Less Than Half Church-Goers As Children Do So As An Adult

The charts above are from a survey done by the Gallup Poll -- done between July 5th and August 23rd of a nationwide sample of 2,019 adults, with a 3 point margin of error. 

Church Membership Continues To Drop (Now Under 50%)

 The charts above are from the Gallup Poll. The survey was done between 2018 and 2020 of a national sample of 6,117 adults, with a 2 point margin of error. It shows that church membership continues to drop in the United States, and now is below half the population (47%).

Church Membership Dropped 20 Points In Last 20 Years

As this country celebrates its second most popular religious holiday (behind christmas), churches are facing a serious situation -- declining membership. Church membership has declined from about 70% in 1998 to about 50% in 2018. That a huge 20 point drop in just the last 20 years.

Will this trend continue in the future? I believe it will. With the advent of the internet, the non-religious no longer feel alone and pressured to be like those around them. They now know there are millions of people just like them.

While this change is most prominent among younger Americans, with only 42% of millennials being church members, the decline in membership has been across all generations. The decline among Gen X is 8 points, Baby Boomers is 10 points, and Traditionalists (those older than the Boomers) 9 points.

These charts are from a recent Gallup Poll.

Results for the 1998-2000 aggregated data are based on interviews with 7,184 national adults and have a margin of sampling error of ±1 percentage point at the 95% confidence level. 

Results for the 2016-2018 aggregated data are based on interviews with 7,688 national adults and have a margin of sampling error of ±1 percentage point at the 95% confidence level.

Church Attendance Is Declining In The U.S.

The chart above is from the Gallup Poll. It shows that in the last nine years, the percentage of Americans who attend church weekly has dropped from 42% to 38%. Meanwhile, the percentage who seldom/never attend church has climbed from 45% to 48% (nearly half of all Americans). Those who attend about once a month has remained steady at 12%.

Young People Are Fleeing Religion In Large Numbers

These charts are from a scientific study published at PLOS/ONE. The top chart shows the percentage of young people who never attend church. The chart below that shows the percentage of young people who claim no religious affiliation.

It has been a fact that for several generations now there have been a smaller percentage of people accepting religion with each generation -- but there is an explosion of growth in young people fleeing religion today. Religious leaders, especially those on the right, want to blame this on secular teachings at "liberal" colleges, but as you can see, it is not just college students fleeing the church -- it is young people of all ages.

The truth is that young people today just can't accept the homophobic, misogynistic, and racist teachings they encounter far too often in churches today -- especially in the fundamentalist evangelical churches.

Our schools teach the Constitution and its guarantee of equality, but then on Sunday the church teaches something different -- that there are groups that don't deserve the same rights as other people. Today's youth are not stupid. They know that both cannot be true, and to their credit, ever larger numbers are opting to believe in equality.

Are Religious Leaders Preaching Politics From The Pulpit ?

It is against U.S. election laws for religious leaders to preach politics from the pulpit during religious services, and the religious entity could lose its tax exempt status if found guilty of doing it. This specifically refers to a religious leader urging support (or opposition) to any particular candidate or political party. How many religious organizations are breaking the law?

The chart above was made from a recent Pew Research Center survey -- done between June 7th and July 5th of this year. They questioned 2,258 adults who have attended religious services in the past few months, and the survey has a margin of error of about 3.3 points.

The bad news is that a significant portion of Americans hear some politics being preached from the pulpit (between 9% and 40% depending on the issue). The good news is that most of that preaching doesn't break the law. Between 18% and 40% are on political issues, and don't single out a particular party or candidate.

It turns out that only 9% have heard their religious leader endorse a candidate from the pulpit, and only 11% have heard their religious leader urge them to vote against a candidate while preaching. I was pleasantly surprised that the numbers were that low. But even 9% and 11% are too high, and they do represent a violation of election law.

The Internal Revenue Service needs to fully investigate those religious institutions that are violating the law, and take steps to take their tax exemption away from them.

