Religion News: America Growing More Secular Each Year.
People are leaving churches and Christian denominations in significant numbers and there is evidence from research that many of them are doing so because they see churches and church leaders wrapped up in right wing politics and they see churches that seem to be more focused on political ends than on a mission and purpose derived from their theology. The biggest declines in attendance and participation are among white, conservative Protestants, mostly Evangelicals, among whom attendance and membership has dropped by more than 10% in a decade, and Protestants now account for just under 40% of the total population, a substantial and significant decline since World War 2. Mainline Protestants now outnumber their Evangelical counterparts, not because they have gained more membership, but because Evangelicals are declining more rapidly.
RNS: White Mainline Protestants Outnumber Evangelicals
Is the political one-sidedness of many churches and church leaders responsible? According to Dr. Dave Campbell, Professor of American Democracy at the University of Notre Dame, "Many people turning away from religion do so because they think of religion as an expression of political conservativism, or as a wing of the Republican party. That's especially true of white Americans. The more religion is wrapped up in a political view, the more people who don't share that view say, 'That's not for me'."
There are indications in some research that some people who are leaving churches because they're too political are heading into churches that they perceive as being either less political, or where politics are outside the boundaries of the church's mission and purpose and are not inserted into the life of the congregation. But overall, according to the Pew Survey study cited in the Religion News, the number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation is 10 percent higher than it was just a decade ago. And just for the sake of definition, "religious affiliation" includes all branches of Christian expression, plus Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, and all other religions. Almost 3 in 10 Americans claim no religious affiliation at all.
Membership Decline Among Conservative Protestants is "Significant"
At one point, during the 1950's, 60% of Americans identified as members of a Protestant church. In all its various branches and denominations, Protestant Christianity was the primary influence in American culture. The fact that just under 40% of Americans today identify themselves as either Evangelical or Mainline Protestant, and that less than half of them attend church more than twice a month, is significant.
The largest Protestant denomination in the United States, the churches affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, has seen a staggering loss of membership over the past decade. Southern Baptists went through a roaring, highly animated controversy over some doctrinal minutia, beginning in 1979, a battle ostensibly over belief that the Bible is inerrant and infallible, but in reality more over which faction within the denomination had the power to call the shots. The real intention of the leadership of the "Conservative Resurgence," as it was labelled, was to bring the influence of the denomination into right wing politics on the side of the Republican party.
The chief instrument for doing that was the "Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission," an organization led by Bush ally Richard Land initially, when Southern Baptists left the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty back in the early 1980's. The ERLC leadership passed along to Russell Moore, when Land was booted. Moore, who is a conservative traditionalist steeped in the culture of Southern Baptists, recognized that Trump was at polar opposite ends of the ethics and morals spectrum of Christian faith, and that Evangelicals would mark themselves as insincere hypocrites at best, for supporting his presidential candidacy.
The leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention, in its zeal to support Trump and the baggage of adultery, immorality, fraud, lying and corruption that goes along with him, became involved in behavior that sounds more like the Mob than a Christian denomination. You can read about all of that here.
Southern Baptists do about as good a job of keeping track of their membership and statistics as any denomination in the country. So it is that we know that at its peak, just about a decade ago, over 16 million people belonged to a Southern Baptist church somewhere in one of the 50 states. And we know that number has declined to just over 14 million this past year, when the churches submitted their information and the count was finalized. Somewhere, in the past decade, 2.3 million people have left the membership of a Southern Baptist church. And the fact is, the figure is probably larger than that, because on any given Sunday, pre-COVID, only 5 million of those 14 million members actually attended a church service.
More than 70% of this decline has occurred since 2016, each year the number drops by a larger figure than the previous year. And in the quirky way that the membership is tracked, figures from churches that haven't reported for five years are carried over to the current year, just in case the clerk forgot to send the information. Take out all the churches that haven't reported for five years, and the membership figure drops another 1.2 million.
Yes, It's the Politics
RNS: McKissic Leads Church out of Southern Baptists of Texas Convention
CRT is just one example of where white Evangelicals are getting it wrong, and losing members as a result of politics. In this interview with Dr. Dwight McKissic, pastor of the 1,500 member Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, is as clear and accurate definition of CRT as you will find. What's being pushed among white Evangelicals, by white supremacist and white Christian nationalist groups, is a false, misleading and deliberately misinformed definition and analysis of CRT. Like almost everything else in conservative politics these days, what's being pushed is a lie, and conservative Evangelical Christians are lying about it and tolerating those who lie.
Oh, and there's a lot more evidence of the problem illustrated by some of the comments in that article. It's very clear that the critical comments come from people who have bought the misleading and inaccurate interpretations of Critical Race Theory. Not a single critical comment comes close to an accurate description of what CRT is or how it is applied. Not one.
From a Personal Perspective
I don't go to church to hear someone gripe about how America is going to hell in a handbasket and it is all the liberals' fault. I got up in the middle of a sermon and walked out of a church four years ago after several openly political remarks were made against then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, and a snide, racist statement was made about President Obama. I was an active member there, so my presence was missed within a week, and I had the opportunity to lay everything out when I was approached about it. Apparently, I was not the only one, because several former members of the same church were present in the worship services of the church I started attending afterward, and over the course of several months, the group of former members of the old church continued to grow.
That's saying something about how intolerable the politics have become, because the traditions, style of worship and some of the beliefs of the church I now attend are much different than where I was before, and to see so many former members in the same place, along with "refugees" from other Evangelical churches around us is definitely a statement against politics in church. I've had to adjust to the differences but it has been worth making the change.
Moving Forward
When it comes to politics, I doubt very many minds will change at this point. There's a segment of about 25% of the population that has been brainwashed with phony falsehoods and that seems to be the only way they can manage life and justify their lack of intelligence. They are present in churches, but they miss most of the points and have turned Christianity into the faith they want it to be. They are easily manipulated, confuse superstition with reality and are gullible to people who take advantage of them, not just politicians like Trump, but self-appointed leaders in the church, scam artists and people who are power hungry, and who are parasites off the prosperity that is generated by the church.
Right wing extremism, including white supremacy and white Christian nationalism, have embedded themselves into conservative Evangelicalism and have replaced the gospel of Christ with a gospel that must accomplish its ends by political success. So while Evangelical churches will very likely keep their political ambitions front and center, their numbers will dwindle as those who are looking for a spiritual experience go elsewhere to find it. Few Gen X members are found in Evangelical churches these days, and the Millennials are even more scarce, less than 10% of the entire generation is church-affiliated. In twenty years, you'll still find Evangelical churches, but they will be much smaller, much less prosperous and made up almost exclusively of elderly people.
Within a generation, the missionary and evangelistic ministries that were rallying points for many denominations will whither, because the money won't be there to support it. That's already occurring. Southern Baptists have seen their number of foreign missionaries drop by more than 1,500 in less than a decade, partly because the mission board that oversees them is a financially ineffective operation that overpays executives and underpays missionaries, and partly because the giving is down by half of what it was twenty years ago.
We are seeing, in Republican efforts to disenfranchise voters and fix the rules to move away from electing government officials, their realization that the power of their constituency is fading fast. They've shot their own selves in the foot. Churches with visionary leadership will survive, because that's what visionary churches, labelled as progressive and liberal by their conservative critics, do. We know from the Biblical record what the "conservative" religious establishment of Judaism in Jesus' day thought of him. Those that pander to politics will decline, disband and die. Those who remain faithful to a Christ centered mission and purpose, instead of a Republican centered, or Trump centered mission and purpose, will survive and even thrive.
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