy land?
I’d love to hear what the rest of you think. 🙂
P.S. Someone needs to publish a book ‘Depictions of the church in modern film.’
Dylan-
Great idea for a book! Do I feel the next Mbird publication coming on? I can think of a bunch I movies I’d like to write on right now.
Who’s in?
Dylan, I was wondering that myself, and I’d love to hear what the rest of you guys think.
There have certainly been centuries where the Law has been the guiding paradigm much more than now, and the message of the Gospel as we have come to understand it has always been the minority report, as it were.
Also, as far as total acceptance and “inclusion” you’d be hard pressed to find a sweller, nicer and more welcoming bunch of people than the mainline denominations over the past 50 years or so, and these are the very ones that are completely emptying out. . .
There is a lot that can be said about the insipid theology of these churches, but one has to agree that the message has certainly been very little about what to do. .
So, thoughts: I do think that because the Law was preached as a means to an end for so long, that Christian people are becoming disillusioned with Christianity alltogether when their lives fail to live into the hope that was promised. I think its particularly hard for those who tied Christianity to the “moral,” pre-hippie culture; they look around and see the entire enterprise as a complete failure.
As for non-Christians, I think that what they are hearing is that we have an answer for a problem that they don’t have, and because the Law is not preached (except in its moral sense) the “need” for the Gospel has been reduced to a psychological help, which people can find through a combination of pills/chants/books and exercise.
The recent White Horse Inn series on “Christ in a Post-Christian Culture” has been really encouraging in spite of reports like this. .
At any rate, RJ, way to get this up on the blog and into the conversation!
Lots of good stuff.
In a way, it seems like the horizontal morality more and more being preached–to the exclusion of all else–by the emptying mainlines is effectively just another “Law” de jour of inclusion, acceptance, social action, liturgy, or whatever (all for their own sakes, of course). The result is that “Christians” accross the spectrum contribute to the justified perception that “Christian” means submitting to live by the rules of another (maybe God, maybe the preacher), who is trying to exercise power in the relationship. Why not go it alone–that is, with pills, chants or exercise?
Good for M’bird for being a voice for Love and Grace in the middle of it all.
R.-J., There is a budding field of study here (not sure about the States) on Theology and Film, but I’ve not read much of it…however, it would be neat to put something together one day given the fact that people generally relate to films better than sermons. 🙂
Jady, I had the same thought about the mainline churches and their ‘swellness’. I grew up in a left-of-center Methodist church in a college town…my pastor had been a Fulbright scholar and was academically ‘bonafied’ [Cambridge], the biology and chemistry professors came to worship every single Sunday. There was a sense of ‘I’m alright, you’re alright’ and nothing heavy at all.
Even though I wouldn’t say that there was a clear law/gospel distinction in the preaching, it was because this experience throughout my childhood was so positive that I returned to the church during college. However, about 10 years ago, a new mega-Baptist church sprung up just outside our town. Rick Warren to the hilt! All the mainline churches emptied out and flocked to the new guy. It was really sad, a bit like the WalMart-moves-into-the-area stories.
Anyone who has been in pastoral ministry for a few years knows how awkward it is when you see a parishioner tip-toeing toward another church.
Anyway, I wonder if some of the mainline ‘fallout’ is merely a migration pattern to the supposedly Boomer-oriented worship of the mega church? Also, could it be the restlessness of the human spirit that always leads us to desire a new Moses, Paul or Apollos?
It seems impossible to me to generalize about why people may or may not be going to church, calling themselves Christians, etc. However, I would love to get my hands on some of that stimulus package money to do an in-depth broad and very professional study on the issue. I would employ all the people on this blog, at $450,000 per annum, and fly myself to NYC every weekend to consult with my Team. And as for the Law issue driving people away, guess what? some people LOVE the law, they absolutely adore being told what to do and when to do it. That is one reason some people have told me they like the military life. For some reason I have a real problem visualizing PZ, in uniform, in boot camp, doing drills. He would be quoting William Blake under his breath, through clinched teeth, the whole time…:)
My pastor had some interesting comments recently, that I think might relate to this broader issue.
He had described life in three stages: 20-40 is the Heroic Journey where you’re looking to define yourself, find your identity, push yourself to achieve. Then 40-50 is the Crisis of Limitations when you start to see some gaps – you’re not as strong as you used to be, hard work doesn’t automatically equal success any more, no more rock hard abs – and this is crushing. Then 50+ is the final stage in which you are brought face to face with your own lack of control, but in doing so begin the Journey into Wisdom – an acknowledgment of your flaws and sinfulness and a dependence on God for your sustenance.
