(OPINION) I’ve seen a whole bunch of religion, good and bad. Maybe the one thing I’ve come to understand is what good faith looks like. You may or may not agree, which is your privilege, but here are my signs any particular religious organization — megachurch or storefront, famous or obscure — is spiritually healthy:
Read More(ANALYSIS) The Episcopal Church has posted some new data related to the life of the church in 2023. From a purely quantitative perspective, no denomination is better than the Episcopalians. Being able to triangulate a variety of trends is the ideal way to get a complete picture of what’s happening in those churches across the United States.
Read More(ANALYSIS) I’ve been a party to a lot of conversations about being mainline over the last 20 years. And sometimes I get the distinct impression that evangelicals really, really don’t like mainline Protestants. But do prefer nonbelievers to mainline Christians?
Read More(OPINION) As I’ve argued for years, being spiritual on your own isn’t enough. I located a column I wrote in 2015 — speaking of repeating myself — that outlined a half-dozen arguments for why believers need to join a congregation of like-minded pilgrims. Here’s a lightly edited version of that.
Read MoreFaced with declining membership, aging buildings and large, underutilized properties, many U.S. houses of worship have closed their doors in recent years. Presbyterian minister Eileen Linder has argued that 100,000 churches may close in the next few decades. But some congregations are using their land in new ways that reflect their faith
Read More(ANALYSIS) The first question battery was focused on the family circumstances of those who were currently nonreligious. I wanted to break this down by age to see if younger nones were more likely to be raised in a nonreligious household compared to older nones.
Read More(OPINION) If just 5% — or 6%, or 7% — of Americans feel committed enough to darken the doors of their churches for even an hour a week, then we no longer need to worry about becoming a post-religion culture. We’re there. Secularization has won.
Read More(ANALYSIS) I had a great chance to learn from some new data released by the team who runs the Cooperative Election Study. They surveyed 61,000 folks in the Fall of 2020. Then, they recontacted 11,000 of them in the fall of 2022. Guess what that means? I can tell you how much religion changed at the individual level using a really big dataset. That’s awesome. Let’s get to it.
Read More(OPINION) I’ve long argued it’s difficult — really, next to impossible — to practice Christianity effectively without becoming (and staying) an active member of a local church congregation. Not only Christianity but the other major faiths are, by intention and maybe by definition, communal pursuits rather than solitary ones.
Read MoreSometimes, an important high-level finding warrants some additional reflection. I have several of these rolling around in my head at any given point. The one I wanted to zero in on is from a post that ran over a year ago. Simply put, Catholic Mass attendance is way down. About half of all self-identified Catholics said that they attended Mass nearly every week in 1972. In the most recent data, it’s about half that rate.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The number of individuals in the U.S. who do not identify as being part of any religion has grown and “the nones” are now larger than any single religious group. According to the General Social Survey, religiously unaffiliated people represented only about 5% of the U.S. population in the 1970s. This percentage began to increase in the 1990s and is now around 30%.
Read MoreMinisters and church leaders traveled to a Nebraska farming town to pray, fellowship and brainstorm ideas for revival at a time of declining numbers, post-pandemic challenges and political polarization.
Read More(OPINION) Few issues in religion have been as remarked upon and puzzled over lately as the rapid rise of “nones,” those who claim no religious affiliation. I’ve written about this before, I realize, but it’s a news story that just keeps developing.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Particularly in the West, people tend to think about religion in terms of belief in a higher power, such as God. For many nones, however, spirituality does not need a god or the supernatural to address questions of purpose, meaning, belonging and well-being. While abandoning mainstream religious affiliation, many turn to alternative expressions, including secular, atheist and psychedelic churches.
Read More(ANALYSIS) I wanted to explore that gender gap on marriage a bit. But also I wanted to see how all of that related back to religion. I think it goes without saying that lots of people have found their current spouse at a house of worship. But is being single driving women further away from religion than unmarried men? These are questions worth some analysis and reflection.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Until the 1960s, more than half of Americans identified with the “mainline” Protestant churches that “have played an outsized role in America’s history,” says a Sept. 13 report from the Public Religion Research Institute. No longer, as is well known among clergy and parishioners who pay attention, scholars and religion journalists.
Read More(OPINION) If you, like me, think faith in God and religious affiliation are generally good things for people, then you, like me, ought to feel unsettled by the findings of political scientist Ryan Burge. He argues that religious participation in the United States is now largely the domain of the educated and comfortable, rather than a buttress for those on the margins of society, who historically were the core audience for Christianity.
Read More(OPINION) Here’s another transition I’m having a hard time with: The small rural church I lead seems to be struggling in a way I’ve never seen in 40-some years of ministry. And I thought I’d seen it all by now.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Religious switching is a fascinating topic. It’s happening every single day, thousands of times. Without any fanfare or big declarations, people leave religion behind or chose a different faith when taking a survey. And yet we only have a very basic understanding of the mechanisms that make all that happen.
Read More(OPINION) What ails the United States of America? Why have some serious thinkers even talked about a second civil war? Both journalists and religious leaders should be pondering that on July 4. Consider some recent media coverage.
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