U.S. Church Attendance

[gristy]

There had been an OP on this topic just an hour ago, and it seems to have disappeared. The precipitous drop in attendance in 2008 that was shown in that OP (from a tweet, no less, and with no attribution) does not seem to be supported, at least not by Pew.

This Pew link shows attendance dropping by 3 percentage points from 2007 to 2014. Sorry, you have to click on the link. Can't get a link for the graph but it is right on top.
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/attendance-at-religious-services/

Though a different measure, Gallup charts membership over the past 80 years.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/341963/church-membership-falls-below-majority-first-time.aspx

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
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.

[jimfields33]

1. I'm not really sure if this is positive

Yes churches certainly have negatives, but they do have some positives like community, a sense of belonging, a chance to slow down, a chance to think about right and wrong.

Again it is a toss up. But the country seems to be going down a path many don’t like. Crime, depression, drug use. Perhaps humans are lost and looking for stability.

Who knows.

[rurallib]

5. Crime is down since the 1990s - Hyping crime on right wing media is way up

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/crime-trends-1990-2016

Over­all Trends: Crime has dropped precip­it­ously in the last quarter-century. While crime may fall in some years and rise in others, annual vari­ations are not indic­at­ive of long-term trends. While murder rates have increased in some cities, this report finds no evid­ence that the hard-won public safety gains of the last two and a half decades are being reversed.

Over­all Crime Rate: The national crime rate peaked in 1991 at 5,856 crimes per 100,000 people, and has gener­ally been declin­ing ever since. In 2015, crime fell for the 14th year in a row. Estim­ates based on prelim­in­ary data for 2016 indic­ate that the over­all crime rate will remain stable at 2,857 offenses per 100,000, rising less than 1 percent from 2015. Today’s crime rate is less than half of what it was in 1991.

Viol­ent Crime: The viol­ent crime rate also peaked in 1991 at 716 viol­ent crimes per 100,000, and now stands at 366, about half that rate. However, the viol­ent crime rate, like rates of murder and over­all crime, has risen and fallen during this time. For example, viol­ent crime registered small increases in 2005 and 2006, and then resumed its down­ward trend. In 2015, viol­ent crime increased by 2.9 percent nation­ally and by 2.0 percent in the nation’s 30 largest cities. Prelim­in­ary data for 2016 also show a greater increase in the national viol­ent crime rate, up 6.3 percent, and a smal­ler jump in the 30 largest cities, 2.4 percent. Crime is often driven by local factors, so rates in cities may differ from national aver­ages.

It may seem like crime is going back up. Certainly gun crimes are at least more spectacular and those rates are going up.

[lees1975]

7. There are values inherent in the practice of the Christian faith that have a positive influence

on society and culture. Most people, including most Christians who are active members of their church, do not "get it" when it comes to an accurate, systematic theology which outlines exactly how the Christian faith is intended to work. One of the most unfortunate circumstances that penetrates the history of the church back to its beginnings is that many of its leaders, who did have the skills to correctly interpret the Bible and then teach that to the rest of the church realized that it gave them power when people trusted them to lead. So by keeping people in the dark, and then essentially lying to them about what they needed to do in order to stay in God's good graces, they turned faith into a scam.

In many ways, that's what's happening now. People are leaving churches because their trust in the leadership is eroding. Many churches are becoming cults, with theology and doctrine that is politicized or sensationalized in order to attract a crowd. Most megachurches have made such huge investments in buildings and property and in media outlets that they will do whatever it takes to keep the money stream flowing, and since they are not winning new converts, the only way to do it is to figure out how to attract members from smaller churches that can't offer the same services. The weaknesses are exposed when you get beyond the thin veneer of "issues" like abortion rights and sexual orientation rights. If Christians actually knew, and followed the values and principles of their faith, laid down by Christ and the church's apostles, they would be the most "woke," progressive element in our society.

[rurallib]

2. I would call that a precipitous drop in 20 years

I would also call that a good trend line.

It seems to me that this is directly related to internet usage. Information is now much easier to get and those who traffic in disinformation and easily debunked lies are more easily exposed.

My guess is that trend line will continue down for several years as older, more religious folks die off and the younger folks will never get in the church habits.

That may be why the right and evangelicals are in such a hurry to force their views on us since their days as the majority are waning.

I may be wrong.

[PortTack]

10. This..and JMHO but I think it's a very good thing. The evilgelicals have ruined churches

And have NO idea the meaning of Christianity

[Lars39]

3. Here's the thread...

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216947737

[genxlib]

4. Here is the thread you refer to

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216947737

I am not so sure that the data is inconsistent.

For one thing, they are presenting a breakdown across a spectrum of ages that would seem to bracket the same data that is in your chart. Older people are higher and younger people are lower. Without doing a lot of math on the size of those data sets, it is certainly possible that the averages fall into alignment.

Second, they are using different metrics. Yours is "church membership" where the other uses "attending weekly". There are plenty of people who belong to a church but don't always go.

But I would agree with you that better attribution and a link into the raw data would be a much better presentation than just throwing out a graph and making a declaration.

[msfiddlestix]

6. I'll soon be 72 years old. I have never, ever been polled on this question.

I have even asked around (neighbors friends) from time to time if they have been polled in a survey asking about their religious beliefs, and church attendance. I ask this question to friends and neighbors on occasion especially if it comes up in the news.

The answer to the question of being polled is NEVER.

Just saying, I don't trust the numbers. I don't see the percentage that high, else there would be evidence of apparent church attendance, fewer people on the highways and freeways, fewer people in the malls. etc etc etc.

[NeoGreen]

8. You are apparently conflating Membership with Attendance...

...they are not the same thing.

The two OPs are presenting different datasets.

[gristy]

9. Yes, I had indeed conflated the two when I first started researching this morning,

but in writing my OP I tried as best I could to clearly separate the two, including with the use of bolding, with attendance as reported by Pew, and membership as reported by Gallup. The discrepancy with the earlier OP is in attendance, as I point out in my OP.