U.S. Church Membership Falls Below Majority for First Time

• In 2020, 47% of U.S. adults belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque
• Down more than 20 points from turn of the century
• Change primarily due to rise in Americans with no religious preference

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans' membership in houses of worship continued to decline last year, dropping below 50% for the first time in Gallup's eight-decade trend. In 2020, 47% of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque, down from 50% in 2018 and 70% in 1999.


[Gallup]

Many have attributed the fall of religious preference in the United States due to the aversion of younger generations brought by negative messages from the church. As evangelicals take over the platform it seems to have an inverse correlation to membership.

Should the church try and modernize or ride out — what some of the exiled members see to be hypocritical stances — to it’s possible extension?

 

It appears as time goes by different 'leaders' of religion are being recognized for what they are.

 

This is wonderful news, lets keep the trend line going down.

 

In about 10 years they'll be gone, thank god! (Whoops)

 

People don't like being told what to think. They're switching off cable news for precisely the same reason.

 

They closed the churches.... of course they are down. Let's check back after everything has been re-opened for a year.

The Democrats are always using tragic events for politics and here we are again. Look at them celebrate the lack of religious values in our nation and wonder why we are spiraling out of control.

 

I've heard of a similar decline in membership in organized charity groups like the Rotary Club and Lions Club. Are organized non-profit groups in general becoming less popular, or is it only organized church groups? And, in the case of general non-profit/volunteer work, are individual contributions rising to meet the gap?

I'm not going to shed any tears over a lack in church involvement in general, but I'm curious how it relates to philanthropy overall.

 

Which will be in a few weeks. The shutdown was over months ago.

 

Please actually look at the graph. Learn how to draw a trend line. The decline did not start with the pandemic. The decline has been carrying on for a couple of decades now. Please. Read.

 

I wonder if you would find a belief in god or some other higher power increasing or decreasing? I think we might actually see it increasing even as churches decrease. I think people are realizing they don’t need organized religion and their sometimes bizarre rules to be spiritual. I have zero proof of this, just a hunch.

 

This is from 2016 but I believe it's still relevant.

Why America’s ‘nones’ left religion behind
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/08/24/why-americas-nones-left-religion-behind/

 

I could see some religions federating in order to maintain their members.

 

yeah, the reasons they stated were pretty much the reasons I expected, lol. The only difference in opinion I have with a lot of them is the more I've learned about evolution and science at my university, I became more convinced there was a higher power. But I'm not christian either, so I don't have the contradictions to worry about.

 

I think you’re right. Traditional civic groups are on the decline in general. I mean social capital in general has been going down as we huddle into our little tight knit groups. I remember going to DND groups for companionship instead of a civic one. Maybe that’s what changed?

 

It's due to several reasons. Mostly Pride. When things get really great in any civilization, an evil pride takes over and people begin to be puffed up unto themselves. People generally turn to God when things get really bad. It's called the Pride Cycle.
Another reason we see this is that due to periodic Democrat Party control over the economy, inflation has risen faster than incomes. Churches, as well as other organizations that are built to help the poor and the needy, run on donation by either membership fees, tithing, offerings or some of all three. People have less to give and pay for. When surveys are done, they ask individuals if they belong to a church means to them are they paying their membership fees. If not, they say they aren't. If they aren't paying their tithings, they may say they aren't even though they are still members of that Church. The Church records would say that those people still are members and show a much different percentage of believers in God. Which, brings up the other point that just because someone doesn't attend Church doesn't mean they don't believe in God or have a testimony in Jesus Christ, Jehovah etc.

A large number of young adults 18 - 30 tend to get distracted with school, employment and other distractions that take them away from Church services and membership. It's nothing new. But, the educational system has moved to a Marxist agenda that isn't just secular, it's anti-God, pro-Satanic. The Church does need to do a better job combating this trend.
The question on modernizing the Gospel is puzzling. Is the concept of anti-God new? No. There have always been atheists and anti-God for the same reasons we have today. Believing in God requires a sure knowledge of those things that are unseen given to us by the Holy Ghost. This is what we will be judged by. Not empirical evidence. While there is empirical evidence of God if one is looking for this, it's knowing by faith that the Church has to continue to preach because that is what God wants.

 

Were the churches closed in 2015?
What about 2019?

Both showed significant drops especially in younger generations.

I also fail to see what religion has to do with “spiraling out of control”. Can you give some examples? Let’s start with prison population, are most of them religious or atheist?

 

I always marvel at religious people who think that our world is worse for wear because we are not religious. Do they have any clue what the world was like for roughly 1500 years when the West was very, very religious?

 

Not really. I'm a former Christian and I've learned more about the bible, religion and abuses within the church since leaving the church.

It's always funny when believers ask where does an atheist get their morality. If they only knew the *real* moral codes in their religions.

 

Personally, I don’t believe even the most devout can understand what a God or Gods would want as their existence is beyond our comprehension. To state otherwise is an exercise in extreme arrogance.

I definitely don’t believe that a book that was written by man, edited by kings and selectively translated into languages where words had to be invented makes sense. When you see the similarities that many religious texts share with Sumerian writings it makes all of it even more unbelievable.

I believe in spirituality but organized religion just seems like a scam where followers are expected to live simple lives and the “leaders” fly around in multi-million dollar jets.

 

It's easier to process it if you think about organized religion as a large for-profit corporation designed to keep the masses controlled.