The Number Of Christians Continues To Shrink In The U.S.

There have been several surveys showing that the percentage of Americans that are religious (particularly christian) has been shrinking with each generation -- and that currently about 20% of the general public in the United States say they are not religious (although some claim to be "spiritual"). Among the millennials, this is about 30% or slightly more.

That actually makes christianity look pretty good. There is less than 10% of the population belonging to religions other than christianity, so it makes it look like over 70% of the United States populace is made up of practicing christians. That is simply not true though, and this is pointed out in a new book called Churchless, written by David Kinsman and George Barna. These are not atheists attacking christianity, but christians worried about what is happening to the church in this country.

To come up with their figures, they studied about 20 polls done in the last few years by the Barna Group. Each survey contained a random sample of more than 1,000 adults, and has a margin of error of 3.1 points. Instead of asking people if they were religious, they divided the respondents into "churched" and "unchurched". The results they found are illustrated in the charts above. They first divided survey respondents into four groups:

Actively Churched (49%) -- This group regularly attends church (at least once a month).

Minimally Churched (8%) -- This group attends church infrequently and unpredictably. This would include those who go only on Easter and Christmas, and maybe a couple of more times in a year.

De-Churched (33%) -- These people used to attend church, but no longer belong to a church or attend one at all. Some of them may say they are christian if asked, but they don't act that way -- basically leading secular lives.

Purely Unchurched (10%) -- These people have never attended any church, and have no desire to attend one.

This means that active christians make up only 57% of the United States population, and many of them only attend church once a month or even less -- while 43% of the population don't attend church at all, and lead secular lives by choice (christians in name only, those claiming to be spiritual but not religious, agnostics, and atheists).

When you look at christianity in this way (churched and unchurched), it is easy to see that christianity is in trouble in this country. Kinsman and Barna go on to say that the numbers of new members claimed by some churches reflects basically only people moving from one christian church to another, and includes very few people who were unchurched and became churched -- because the number of unchurched Americans is growing. This unchurched group becomes larger with each generation.

That is illustrated in the bottom chart above -- which shows the Elder generation (born in 1945 or earlier) with 28% unchurched, the Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) with 35% unchurched, the Gen Xers (born between 1965 and 1983) with 40% unchurched, and the Millennials (born in 1984 or later) with a whopping 48% unchurched.

The truth is that on any given Sunday significantly less than half of all Americans will go to church. Christians, especially evangelicals, like to claim the United States is a christian nation -- but the fact is we are a secular nation, and we are becoming more secular all the time.

Religion: Force For Good Or Protector Of The Status Quo ?

(The cartoon above is by David Hayward & can be found at his website called nakedpastor.)

The other day Jim DeMint, head of the right-wing Heritage Foundation, said something particularly ignorant -- that slavery wasn't ended by government, but by "a growing movement among the people, particularly people of faith, that this was wrong". This is revisionist history at its worst. While there were some people, including religious people, who had fought for many years to end slavery (they were called abolitionists), it was the government (by raising an army and fighting a bloody war) that actually ended slavery.

But DeMint's ridiculous statement got me thinking about religion -- particularly the christian church. I was raised in a fundamentalist church, and taught that religion was a force for good in the world. And I venture to say that I think most, if not all christians, were taught that (and may even believe it). But, is it true. Is the church a force for good?

I think a good case can be made that it is not. That doesn't mean that all christians are bad people. Some actually try to follow the teachings of their "savior" -- and like the abolitionists before the Civil War, try to make the changes in our society to make it better for everyone. But let's be honest. The abolitionists were a minority, and they were outnumbered by "christians" who either believed slavery was right (and what god wanted) or by churches that didn't want to rock the boat by taking a stand on the issue.