So if you’re approaching the next stage, and Middle Age, but you don’t level off to acknowledge your lack of control, you keep rising artificially, still pushing to define yourself and seeking identity from your striving and accomplishments, and this is totally unsustainable – this is the 50 year old father of three wearing designer jeans and driving a sports car.
So the connection seems to be that people raised on “doing it” and pushing “harder, better, faster, stronger” (Daft Punk) in church and religion start to be disappointed. It doesn’t add up. They become the older brother in the story of the prodigal son, who has followed the rules his whole life and resents his father’s cheap acceptance of his stupid younger brother. The family he thought he was a part of doesn’t turn out to support the ideals he’s been following his whole life. So he leaves the party, and for our purposes here, he gives up on church.
This is obviously a huge generalization, as others have mentioned, but I’ve been thinking about it recently, and your post brought it to the front of my mind again, RJ.
Then again I’m only 24 and still searching for some kind of identity…
I think the Clint Eastwood quote nails it. I think most people see the church as just another way to get better, however now they can find that everywhere.
To say all we need to do is just preach grace and our churchs will grow is nonsense. As a matter of fact that also is a great way to empty out your church. I have had so many people (Christians/non) say wait a minute it has all been done…that is non-sense. Especially here in NYC.
The point is the Gospel actually repels and angers allot of people. The old-Adam desperately wants to be told what to do! I think if anything this survey just tells us that Americans are going else where to get their fix.
I think one very important excerpt from the article was omitted from the blog post: “The survey also found that “born-again” or “evangelical” Christianity is on the rise, while the percentage who belong to “mainline” congregations such as the Episcopal or Lutheran churches has fallen.” This is one point that Tim Keller skillfully highlights in his book “Reason For God” as a counterpoint to those who argue that Christianity will die in the States much like it has in Western Europe. He notes that while many mainline congregants are leaving church behind in the US there is vibrant growth among orthodox evangelical church plants of recent immigrants in the boroughs of NYC and other urban centers. Another great point he makes is that one main cause of the secularization of Western Europe may have come from that fact that the churches had a history of state control. Highlighting that fact that as soon as someone is forced to do something he usually runs the other way.
I agree fully that many people don’t go to church because they know that they will be judged and told what to do.
Does anyone else think that many people are drawn to church precisely for the same reasons? I am thinking of the white, suburban, affluent churches for example. These churches are full of people who delight in being told what to do because it feeds their self-righteousness.
I can’t speak to why all the church is in decline, but I’ll add that the people who I’ve known who have left the church have done because of legalism (obviously) and also because the message heard in church did not connect with the problems of life as they actually lived it.
Todd, good point…I wonder if a stronger doctrine of the Holy Spirit might be a step toward addressing problems without giving people a to-do list?
Michael, I agree, some people do thrive on the law. One summer I was stationed as an Army chaplain at West Point during what is affectionately known as ‘Beast Barracks’. It doesn’t take a genius to see the pastoral needs in a place like the Academy. After I had finished preaching a sermon intentionally stripped of imperatives, a senior chaplain came up to me and asked ‘Well, how did you think that went?’ (Uh, apparently a bit better than you did!) Something about the sermon had obviously made both him and the cadets uncomfortable. I would like to think that the confusion was due to the injection of 20min of grace into a terribly oppressive atmosphere of law. Yet, I get the feeling that many military personnel feel that grace is effeminate.
However, I’m not sure that West Point is any different from working at Merrill Lynch or getting into med school or being a telemarketer or a mommy…people are absolutely laden with burdens that they desperately need to hear another channel for a change: ‘I did not come to condemn the world…’
dp, I think you’re inferring that I’m talking about making sure that there is a life application to Christianity. Indeed, the a high doctrine of the Holy Spirit is a great substitute. But I actually more mean to speak of life implications of the Gospel- much of what Mockingbird does all the time. How does the Gospel address abandoned or un-loved sons (great post browder), how does the Gospel address loneliness, how does the Gospel address regret, identity, despair, etc.
Often the Gospel is misunderstood as “the good news of righteous living,” but equally often the Gospel is understood simple as an objective reality that one only needs to acknowledge to be true. But the the Gospel is always true FOR ME, and therefore the Gospel has subjective effects for the believer (joy, love, hope, etc.). I’d say that my friends knew on some level that the Gospel was important, but because it was divorced from the reality of life when trouble came Christianity had nothing to say.