Significant generational factors may forecast a decline of Christianity in the U.S. in next decades
- sciart0
- Mar 16
- 2 min read
Excerpt: "My generation, millennials, has been blamed for ruining so much: cloth napkins, traditional marriage, American cheese. But in the long run, we might be credited with destroying American religion. We are not a particularly faithful generation, and there’s evidence our offspring may be even less so. ....
... Burge said of the Pew data: “For every six Christians who left the faith — one joined. It’s the exact opposite for the nones — six joiners for every leaver.” He added, “You can’t get away from those trend lines.” It is very unlikely that children raised without religion will later become religious, as “none” is becoming just as sticky a religious identity as any other. According to Pew, only 40 percent of American parents of minor children are giving their kids any kind of religious education. Only 26 percent go to religious services once a week. We will eventually become a country that is 40-to-45 percent “nones,” Burge said, though it will likely take a few more decades to get there.
The move away from organized religion among younger people isn’t just with their feet — it goes much deeper than church attendance. A new book, “Why Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional Faith in America,” by Christian Smith argues that millennials created a “new zeitgeist” where religion is much less important to their overall worldview than it was to previous generations. Smith, who is the director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame, told me, “I think culturally religion is in bigger trouble than a little plateau might suggest.”