And even after slavery was ended, did the churches step up and demand that African-Americans be treated equally? A few did, but the majority treated the issue the same way they did with slavery. They either believed and defended segregation and other forms of Jim Crowism were right (and what god wanted) or they again didn't want to rock the vote by bringing the issue up for debate. It took government, not religion, to end Jim Crow and guarantee equal rights under the law for African-Americans.

And it has not changed today. Most churches either oppose equal rights for the LGBT community, or don't want to rock the boat by pressing the issue. And most churches, while proclaiming women have equal rights, refuse to actually grant them those rights (whether in pay, control of their own bodies, or leadership positions).

In the 19th Century, Karl Marx wrote that religion was the "opiate of the masses" -- that by keeping people's attention on the next world, leaders were able to keep them from demanding justice and equality in this world. He was right (whether you agree with his economic theories or not).

The truth is that most churches, and therefore most religious people, are not a force for good. They are a force mainly used to protect the status quo -- because regardless of what religion may teach, people are afraid of change (afraid they might lose some privilege they currently enjoy) and they will oppose change even if that change would help others. And the churches they inhabit follow them, instead of leading them (because those churches are as afraid of change as their members).

I wish churches were a force for good in our society (and the world). If they were, we would probably live in a much better world. But sadly, except for a tiny minority, they are not. Most exist to protect the status quo (even to the point of protecting and trying to justify the bigotry of their members). It takes courage and the willingness to take chances to be a force for good -- and those are qualities that most churches, church leaders, and church members just don't have.

Special Rights

How true. The LGBT community has never asked for any rights not already given to other American citizens. But fundamentalist churches demand rights not given to any religious institution -- the right to keep their tax free status while breaking the law and engaging in partisan politics (not to mention the right to force their religion on all other Americans by force of law).

Church Businesses Should Be Taxed

Christ Church Pentecostal of Nashville is a large church -- with over 2,000 members and a property valued at $2 million. As with all churches (and other religious meeting places), the church enjoys a tax-exempt status -- and this is only fair, since all religious institutions should be treated equally. But this church went a little further, and created two profit-oriented businesses (a fitness center and a cafe/bookstore).

The church thought those businesses should be tax-exempt also, since they were owned by the church. They were wrong. The Tennessee State Board of Equalization ruled that the entire property should not be tax-exempt, since the two businesses were not used for religious activity (but were commercial enterprises). With the aid of the Alliance Defending Freedom, the church appealed the decision.

Now the appeals court has ruled -- and their ruling was against the church. The appeals court said the state taxation laws did not "interfere with or suppress religious activity" and did not violate the Constitution. The truth is that there is no constitutional right for churches to be exempt from taxation. That exemption is a legislative one and is not absolute -- especially when it comes to church-owned commercial enterprises.

The decision was a good one. When the church created these businesses, it went into direct competition with other businesses offering the same goods/services. To give the church businesses a tax-exempt status would be to give them a substantial financial advantage over their competitors (who must pay property taxes, business taxes, incomes taxes, etc.). It would have put the government in the position of giving one business an advantage it doesn't give to other similar businesses -- and the government should never be put in the position of favoring any business over others (even one owned by a religious entity). This is a matter of fairness and equal opportunity -- not religion.

IRS Sued Over Churces Playing Politics

On October 7th, about 1500 christian preachers and ministers preached politics from their pulpit. They told their congregations that their religion demanded they vote for a particular candidate and party in the upcoming election (Romney and the Republican Party). But it was not important what party they were supporting. What was important is that they knew they were braking the law, and they did this intentionally. They are theocrats, who want their own religious views written into our nation's laws, and they want the Supreme Court to declare the law preventing them from proclaiming their politics from the pulpit to be overturned.

And what has out government done to these law violators (many of whom sent the IRS proof of their law-breaking)? Nothing. Not a single thing. The law says they should lose their tax-exempt status if they preach politics from the pulpit, but the IRS has taken no action against these intentional lawbreakers. It looks like the government is afraid to anger christians by removing the tax-exempt status of these churches -- even though polls have shown that a large majority of Americans think churches should not preach politics.

