{"id":149507,"date":"2023-08-01T03:07:10","date_gmt":"2023-08-01T11:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=149507"},"modified":"2023-08-01T03:07:10","modified_gmt":"2023-08-01T11:07:10","slug":"the-atlantic-the-misunderstood-reason-millions-of-americans-stopped-going-to-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=149507","title":{"rendered":"The Atlantic: The Misunderstood Reason Millions of Americans Stopped Going to Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

From The Atlantic<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\nNearly everyone I grew up with in my childhood church in Lincoln, Nebraska, is no longer Christian. That\u2019s not unusual. Forty million Americans have stopped attending church in the past 25 years. That\u2019s 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. My wife and I wonder whether the institutions and communities that have helped preserve us in our own faith will still exist for our four children, let alone whatever grandkids we might one day have.<\/p>\n

This change is also bad news for America as a whole: Participation in a religious community generally correlates with better health outcomes and longer life, higher financial generosity, and more stable families\u2014all of which are desperately needed in a nation with rising rates of loneliness, mental illness, and alcohol and drug dependency…<\/p>\n

The Great Dechurching finds that religious abuse and more general moral corruption in churches have driven people away. This is, of course, an indictment of the failures of many leaders who did not address abuse in their church. But Davis and Graham also find that a much larger share of those who have left church have done so for more banal reasons. The book suggests that the defining problem driving out most people who leave is \u2026 just how American life works in the 21st century. Contemporary America simply isn\u2019t set up to promote mutuality, care, or common life. Rather, it is designed to maximize individual accomplishment as defined by professional and financial success. Such a system leaves precious little time or energy for forms of community that don\u2019t contribute to one\u2019s own professional life or, as one ages, the professional prospects of one\u2019s children. Workism reigns in America, and because of it, community in America, religious community included, is a math problem that doesn\u2019t add up.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From The Atlantic: Nearly everyone I grew up with in my childhood church in Lincoln, Nebraska, is no longer Christian. That\u2019s not unusual. Forty million Americans have stopped attending church in the past 25 years. That\u2019s something like 12 percent … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t