The sharp decline in Christianity is continuing in the US, according to new information provided by Pew Research Center. Pew reports that “telephone surveys conducted in 2018 and 2019, 65% of American adults describe themselves as Christians when asked about their religion, down 12 percentage points over the past decade. Meanwhile, the religiously unaffiliated share of the population, consisting of people who describe their religious identity as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular,” now stands at 26%, up from 17% in 2009.” This speaks to the very fact that how the “Church” is perceived, is relating to people, and the approach toward making disciples, if any, is failing and things need to change.
Pew reports, “Both Protestantism and Catholicism are experiencing losses of population share. Currently, 43% of US adults identify with Protestantism, down from 51% in 2009. And one-in-five adults (20%) are Catholic, down from 23% in 2009. Meanwhile, all subsets of the religiously unaffiliated population – a group also known as religious “nones” – have seen their numbers swell. Self-described atheists now account for 4% of US adults, up modestly but significantly from 2% in 2009; agnostics make up 5% of US adults, up from 3% a decade ago; and 17% of Americans now describe their religion as “nothing in particular,” up from 12% in 2009. Members of non-Christian religions also have grown modestly as a share of the adult population.”
Pew says that “The data shows that just like rates of religious affiliation, rates of religious attendance are declining. Over the last decade, the share of Americans who say they attend religious services at least once or twice a month dropped by 7 percentage points, while the share who say they attend religious services less often (if at all) has risen by the same degree. In 2009, regular worship attenders (those who attend religious services at least once or twice a month) outnumbered those who attend services only occasionally or not at all by a 52%-to-47% margin. Today those figures are reversed; more Americans now say they attend religious services a few times a year or less (54%) than say they attend at least monthly (45%).”
The Daily Jot has been reporting for quite some time that the contemporary “Church” is failing. We as Christians can try to justify this sharp trend by saying we are in the end times and this is part of the “great falling away” prophesied in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come except there come a great falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.” While this may be part of a great falling away, it is not likely “the” great falling away, as the prophecy is speaking of the day of Christ’s return. What we have here in the United States is a time when the relevancy of the church is in question. The way we have been doing church isn’t working. People don’t want to attend and are turning away from Christianity. Let no man deceive you, something needs to change.
