My generation, millennials, have been criticized for so much ruining things like cloth napkins, traditional marriages, American cheese. But in the long run, we may believe that we have destroyed American religion. We are not a particularly loyal generation and there is evidence that our descendants may be that few.
Last month, a new edition of Pew Research’s religious landscape research was announced. This is a large survey in which the organization voted over 35,000 Americans, with the last survey released in 2014. Research reports focus on the fact that the decline in popularity of American Christianity has been stagnating recently after years of continuous decline. (The non-Christian faith, a very small proportion of the American population, has risen slightly since the survey began in 2007, but their relative size makes it difficult to conclude about them).
According to Pew, since 2007, the proportion of Americans who describe themselves as Christians has fallen from 78% to 63%. However, between 2020 and 2024, that figure came up fairly consistently between 60 and 64 percent. The share of Americans who describe themselves as “non” – particularly those who have no religion or are atheists or agnostics, are levelled below 30% from 16% in 2007.
However, looking at the numbers for each generation, this plateau is temporary. Silent Generation, Boomers and Generation X don’t just have enough religious young Americans to replace them as their population share decreases. “The reality is that 20% of Boomers are secular and at least 42% of Z,” said Ryan Berge, a political scientist and author of “Noles: Where They Come, Who and Where They Go.”
Barge said of Pew Data: That’s the exact opposite of Nones – six Joiners of all retirees. “He added, “You can’t escape those trending lines.” As “none” is becoming a religious identity just like everyone else, it is very unlikely that children who grew up without religion will become religion later. According to Pew, only 40% of American parents of minor children give their children all sorts of religious education. Only 26% of people go to religious services once a week. We will ultimately end up in a 40-45% “Nones” country.
The movement to move away from organized religion among young people is far deeper than their feet, not just their feet, but rather than church attendance. A new book by Christian Smith, “Why Religion Goes Old: The End of Traditional Faith in America,” argues that millennials have created “new periodists,” where religion is far less important to the overall worldview than previous generations. “Culturally, I think religion is in a bit more trouble than Plateau suggests,” said Smith, director of the Religion and Society Research Center at Notre Dame.
For his book, Smith has interviewed over 200 people with children aged 18 to 54, calling the 2023 survey a “Millennial Survey.” One of the questions he asked in that survey was about the connection between religion and daily life. “The bottom line is that two-thirds of millennial generations are either outdated or not, and this is definitely an indirect expression of obsolescence,” writes Smith.
Smith described me an organized religion that became a “polluted” idea in the mainstream of America due to publicity about sexual abuse scandals and economic misconduct in many different faiths in the ’80s and ’90s when millennials were older. “The scandal violated many virtues that are believed to make religion good,” Smith wrote. “They demonstrated that religion did not make people moral, that it did not help their leaders address the challenges and temptations of life, that they did not promote social peace and harmony, and that they did not model integrity for others.” These scandals helped to destroy the credibility of religion. And millennials no longer believed religion could become the “glue” that unites America, Smith’s study showed. And this appears in every aspect of American life in their 30s and 40s. Their group of friends is less likely to be religious-centered, and they are more likely to believe you can become a moral person without believing in God.
“The idea of ​​obsolescence captures this feeling that there could be old things – something that’s become outdated – and that people can still use it. So there are still people who type into electric typewriters,” Smith told me.
Part of the reason we now see the particularly intense tension in the fight for Christian nationalist power in American society is because we know they are losing a long game. But the irony Smith points out is that if more religious Christians accept electoral politics harshly, they will continue to fight back many of the people they are trying to attract.
There has been much coverage of young men flocking to strict Christian denominations, but their overall numbers are not important to the picture of American life. Currently, only 38% between the ages of 18 and 24 say they believe in a “universal spirit” with divine or “absolute certainty,” with only a 27% lower “prayer” than any other age group.
As Smith puts it, “the movement to save Christian America for God has driven many Americans out of Christianity, God and the Church.” I don’t think the dynamics are changing anytime soon.
End note
Kitchen Confidential, Confidential: There is a new memoir called “Care and Feeding” by famous chefs Mario Batali and Anthony Bourdain’s assistant, Laurie Woolever. I was a huge fan of Bourdain – I loved to get a glimpse into this behind the scenes as I was watching the “unknown part” and my eldest daughter had learned to call it “nownown.” But the book doesn’t just support famous or unknown foodies. Woolever works in a difficult, male-dominated industry and gives a truly honest explanation of how he is trying to catch up with a boy while fighting his own demons. Highly recommended.
Golden Girl: I recently discovered the creator of Tictoku, the Handle, a painful take on Blanche Devereau. She sits in her closet and has a glass of wine, bringing politics and culture into a very unsafe job. She also has a beautiful voice so I could hear her reading the phone book.
Feel free to enjoy a line about anything here.
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