Since the government will not take the appropriate action to uphold the law, the Freedom From Religion Foundation has filed suit in federal court against the Internal Revenue Service. They are demanding that the IRS be ordered to do its job and uphold the law. The suit claims that the inaction by the IRS is a violation of the constitution. They claim that by not taking action against these churches, the IRS is giving preferential treatment to those churches that it does not give to other tax-exempt organizations.

They are right. Tax-exempt organizations (including churches) are given a special privilege by not having to pay taxes. It is not wrong to expect them to follow a few simple rules, one of them being to avoid electioneering, to keep that tax-exempt status. And if they want to be involved in politics, then they should pay for that privilege by paying taxes -- just like individual citizens and other organizations (that are not tax-exempt) must do.

These lawbreaking preachers are betting the current conservative Supreme Court will be on their side. I don't think so. In any event, it is the duty of the government to enforce the laws that Congress has passed. These preachers are wrong to break the law -- and the IRS is wrong to not enforce the law.

A Church Is Not A Charity

There was an article in my hometown newspaper yesterday (from the Associated Press) that was titled: Less Religious States Give Less To Charity. Since I am not a religious person, I'll admit that headline bothered me a bit. Are less religious people really less caring about their fellow citizens who are hurting? I didn't think so, so I read the article.

It turns out that the parts of the country that are more religious do seem to give more to "charity" than do the states that are less religious, according to charitable deductions reported by the IRS. For instance, the less religious states of the Northeast gave an average of 4.1% of their discretionary income to charities while the more religious states in the South gave an average of 5.2% of their discretionary income. And the state of Utah gave the most, coming in at about 10.6% of discretionary income.

That last statistic, the one from Utah, should give you a real clue as to what is going on here. The mormon church demands a tithe of 10% from its members -- and this survey of "charitable" giving includes money given to churches. Once you know that, it only makes sense that the more religious states would be giving more. They are not giving more to real charities, but to the churches they attend.

This brings up a question -- are churches really charities, or are they businesses supporting a religious view? I know some of you will chime in that churches do charitable work in the community, and I'll admit that some of them do some of that. But most of their money (listed in the survey as charitable giving) is not spent on real charitable efforts at all. It is spent on church salaries, church buildings, utilities for the church, missionary work, advertising, and church functions. That is not charitable spending, but spending to further the business of religion.

A real charity is one where almost all of the funds received are spent on charitable efforts -- like feeding the hungry, clothing and housing the poor, researching the causes of serious illnesses, providing help for the disabled, helping pay for medical treatment and medicines for those who cannot pay themselves, etc.

And by that standard, churches are not charities. They may (or may not) spend a little for charitable purposes, but the great bulk of their spending goes to promote their business -- religion. They have the right to spend their money any way they wish, but we should not be classifying the promoting of religion to be a charitable work.

I'll bet when you subtract giving to churches, the less religious states would be equal (or even ahead) of the more religious states in real charitable giving.

Churches Losing Confidence Of Most In U.S.

(Image is from blogs.courant.com.)

There is no doubt that the United States is a predominantly religious country. The most recent survey by the Pew Research Center on religion in America showed that about 83.9% of Americans identify themselves with a religion (while only 16.1% do not). And the predominant religion in this country is christianity -- which 78.4% of the population say they identify with.

With impressive statistics like that, it's easy to see why the religious fundamentalists think they should be able to force their religion on everyone in this country. But the picture is a lot more complicated than that. For one thing, the evangelicals do not make up anywhere near half of the American population (and still fall short even when the Catholics, who have been siding with them more and more, are added in). Second, their indulgence in politics and hate are turning many religious people off (and driving them out of the churches).

