Why Christianity is Declining in America

It’s no coincidence that as Christianity has declined in America, our nation has declined at the same time. Of course, some people would tell you that Christianity hasn’t declined in America, but there’s not even a question that it has:

Just from 2007-2019:

The almost 50-year dip from 1972 to 2020 is staggering:

As the number of Christians in America and their cultural influence has waned, it’s no wonder that porn, gender-bending, and surging divorce rates have climbed. How could it be any other way? When people are removed from a healthy, moral structure and regular discussions about right and wrong and essentially told, “Do what you think is best,” it’s not going to lead to more good behavior and stronger ethics, no matter what atheists try to tell you.

We are a society in moral decline and yes, the decline of Christianity is a big part of it.

This is part of the reason why, at first glance, it seems odd that Christianity is declining. Certainly, we can at least show a strong correlation between the decline of Christianity and the increasing levels of degeneracy in America, but you can also make a very good case that Christianity is good for people at the individual level:

It’s actually kind of ironic that one of the attacks that people use against Christianity is that it keeps you from doing some “fun” things you may want to do when devout Christians are more likely to be happy than the people saying that. In fact, as a Christian, I would argue that God tells us not to do some things because they are immoral, but others, simply because He knows they’re bad for us and are likely to lead to a poor outcome.

Some things that are fun in the short term will not turn out well over the long haul. I sort of assume that in the moment it would probably be a blast to seduce your next-door neighbor’s attractive wife or snort cocaine, but the long-term prospects of those activities aren’t so great. Also, as I told an atheistic friend who once asked me what it was like believing in God, “It brings a moral order to the universe.” If there’s no God, there is no definitive right and wrong because all morality is arbitrary. This is why you’ll find that most people who don’t believe in God have a very fluid way of looking at right and wrong that varies quite a bit depending on what benefits them the most under any given set of circumstances. You can see that sort of “non-morality morality” everywhere in our society these days.

All that being said, why is Christianity declining? There certainly doesn’t seem to be any one central factor and there’s no definitive answer about the combined series of things dragging our religion down. Still, there are some educated guesses we can make, even if it’s very hard to quantify how much of a factor each one has been over the past few decades.

First of all, we have to note that participation in social groups of all sorts seems to be down considerably from previous points in American history. That’s what Robert Putnam’s famous book, “Bowling Alone” was about. Since he wrote that book in 2000, the trends he noted have only gotten worse:

Putnam concentrates on the Freemasons, a fraternal organization that traces its roots back many centuries to ancient fraternities of stonemasons. Their philosophy self-identifies as a “beautiful system of morality… illustrated by symbols.” Freemason lodges focus on ritualistic internal proceedings and are largely oriented around social activity. Beyond that, you encounter groups like the Lions Club and the Elks. The Elks were founded as an all-white and male social club (remaining all-white through the 70s) and currently boasts 850,000 members. They remain largely a social group. The Lions put more emphasis on charity—their name is an acronym for Liberty, Intelligence, and Our Nation’s Safety. The Kiwanis Club and Rotary International are service groups as well, the former concentrating on charity to youth.

...While the Rotary hasn’t felt the 60 percent plummet in membership that the Lions have, the 40 percent drop of the Kiwanis, or the over 70 percent of the Masons, they have still lost a quarter of their membership since the mid-60s. Women couldn’t join the Rotary until 1987 when the Supreme Court mandated in Board of Directors of Rotary International vs. Rotary Club of Duarte that they be allowed into the club. The Pikes Peak Rotary is still only 25 percent female. In addition to having disproportionate gender representation, the group also lacks young members.

Churches are also social groups and so, it’s not a surprise that this society-wide trend is impacting them. We could certainly debate WHY this is happening across the board, especially in a time when so many people seem increasingly lonely and desperate to make real-world friends, but whatever the case may be, we certainly shouldn’t discount the impact of this factor. 

We also shouldn’t discount the ways that the culture has changed over the last few decades. It has become more hedonistic, immoral, entertainment-centered, consumer-oriented oriented, and fame-obsessed.

Now, an argument could be made that all these things have crept into the culture so quickly because Christianity has receded, but whatever the case may be, that’s what it looks like today and people who embrace those attitudes are not fertile soil for Christianity to grow in. In fact, if anything, Christianity is antithetical to those values.

Christianity comes to you and says, “This isn’t a ‘have it your way’ type of situation. There are rules of behavior and if you disagree with them, too bad, because that’s how it is. You’re not the big deal here, God is.”

These cultural changes have led to a central question, “How does the church attract people in the modern world?”

Churches that have stuck with the, “We’ll just slap something up on the sign out front and do the same things we’ve always done” approach feel outdated in the modern world. Other places have built “mega-churches” or emphasized how Christian “success doctrine” can help people get ahead. Those approaches seem to have had some success, although they’ve been controversial.

On the other hand, some branches of the Methodist and Episcopalian churches have turned into bastions of liberalism that push worldly, left-wing ideas first and foremost, with a little Christianity thrown in if it doesn’t conflict with liberalism. It feels like the people in those churches need missionaries to show up and convert them to Christianity more than new converts. So, it’s not even bad news that they’re slowly shrinking.

We’ve also seen way too much of the “Buddy Christ” approach that the movie “Dogma” so successfully parodied with this clip:

It is genuinely comforting to know that God loves us, wants what’s best for us, and is looking out for us, but when Christianity gets watered down to such an extent that the message is essentially, “Everything you do is OK with God, he just wants to love you,” it becomes pointless. It’s just “do whatever you want” with extra, unnecessary steps. That’s a big part of what was wrong with the widely and justly despised “He Gets Us” Super Bowl commercial:

Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, not the feet of the Pharisees and people persecuting him. Additionally, service is an integral part of Christianity, and that sometimes includes serving non-Christians or people who don’t deserve it, but it does not include endorsing their beliefs. At times it felt like the ad was implying that Christians should do exactly that and that they were being hateful if they didn’t. On top of all that, summing up the crux of Christianity to millions of people as washing feet seems completely moronic.

Furthermore, again, if there’s no conflict between being a Christian and being in accord with a decadent society, what point is there in being a Christian? For Christianity to be of any worth at all, it has to go beyond just emphasizing, “Jesus loves you” to pointing out where the church differs from the world. People want to be part of a church that’s different, better, and more moral than the world. They want stronger, more muscular Christianity, not go-along-to-get-along mush and that’s reflected in the protestant sects that are growing the fastest worldwide:

Christian denominations that experienced the fastest growth rates are Evangelicals (1.8%) and Pentecostals/charismatics (1.88%). The increase in the number of Pentecostals worldwide is expected to continue at a rapid pace. While fewer than 1 million people across the globe identified as Pentecostal in 1900, that number is expected to top 1 billion in 2050.

By 2050, Pentecostals could account for roughly one-third of the 3.33 billion Christians. Pentecostals were measured as the second-largest group of Christians in 2022, with Catholics taking the top spot. There were about 1.25 billion Catholics in 2022, and that number is expected to rise to around 1.5 billion by 2050.

The good news, such as it is, is that Christianity isn’t declining everywhere, just in the West. It seems unlikely that it’s a coincidence that the West is also in decline and maybe, whenever the West hits bottom and becomes less arrogant, we’ll see Christianity start to surge again.

However, we could have a long way to fall before that happens and it would be nice to see Christianity make a comeback, particularly in America, because it might be just the thing to get our country back on track.

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