Christmas, a federal holiday since 1870, provides for us this year in America an opportunity to reflect on religion in society. A large Gallup poll conducted this year showed that 77 percent of Americans identify with a Christian religion, one based on a belief in Jesus Christ as Lord.
That same Gallup poll found that 69 percent of Americans identify themselves as being either very or moderately religious. That number doesn’t really correlate with regular church attendance, however, since many Christians will attend church only on Christmas and Easter. The number of people in the pews is much lower and always has been. During the time of the Civil War, regular church attendance was probably around 30 percent, or even slightly lower. It reached a high in the 1960s of about 40 percent and has since fallen to below 30 percent.
So, where are the rest of the 77 percent? They are “members” of a Christian sect but don’t go to church regularly. We need to look at these trends, too.
For some people, the “church” is their own work. In theology akin to “social capital” theory, made popular by books like Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone, many Christians still believe Jesus is their Lord and Savior, but that belief is a personal opinion, not the following of dogma from any religious or group leaders. We don’t do “groups” so much anymore.
More Americans are bowling than ever before, but they are not bowling in leagues. Putnam shows how changes in work, family structure, age, suburban life, television, computers, women’s roles, and other factors have contributed to this decline.
This trend has largely resulted from an increasing distaste by Americans for churches and church leaders telling them what to do. Make no mistake: Christian ministers and priests told people to vote for Eisenhower in 1956 just as much as they tell people today to stop abortion. Furthermore, they are charged as church leaders to tell their followers what they “ought” to do.
But years of meddling in public affairs, especially against laws and propositions that are liked by the majority of Americans, have produced a sort of belief among more Americans that church leaders’ opinions about social matters are just as valid as anyone else’s, including their own.
As church leaders have entered into the public debate, they find themselves in waters that weren’t as challenging to navigate decades ago. Christian leaders have entered the debate on same-sex marriage, on both sides, and even gone on record to try to justify the mass killings on Dec. 14 in Newtown, Conn., by saying that God will not protect the public schools, which have abandoned him.
I’ve questioned the motives of people who say God hates the public schools because there’s no public prayer in those schools. Yet our greatest universities, public and private institutions, study religion. It’s impossible to study America’s founding documents without encountering religion. I concluded, therefore, that the notion that public schools hate God is a delusion and these ministers’ teachings are misguided if not completely insane. I quote here from the Bible, from the gospel of Matthew 28:18-20:
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
If the motive of these ministers is to teach people “everything” Jesus commanded, then it is completely illogical to even suggest mass murder of innocent children just because they attend a certain school was God’s plan all along. To suggest that Adam Lanza was working on God’s behalf blows my mind and makes me certain never to attend that church again.
Communicating the message
Finally, one of the biggest purposes served by Christian churches is the idea of community or family, take your pick. Churches used to be more group-oriented among people who attended the masses or services: they played bingo, they had pancake breakfasts, saw the kids at Bible study or CCD, and so on.
Today, those families and communities stay together not at the dinner table or at picnics but on Facebook and Twitter, and churches are slow to adopt the new modes of communication. Leadership is not a discussion, led by a recognized leader in the family or community, but a URL sent out in a mass email.
That is, even for the churches today, there’s less need to lead by people actually showing up regularly, since technology helps members of the communities or families keep in touch with each other. It’s both a blessing and a curse, perhaps, because churches don’t make effective use of this mode of communication. The message can remain the same, but churches are unable to communicate that message to their members because the mode of communication has definitely changed.
The rise of the ‘nones’
A poll by the Pew Research Center in October said about 20 percent of Americans now claim no religious affiliation at all. They may say they’re “spiritual but not religious” to imply that they believe in God but don’t identify with any organized religion.
This number of “nones,” as it has been called, is up slightly from 16 percent in 2008, but when looking at long-term trends, it’s down a bit from historical highs. Even Abraham Lincoln refused to join a church, though his speeches clearly indicate his belief in God.
