Easter Sundays.

[Editorial]

The day after Easter and there are a number of article about the declining church attendance…

What's fueling drop in church attendance? It's all about family, one advocate says
KATU
by CORY SMITH
March 28, 2024

Ahead of Easter Sunday, a new report from Gallup shows fewer Americans are regular churchgoers.

Gallup found that just 30% of Americans go nearly weekly, down 12 percentage points over the last couple of decades.

Gallup, pulling aggregated data from numerous surveys it has conducted, found a steady decline it says is largely driven by an increase in the share of Americans with no religious affiliation.

A fifth of Americans now have no religious affiliation, according to Gallup.

But regular attendance is still down for folks who belong to various religious groups. That includes a drop of four percentage points from 20 years ago among Protestant Christians and a 12 percentage-point drop among Catholics.

Dessert News writes,

Nearly half of Protestants including non-denominational Christians (44%) said they attended services regularly. 38% of Muslims, 33% of Catholics and 22% of Jews said the same.

The overall rate of church attendance in the U.S. has dropped. When Gallup did a survey two decades ago, 42% of U.S. adults said they attended services regularly. Now that figure is 30%, with 31% of U.S. saying they never attend services.

I have a theory (Of course I do otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this!)

First off let me say this: I believe that something created the universe and second I believe that religion is not inherently bad, it is the individual churches that are “bad” or “good.”

So I think that the "fire and brimstone" style of churches are in decline, that the younger generation are turned off by that, they are more receptive to churches that focus on love and acceptance of all peoples, that living your life to helping others are growing.

I asked the Perpexity.AI this question: “Are affirm churches growing and non-affirming churches declining?”

Answer:
Based on the search results provided, the evidence suggests that non-affirming churches are declining while affirming churches are growing, though the full picture is more complex:

•     Church membership in the U.S. has been declining overall, falling below 50% for the first time in 2020 according to Gallup polling data. This decline is primarily attributed to the rise in Americans with no religious preference.
•     The search results indicate that LGBTQ+ Christians feel significantly less accepted in non-affirming churches compared to affirming churches. This suggests that non-affirming stances may be contributing to the decline in church membership.
•     One article notes that while a church may be "welcoming" of LGBTQ+ individuals, being "affirming" and fully including them is seen as very different and important. This implies that simply being welcoming is not enough to attract and retain LGBTQ+ Christians.
•     The article on transitioning a church from non-affirming to affirming suggests that this can be a difficult process, with some members leaving, but that it can ultimately result in a more vibrant and diverse affirming community.

So in summary, the evidence indicates that non-affirming churches are likely declining as more LGBTQ+ Christians and their allies seek out fully affirming congregations. However, the overall trend of declining church membership in the U.S. complicates the picture, and the transition to affirmation is not always easy for churches. More research would be needed to fully understand the relative growth or decline of affirming vs. non-affirming churches.

Students learning next to a trans or gay student, learning next to a Muslim, learning next to a student with two moms, learning next to a person of a different race or ethnicity, they have learned to get along together and that is what the right-wing conservatives fear in education and that is what the young people have learn and are rejecting the “Your damn and going to hell!” model of religion.

I believe that people now do not want a religion based on hate, but rather they want churches that teach “Love thy neighbor.” not the fire and brimstone of the past. They are tired of the “anti” churches, anti-LGBTQ, anti-abortion, anti-unmarried sex, anti-…

There are many reasons why religion is declining, another reason is the decline of the family, families are scattered to the four winds. People see the Hamas/Israeli war, the fighting between Muslims and Hindus in India and it turns them off of religion.

When churches preach love, they grow.

[/Editorial]