The misunderstood reason millions atlantic

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.

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.

The misunderstood reason millions atlantic

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. Close suggestions Search Search. User Settings. Skip carousel. Carousel Previous. Carousel Next. What is Everand? Ebooks Audiobooks Magazines Podcasts Sheet music. Explore Ebooks.

Pinning our worth and value to what we achieve is one of the things causing division and strife in our world. As each year gets harder, they drop one more nonessential service or pleasure they once enjoyed.

Millions 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.

Millions 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. Declines in church attendance have made the rural Republican regions of the country even more Republican and—perhaps most surprising—more stridently Christian nationalist. Jake Meador: The misunderstood reason millions of Americans stopped going to Church. In fact, people become even more entrenched in their political views when they stop attending services. Though churches have a reputation in some circles as promoting hyper-politicization, they can be depolarizing institutions.

The misunderstood reason millions atlantic

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. Are Americans losing their ability to incorporate religion—or any kind of intentional community—into their lives? First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic :. How American Life Works. And the facts bear out that visual: As Jake Meador, the editor in chief of the quarterly magazine Mere Orthodoxy , notes in a recent essay , about 40 million Americans have stopped going to church in the past 25 years. The Great Dechurching , a forthcoming book analyzing surveys of more than 7, Americans conducted by two political scientists, attempts to figure out why so many Americans have left churches in recent years. The book suggests that the defining problem driving out most people who leave is … just how American life works in the 21st century. Rather, it is designed to maximize individual accomplishment as defined by professional and financial success.

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Timothy Keller: American Christianity is due for a revival. Their way of living frees them from the treadmill of workism. Popular Latest Newsletters. Church attendance in America has been on the decline in recent decades. So missionaries have to be careful about promising real help to their converts. Jake Meador: The misunderstood reason millions of Americans stopped going to Church. A recent opinion piece in The Atlantic complains that Christianity is in decline because of 'how American life works in the 21st century. He thinks this limited, short-term aid will be vastly outweighed by warm fuzzies the members of his idealized community will feel:. The decline of churchgoing in America, it seems, has not eviscerated Christianity; it has simply distorted it. A dead body was found along river buoys in the Rio Grande, which were recently installed by Texas authorities to deter border crossings. And the facts bear out that visual: As Jake Meador, the editor in chief of the quarterly magazine Mere Orthodoxy , notes in a recent essay , about 40 million Americans have stopped going to church in the past 25 years. Lately, The Atlantic is pushing hard on a particular narrative of American Christianity. At any rate, Meador offered good questions—albeit no real suggestions—in his essay. Perhaps more important, it reminds people that their identity is not in their job or how much money they make; they are children of God, loved and protected and infinitely valuable. But a vibrant, life-giving church requires more, not less, time and energy from its members.

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.

That, in turn, means we must recognize the ways that industrialism has destroyed the habitat in which families thrive and the ways in which evangelicals have been complicit in this desecration. Quick Links. Isabel Fattal is a senior editor at The Atlantic , where she oversees newsletters. Rather than ending the culture wars, the battle between a rural Christian nationalism without denominational moorings and a northern urban Social Gospel without an explicitly Christian framework will become more intense. But that is not what is happening. In her 20s, she meets a guy who is less religiously engaged, they get married, and, at some point early in their marriage, after their first or second child is born, they stop going to church. And in contrast to the days when both Republicans and Democrats—and northerners and southerners—shared a common religious language despite their differences, little common ground is now left between the post-Christians of the urban North and the post-churched Christian nationalists of the rural South. Leaving the community removes those moderating forces, opening the door to extremism. The month I moved to Los Angeles felt apocalyptic, even by the standards of a city forever being destroyed in film. So missionaries have to be careful about promising real help to their converts.