 

I don't think you understand what was meant by "spiraling out of control." As a nation, we are closing in on a complete breakdown of our country. Hate is at an all-time high. Selfish Pride is at an all-time high. Individual liberty and freedom from a tyrannical government is at an all-time low. Moral perversion is at an all-time high (We had a gay Barrack and a transvestite Michael in the Whitehouse), The Constitution is hanging by a thread as the Left seeks to destroy most of the amendments and much more.

 

Lol, I wasn’t big fans of Obama and his wife, but they certainly were not gay, and I don’t see what that would have had to do with anything.
the problems in this country stem from a desire for service to self instead of service to others. Politicians are all out for themselves. Many churches too are out for themselves. Race agitators are out for themselves. Nobody cares what impact it will have on this country.
What would fix everything overnight is if everyone looked at everyone else and just saw them as a brother or sister or as themselves, and treated them that way. That doesn’t take religion, or even belief in god, though those actions would take us all closer to god whether we believed or not.
It may sound naive, but love and kindness would fix everything in this country. Overnight. I can’t think of anything that wouldn’t be fixed.
The odds of that happening are virtually zero, but yeah.

 

What is "spirituality?" I don't think you can define it based on your opinion of God or the Bible. The fact is, God speaks to his servants, the Prophets, to let his followers know what His purpose is and what we are to do while on earth as human beings. (Amos 3:7). To believe in the writings in the Bible, I have a testimony that the words translated correctly are inspired of God for my benefit to know God and what my responsibilities are while on earth. Why is that arrogant? It's actually arrogant and prideful to ignore God's words because you don't want to adhere to his laws and commandments. Do I believe the Bible is the only book containing this? No. Ezekiel even stated another book would be necessary to clarify the Gospel, The stick (book) of Judah and Joseph (Ephraim). I believe with faith and testimony by the Holy Ghost the Book of Mormon is the stick of Joseph (Ephraim). It's needed because the of the different translations over the millenniums.

With the Bible being the word of God, Moses either wrote the first 5 books himself or had someone scribe it out as he gave the revelations from God to him. Genesis begins at the beginning of the physical universe through Moses's departure. He wrote about what took place during the Sumerian writings but correcting the Sumerian writings as the Sumerian accounts were watered down tales of what actually happened as stated in the Bible. The Lord was straightening out that tales of other civilizations. There is no sharing of the Sumerians. The Sumerians were independent tales of what actually happened while the Bible is what actually happened. What you lack is faith in God and his abilities to communicate with human beings, His children. That suggests to me your spirituality is very limited and not impressive at all.

As far as organized religion, Jesus organized his organization starting with his 12 Apostles. He also organized the 70's. Either during or after his resurrection, he continued to organize His Church through the rock of revelation to his Apostles and Prophets. He gave the world Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Teachers, Priests.....By the time Paul wrote his letters, the Priesthood was clearly divided into two "Orders." After the order of Aaron and after the order of Melchizedek. When Apostles began to die (killed), others were called to fulfill the Apostolic callings. But, eventually, Pride entered into the Church and a "Falling away" occurred. An apostasy, Eventually as Apostles died, no new Apostles were called to replace them. Eventually, all that was left were Bishops. New leadership positions were invented like Arch Bishops, Cardinals and a Pope. Gone was the Church as the people left the Church, not God left the Church. The apostacy lasted centuries until the world was ready for Christ to come and restore His Church through Prophets and Apostles. The evidence is the Book of Joseph (Ephraim) which is The Book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has all the original ordinances with authority to perform them through the prophets, apostles, evangelists (the 70's), the two orders of the priesthood (Melchizedek and Aaronic), bishops, teachers...... Money collected through God's way, "tithing" and "offerings." That's the right way to collect money. It's used for the 4 missions of the Church: First, to teach the gospel to the world; second, to strengthen the membership of the Church wherever they may be; third, to move forward the work of salvation for the dead. fourth, to minister to the poor and the needy. The leaders of this Church don't make millions a year. They are paid from the business side of the Church enough to go all over the world and live their lives. Those that have a lot of money did so through their outside jobs before they were called. The current President and Prophet of the Church was a renowned heart surgeon. He lives off his money he saved for his retirement. At the local level, the Church is completely a lay church. We have jobs and perform our callings without monetary pay. Just blessings for helping others and build up the Kingdom of God on the Earth.

So, I don't agree with the lumping all Churches together as money grubbing crooks. 40,000 different denominations of Christian churches, there are those that do very good things for the poor and the needy. So, you may be the one who is arrogant. You have the right to choose your religion in the U.S. as our Constitution says you can. But, the secularist marxists are doing their best right now to take that away. This shutdown for a virus is just the beginning.

 

It was member ship, not attendance..

 

I agree with much of what you write. However, the idea of loving our neighbors as ourselves is a law of Christ. Without Christ being involved, we end up a nation of tribes and fighting with each other. It's actually very important to involve God.
As far as the Obama's, Barrack called his "wife" "Michael" several times while speaking to the masses. You never noticed Michelle's manhood bouncing around when she was dancing or going down stairs? Remember what happened to Joan Rivers soon after she made the comments about Michelle being a transvestite and Barrack being gay? Her daughter tried to make noise that her mom was murdered and should never had died from that surgery. She's right. Just like 53 people mysteriously have died by the hands of Hillary and Bill. Wake up and smell the roses.