This turning away from organized religion has been going on for many years now, and each generation from the "Greatest generation" to the "Millenials" has shown greater percentages turning away. And it's not just the Pew surveys that show this. The Gallup Poll has been polling Americans on religion since about 1973 -- and back then about 66% to 68% of Americans said they had a great deal of confidence in churches/organized religion. But it is not that way anymore.

The most recent Gallup Poll that asked Americans if they had a lot of confidence in churches/ organized religion show a record low percentage saying yes -- only 44%, or significantly less than half of the population. This doesn't mean the other 56% of the public no longer consider themselves to be religious. In fact, most of them are religious (remember only about 16% of the total population have no religious affiliation at all). They have not necessarily abandoned their religion -- only the organized aspects of it, like the churches.

As an atheist, I naturally would like to think that these people have lost their faith, but the truth is that most are just turned off by the churches and other religious organizations involving themselves in politics (as though their god had decided that one U.S. political party was preferable over all the others). This is especially true of the churches that seem to have abandoned the christian message of love for a political message of hate.

The religious right may actually think they are doing god's work by involving their churches in political causes, but what they are really doing is driving away many of their own members -- people who want to remain christian, but can no longer stomach the hate-filled politics of their organized church.

Arson Of Churches Is A Vile Crime

As regular readers of this blog will know, I am an atheist and have very little respect for christianity or any other religion. It is my belief that religion is the foundation of much of the evil in the world. But I abhor violence even more than religion.

Violence is never an acceptable solution to any problem, except in a real case of self-defense. And East Texas has been having its share of violence recently that's directed at christians and their churches. There have been 11 church fires recently, and at least 10 have definitely been attributed to arson (and the 11th could be arson).

There is no legitimate excuse for these terrible crimes, and I sincerely hope the perpetrators are apprehended and severely punished. Fortunately, it looks like the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) may be closing in on some suspects. They have released the drawings of three "persons of interest" (see above).

If anyone out there, especially you folks in East Texas, recognize any of these individuals, please call the ATF or your local police department. These crimes must be stopped.

Right-Wing Terrorist Kills Doctor In Church

Churches are normally thought to be sanctuaries of peace, but a Wichita (Kansas) church was the scene Sunday of a right-wing terrorist attack, resulting in the murder of a doctor. Dr. George Tiller had been the victim of threats and attacks in the past -- his clinic (where he performed legal abortions) was bombed in 1985 and he was shot in both arms in 1993.

But on Sunday, the 67 year-old doctor was killed. He leaves behind a wife, four children and 10 grandchildren. After hearing of the murder, President Obama said, "However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence". The president said he was "shocked and outraged".

Police in Kansas City have arrested a suspect in the murder, but don't know yet if he planned the crime with others or whether it was a solitary crime. The suspect, Scott Roeder, was a member of the roght-wing group known as the Freemen, and there is evidence that he frequented anti-abortion web sites. He had been convicted in the past for having bomb components in his car.

The current president of Operation Rescue, Troy Newman, was quick to try and distance his organization from the crime. He said, "We are shocked at this morning's disturbing news that Mr. Tiller was gunned down. Operation Rescue has worked for years through peaceful, legal means, and through the proper channels to see him brought to justice. We denounce vigilantism and the cowardly act that took place this morning".

But Operation Rescue's founder, Randall Terry, was singing a different tune, and a far more disturbing one. He called the doctor a "mass murderer" and said, "He was an evil man - his hands were covered with blood". That sounds like he's praising the murderous actions of a follower.

That is just the kind of statement that can easily encourage someone prone to violence to commit a heinous crime like this murder. And most anti-abortion web sites are rife with those kind of statements.

This was a vicious and senseless crime. As Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL, says, "Dr. Tiller's murder will send a chill down the spines of the brave and courageous providers and other professionals who are part of reproductive-health centers that serve women across this country. We want them to know that they have our support as they move forward in providing these essential services in the aftermath of the shocking news from Wichita".

This crime simply cannot be justified, regardless of one's beliefs about abortion.