Thousands of churches are closing across the U.S.

[Shaul]

America following (at last) where Europe leads.

That's sort of like saying the first lemmings to the sea are "leading".

 

[IndigoChild5559]

There are many reasons for this. Lack of attendance due to increasing attachments to material things and irrelevance in meeting the needs of this age. In this interconnected world, peace between religions is of supreme importance but today the banter is mostly ‘our beliefs are superior, or we are saved but you are sinners and infidels’. This only creates prejudice and alienation between faiths and aggravates tensions in an age where our survival depends upon tolerance and cooperation.

Most of what you are describing has always existed. People have always been materialistic. Religions have always claimed we are right and you are all infidels. The question is, what has CHANGED that has led to lower church attendance?

 

[loverofhumanity]

Most of what you are describing has always existed. People have always been materialistic. Religions have always claimed we are right and you are all infidels. The question is, what has CHANGED that has led to lower church attendance?

Basically many have stopped believing. There are many reasons some of them mentioned below.

The Decline of Christianity

There is a clear trend in America: religion is on the decline . Go visit just about any church in the United States, and you'll see a...

bahaicoherence.blogspot.com

 

[IndigoChild5559]

Basically many have stopped believing. There are many reasons some of them mentioned below.

The Decline of Christianity

There is a clear trend in America: religion is on the decline . Go visit just about any church in the United States, and you'll see a...

bahaicoherence.blogspot.com

You are simply begging the question. WHY?

 

[Shadow Wolf]

You are simply begging the question. WHY?

That actually gives a few reasons.

 

[Revoltingest]

You are simply begging the question. WHY?

Question begging is actually something different,
ie, a logical fallacy based on a faulty premise.

Begging the question - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

But the post does raise your question.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

You are simply begging the question. WHY?

IMO, a lot of it is a feedback loop: as people leave a church, its social power shrinks. As the church's power shrinks, it can't hold onto members like it once did: the social benefits of membership are less and it doesn't have as much ability to coerce people into staying. With this loss in power, more people leave, which reduces the church's power more, so more people to leave... and the cycle repeats until only a small core of "true believers" remains.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Basically many have stopped believing. There are many reasons some of them mentioned below.

The Decline of Christianity

There is a clear trend in America: religion is on the decline . Go visit just about any church in the United States, and you'll see a...

bahaicoherence.blogspot.com

That article seems... dubious.

It's also missing the other part of the trend: while Christianity in the US is declining somewhat overall, Evangelical churches are actually growing. Mainstream moderate Christianity is losing members not only to non-religion but also to more extreme versions of their religion.

 

[Bthoth]

Church attendance has been dropping and it seems religion is losing a little ground every year.

Thousands of churches are closing across the U.S.

Churches are closing at an alarming rate in the United States, according to researchers, as congregations shrink across the country and a younger generation of Americans abandon Christianity entirely – even as faith continues to dominate American politics.

As the United States adjusts to an increasingly non-religious population, thousands of churches close each year, a trend that experts believe has accelerated since the Covid-19 pandemic.......

According to Lifeway Research, approximately 4,500 Protestant churches closed in 2019, the most recent year for which data is available, with approximately 3,000 new churches opening. It was the first time the number of churches in the United States had not increased since the evangelical firm began researching the subject. With the pandemic hastening a broader trend of Americans abandoning Christianity, researchers believe the closures will only have accelerated.

Protestant pastors reported that typical church attendance is only 85% of pre-pandemic levels, according to McConnell, while research by the Survey Center on American Life and the University of Chicago found that in spring 2022, 67% of Americans reported attending church at least once a year, compared to 75% before the pandemic.

However, while Covid-19 may have accelerated the decline, there is a broader, long-running trend of people abandoning religion. In 2017, Lifeway surveyed young adults aged 18 to 22 who had attended church on a regular basis for at least a year during high school. The firm discovered that seven out of ten people had stopped attending church on a regular basis."

Churches are closing at an alarming rate in the United StatesChurches are closing at an alarming rate in the United States.

Good News!

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Question begging is actually something different,
ie, a logical fallacy based on a faulty premise.

Begging the question - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

But the post does raise your question.

Well I have been misuing that phrase for many years, thinking it refers to a statement that obviously and clearly requires questioning to clarify.

 

[Revoltingest]

Well I have been misuing that phrase for many years, thinking it refers to a statement that obviously and clearly requires questioning to clarify.

I've been remiss in my correction duties then.
Look...I even let you get away with "misuing".

 

[IndigoChild5559]

IMO, a lot of it is a feedback loop: as people leave a church, its social power shrinks. As the church's power shrinks, it can't hold onto members like it once did: the social benefits of membership are less and it doesn't have as much ability to coerce people into staying. With this loss in power, more people leave, which reduces the church's power more, so more people to leave... and the cycle repeats until only a small core of "true believers" remains.

