The misunderstood reason millions atlantic

In pretty short order, the article was widely shared on social media. People were talking about it online, writers were writing about it.

Nearly everyone I grew up with in my childhood church in Lincoln, Nebraska, is no longer Christian. Forty million Americans have stopped attending church in the past 25 years. As a Christian, I feel this shift acutely. My wife and I wonder whether the institutions and communities that have helped preserve us in our own faith will still exist for our four children, let alone whatever grandkids we might one day have. This change is also bad news for America as a whole: Participation in a religious community generally correlates with better health outcomes and longer life , higher financial generosity , and more stable families —all of which are desperately needed in a nation with rising rates of loneliness, mental illness, and alcohol and drug dependency.

The misunderstood reason millions atlantic

A recent opinion piece in The Atlantic complains that Christianity is in decline because of 'how American life works in the 21st century. Lately, The Atlantic is pushing hard on a particular narrative of American Christianity. It spins a story of Real True Christianity being subverted somehow—but poised to return in glorious triumph if only Real True Christians start living out their faith in the correct ways. One of their recent stories spins that narrative. Alas and alack, its author misses some extremely important truths—about both American Christianity itself and American culture. This is a particularly inbred flavor of Christianity, too. They exist in a completely self-reinforcing bubble, too, which is how they ended up featuring the advice of an odiously-toxic misogynist just a couple of months ago. In the real world, legitimate writers happily disclose any personal and professional connections that could be viewed by readers as potential indications of bias or conflicts of interest. But the rules work very differently in Christianity. Speaking of which, Meador is super-impressed with a recent book put out by some of his peers and colleagues over at TGC: The Great Dechurching. This time around, its authors offer observations and advice aimed at church leaders desperate to increase the size and fervor of their flocks. TGC has been busy promoting it, too.

A majority of southern white Christians who never attend church or attend only once a year also support restrictive abortion laws.

Nearly everyone I grew up with in my childhood church in Lincoln, Nebraska, is no longer Christian. Forty million Americans have stopped attending church in the past 25 years. As a Christian, I feel this shift acutely. My wife and I wonder whether the institutions and communities that have helped preserve us in our own faith will still exist for our four children, let alone whatever grandkids we might one day have. This change is also bad news for America as a whole: Participation in a religious community generally correlates with better health outcomes and longer life , higher financial generosity , and more stable families —all of which are desperately needed in a nation with rising rates of loneliness, mental illness, and alcohol and drug dependency. Open navigation menu.

Nearly everyone I grew up with in my childhood church in Lincoln, Nebraska, is no longer Christian. That's not unusual. Forty million Americans have stopped attending church in the past 25 years. That's something like 12 percent of the population, and it represents the largest concentrated change in church attendance in American history. As a Christian, I feel this shift acutely.

The misunderstood reason millions atlantic

M illions of Americans are leaving church, never to return, and it would be easy to think that this will make the country more secular and possibly more liberal. After all, that is what happened in Northern and Western Europe in the s: A younger generation quit going to Anglican, Lutheran, or Catholic churches and embraced a liberal, secular pluralism that shaped European politics for the rest of the 20th century and beyond. Something similar happened in the traditionally Catholic Northeast, where, at the end of the 20th century, millions of white Catholics in New England, New York, and other parts of the Northeast quit going to church. Today most of those states are pretty solidly blue and firmly supportive of abortion rights. So, as church attendance declines even in the southern Bible Belt and the rural Midwest, history might seem to suggest that those regions will become more secular, more supportive of abortion and LGBTQ rights, and more liberal in their voting patterns. But that is not what is happening.

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Churches could model better, truer sorts of communities, ones in which the hungry are fed, the weak are lifted up, and the proud are cast down. Load More Comments. What is needed from complementarians, then, is not simply a grab bag of biblical texts, but a fairly radical critique of the entire post-war capitalist economy in America and a deep understanding of more family-friendly alternative economic models that once again make the home a place of good and productive work. Williams: This really is a different pro-life movement. Search The Atlantic. Sign In Subscribe. Speaking of which, Meador is super-impressed with a recent book put out by some of his peers and colleagues over at TGC: The Great Dechurching. Sign in with a password. However, the only real-world aid that Meador describes in the OP is distinctly temporary in nature, and very situational:. After all, that is what happened in Northern and Western Europe in the s: A younger generation quit going to Anglican, Lutheran, or Catholic churches and embraced a liberal, secular pluralism that shaped European politics for the rest of the 20th century and beyond. Pinning our worth and value to what we achieve is one of the things causing division and strife in our world. Denominations and church commitments once preserved a set of broadly shared Christian moral values that transcended the right-left divide, but now that some of the loudest supporters of Christian nationalism have left these denominations behind, there is little to stop them from refashioning the Christian faith in their own image, with potentially heretical results. So does the New Testament, for that matter:. Next A different history of end states in human progress. And in 2 Timothy , we get tantalizing hints of gossip, arguments, and doctrinal infighting.

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Church attendance in America has been on the decline in recent decades.

Some years back, an equally hardline evangelical brought them up, so I looked into them. More simply put, wives and mothers who once stayed at home and could devote weekday time to the church or school or community group now MUST work because minimum wage has been kept low, jobs have been outsourced and corporations have suppressed wages for the sake of profit. If nobody listens, they can grouse about being ignored prophets. She writes about the intersection of psychology, belief, popular culture, science, As well, all too many religious charities force aid requesters to sit through sermons in order to earn a single meal or a place to sleep that night, like this example from a Christian forum. They are naturally predisposed to blame their outgroups and culture-war enemies for everything wrong in the world. Sign In Subscribe. Today most of those states are pretty solidly blue and firmly supportive of abortion rights. Speaking of which, Meador is super-impressed with a recent book put out by some of his peers and colleagues over at TGC: The Great Dechurching. In theory, the Christian Church could be an antidote to all that. Rather, it is designed to maximize individual accomplishment as defined by professional and financial success. American churches have too often been content to function as a kind of vaguely spiritual NGO, an organization of detached individuals who meet together for religious services that inspire them, provide practical life advice, or offer positive emotional experiences. As with abortion , the only moral request for help is their request for help. Such communities might not have the money, success, and influence that many American churches have so often pursued in recent years.