One measure of the decline of church strength and authority is church membership and attendance. And by that measure, US secularity is rising to surprising heights.
Churches try to keep track of their members, and if their numbers get a little inflated, you could understand why. People who hardly ever attend services, or who get listed just because the whole family has been listed for many years, can get included in church membership rolls. Still, there's no need to suppose that serious membership inflation is that rampant. In recent decades, many denominations have seen slow declines in attendance and membership, declines impossible to hide. Fairly honest reporting of that data is necessary to prevent denominational leaders from fooling themselves. Churches don't regard people showing up just a few times a year as real church-goers, and they search for ways to convert them into regular members. Just keeping people in the pews is a full-time job in itself for plenty of congregations.
The March 2012 Gallup poll on religious behavior in the United States exposes how lots of people are avoiding church. As Gallup reports, "32 percent of Americans are nonreligious, based on their statement that religion is not an important part of their daily life and that they seldom or never attend religious services."
About a third of Americans now report that they seldom or never go to a religious house of worship. That's a huge number of people avoiding church-going. But keep in mind, this poll does say that 68 percent of Americans claim that they do occasionally attend services. How valid is that figure? Actually, even fewer people are real church-goers.
America's congregations could only wish that 68 percent of Americans were showing up once in a while. It's terribly nice that polls can still find upwards of 85 percent claiming to be Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and so on, but those expressions of religious identity are evidently detached from behavior. You couldn't blame churches for feeling annoyed at the way that religious people constantly exaggerate how often they attend services. Poll after poll "discover" that plenty of people go to church frequently, but it is obvious how people lie about going to church. According to studies of people's actual behavior, less than 25 percent of Americans go to church two-three times or more each month. These low numbers have been known for a while, but little noticed. University of Michigan researcher Philip Brenner has studied church attendance for many years (see his 2011 paper and discussion by Tom Rees at Epiphenom , and plenty of further data is reported by Rebecca Barnes and Lindy Lowry at churchleaders.com.
The churches' own membership lists reflect how at least three-quarters of Americans aren't showing up to church much at all. The Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies has periodically collected data from America's churches about their membership, and the latest report is available: 2010 U.S. Religious Census: Religious Congregations & Membership Study. As it reports, the population of the United States was 308,745,538 in 2010. How many Americans are church members? Just 150,686,156 Americans. That sounds like a lot of people, and it is, but that is only 48.8 percent of the total population. That means 51.2 percent of Americans don't have church membership nowadays, and that's a surprising measure indicating rising secularity.
A bare majority of Americans are not connected with any religious congregation, and an even larger majority are hardly ever showing up in any house of worship. There's plenty of other sorts of religious activities and spiritual experiences to pursue, of course. Abandoning church is not the same thing as leaving the religious life. All the same, church-goers have become a minority in America.
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I do care that the pope is given priority to send his Easter Message to Catholics around the world - but I don't want the leader ot the largest international pedophile crimes, claiming to include Christians - he is sending it to Catholics. I have my own denomination which, of course, doesn't get coverage. Why aren't other denominations allowed to send their message out - but we certainly get to hear the pope - I don't want to hear from him.
I have my reason(s) I don't go...just as I'm assume others have theirs.
Then they have to take into consideration those who cannot physically go...like the bedridden.
Just because a person does go to church does not mean he/she is saved in Jesus.
I believe in Jesus, but do not go to church.
Far as crutches, there pry are those who use Jesus as a crutch. Thereto, what is a crutch and what is it used for?
If you broke a leg, you would use a crutch to help you get around. Soon as you were healed, you would toss away the crutch since you would no longer need it. Who uses a crutch when all is well?
So for those who only have anything to do with Jesus or God when things are going bad for them, but otherwise ignore the Lord when things are going good are using the Lord Jesus as a crutch.
They are no more than less saying, "Jesus, You can be in my life cause things really suck right now."
Things are better, "Jesus, ok, You can go now. I don't need You anymore."
But Jesus should never be treated as a crutch. I, for one, do not treat Him or use Him as one. He is involved in my life whether things are going wrong or going right.
There are other crutches:
Food
Internet
Smoking
Drugs
Alcohol
Shopping
etc.
Even people can be used as crutches.
Far as irrationality
http://www.atheismsfallacies.com/freethinkers-myth/
Good point...
I say the number is much higher than 32%... if *only* people would STOP lying...UGH. Biggest lie told on Saturday and Sunday morning? "I'm at church"... righhhhttt. :-/
If 25% of the population are active congregants and some of those are Episcopalians, Unitarians and other liberal denominations, then, what, 15% of the population is not only telling every one else how to live but making sure the laws reflect their views.
The fundamentalists have a lot of power in the South because so many of them live there. But less power in the Northeast and the coasts. They win enough seats in the South to throw their weight around a lot.
They just seem to have a very vague and apathetic belief.
Anyone else notice this?
3 ¶ Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;