This idea you have of religion being connected to power is just foreign to my experience.

 

[flowerpower]

Church attendance has been dropping and it seems religion is losing a little ground every year.

Thousands of churches are closing across the U.S.

Churches are closing at an alarming rate in the United States, according to researchers, as congregations shrink across the country and a younger generation of Americans abandon Christianity entirely – even as faith continues to dominate American politics.

As the United States adjusts to an increasingly non-religious population, thousands of churches close each year, a trend that experts believe has accelerated since the Covid-19 pandemic.......

According to Lifeway Research, approximately 4,500 Protestant churches closed in 2019, the most recent year for which data is available, with approximately 3,000 new churches opening. It was the first time the number of churches in the United States had not increased since the evangelical firm began researching the subject. With the pandemic hastening a broader trend of Americans abandoning Christianity, researchers believe the closures will only have accelerated.

Protestant pastors reported that typical church attendance is only 85% of pre-pandemic levels, according to McConnell, while research by the Survey Center on American Life and the University of Chicago found that in spring 2022, 67% of Americans reported attending church at least once a year, compared to 75% before the pandemic.

However, while Covid-19 may have accelerated the decline, there is a broader, long-running trend of people abandoning religion. In 2017, Lifeway surveyed young adults aged 18 to 22 who had attended church on a regular basis for at least a year during high school. The firm discovered that seven out of ten people had stopped attending church on a regular basis."

Churches are closing at an alarming rate in the United StatesChurches are closing at an alarming rate in the United States.

No real surprises there.

I can actually feel just how different society is today that.

I can remember a time or even just by watching old TV shows where I'm blown away by how much of a part of ordinary life the church was whether people liked it or not.

Looks like secularism has finally established itself in today's world.

Grifts and rackets come and go.

Kind of a glib take but okay.

 

[flowerpower]

This is actually very bad news for us all. As our churches have long been the heart and soul of our local communities.

Regardless of how you feel about religion, churches have been our community centers, recording births and deaths and marriages and reminding us on a weekly bases that we are a united community of human beings that share in each other's good fortune and suffer each other's heartbreaks. Everyone knew each other and had to look each other in the eye each week at church. And there would be a cost to those that behaved selfishly toward others as everyone else would know.

But that's mostly all gone, now. We're just a bunch of isolated, selfish, individuals looking out for #1. With no sense of community or responsibility toward God or anyone else. "One nation under God?" Not hardly. Now we're just one nation under the yoke of our mutual greed, fear, and selfish stupidity.

Good post.

As much terrible evil organised religion has been responsible for, wiping the presence of the church from society has a lot of collateral damage that the irreligious don't seem to see or care about.

 

[IndigoChild5559]

I can remember a time or even just by watching old TV shows where I'm blown away by how much of a part of ordinary life the church was whether people liked it or not.

Kids today have no memory of the days when it was extraordinarily rare for someone to not attend church.

 

[loverofhumanity]

That article seems... dubious.

It's also missing the other part of the trend: while Christianity in the US is declining somewhat overall, Evangelical churches are actually growing. Mainstream moderate Christianity is losing members not only to non-religion but also to more extreme versions of their religion.

Yes peoples interests have changed but theres more to it. I believe for each age there is a religion and that in time it dies away except in name. Regardless of some upsurge in fanatical elements I believe the religions of the past cannot address the pressing needs of this age. For example they cannot bring peace between religions because they believe other religions are false.

 

[Twilight Hue]

The era of "churchianity" is ending.

It's been long overdue for the time to put the church properly back on the shelf of the Roman and Greek Pantheon of Gods.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Kids today have no memory of the days when it was extraordinarily rare for someone to not attend church.

I remember those days and you're right, almost everybody believed in God.

If you were an atheist in school during that time, you were likely bullied over it.

It was old tyme gospel Protestants and the Catholic Church in charge, and heading the pack.

 

[paarsurrey]

Thousands of churches are closing across the U.S.​

The era of "churchianity" is ending.

Sure it is, yet it doesn't mean that an era of Atheism is ushering in, right?

Regards

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

This idea you have of religion being connected to power is just foreign to my experience.

Really?

I'm not really talking about laws requiring people to go to church (though this has certainly been done in a lot of places), but things like:

• Social and familial pressure to attend church/temple/whatever
• Depending on connections in your congregation for business or career success
• Having your social life tied to a religious community
• Social norms and expectations around religious adherence being part of an upstanding citizen

It's harder to ban SBNR - or atheist - members of the family from Thanksgiving when there's 5 of them than when there's only one.

And being an Orangeman doesn't help you get a job as a firefighter anymore, but when my grandmother was little, it would have been effectively a prerequisite.