Unaffiliated

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like a grave that has been whitewashed. You look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside you are full of moldering bones and decaying rot.” ( Matthew 23:27 VOICE)

According to a recent Gallup poll, the majority of Americans are no longer affiliated with any kind of religious institution. In 2020, 47% of U.S. adults belonged to a church, synagogue, or mosque. There has been a steep decline in church attendance in the last twenty years. This trend started before the pandemic. The drop will most likely be even more precipitous in the future. 

What factors contribute to the rise in Americans with no religious preferences? The politicization of religion has been named as one of the main reasons people no longer want to be associated with organized religion. Young people in earlier generations withdrew from church for a period of their lives, because they perceived religion as restrictive. However, most of them returned to their church traditions once they were older. This is no longer the case. 

“We now see young evangelicals walking away from evangelicalism not because they do not believe what the church teaches, but because they believe the church itself does not believe what the church teaches. The presenting issue in this secularization is not scientism and hedonism but disillusionment and cynicism.” (Russell Moore)

Unlike earlier times, many who identify as religiously unaffiliated are not lapsed Christians. Instead, they are those who desire to follow Christ and His teachings, but view church as antithetical to this process. Most of  them were deeply involved in their churches and saw the inner workings of these institutions. They were disgusted by the politicization, profiteering, power grabbing, status seeking, hierarchical structure. They are leaving because they want no part in the hypocrisy associated with organized religion. 

Continued in the next post…