Americans Are Leaving Church and Not Coming Back

A new repot reveals that the exodus from religion in America is accelerating and that the younger generations have the highest rate of no religious affiliation.  There is a growing sense among many that religion causes problems more than it provides solutions.  Among Generation Z, only 40% view raising children with religious belief to be a positive influence.   Many of my friends will disagree, but I agree with this negative view of religion.  The evidence is to be seen everywhere: from Christofascist pushing for "don't say gay laws" and opposing any teaching about racism in schools and fomenting hatred and division, to evangelicals supporting the morally bankrupt Donald Trump to the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church supporting Russian's invasion of Ukraine and the attendant war crimes and describing the illegal war as a "holy war" and calling for the eradication of Ukraine, the display of religion as a malvolent force is on display daily. A piece in the Christian Post wrongly bemoans the exodus from religion.  Here are excerts from the report findings.

In the report, Generation Z and the future of faith in America, Daniel A. Cox, senior fellow in polling and public opinion at the American Enterprise Institute, who also serves as director of the Survey Center on American Life, paints a complicated and diminished view of religion in American life.

Much of the disaffection for religion today is largely driven by people who were once religious. There is a growing population of the religiously unaffiliated whose once religious parents raised them without religion.

“Young adults today have had entirely different religious and social experiences than previous generations did. The parents of millennials and Generation Z did less to encourage regular participation in formal worship services and model religious behaviors in their children than had previous generations,” Cox wrote. “Many childhood religious activities that were once common, such as saying grace, have become more of the exception than the norm.”

With more parents raising their children with weak or no bond to a faith community, it’s a lot more difficult for them to be converted in adulthood.

For nearly 30 years, notes Cox, research shows the share of Americans who identify as religious has consistently declined with each new generation.

“This pattern continues with Generation Z demonstrating less attachment to religion than the millennial generation did,” he said.

Generation Z, born in the late 1990s and early 2000s, is now the least religious generation yet, with 34% of them identifying as religiously unaffiliated. Among millennials, 29% identify as religiously unaffiliated, while Generation X stands at 25%. Only 18% of baby boomers and 9% of the silent generation identify as religiously unaffiliated.

“It’s not only a lack of religious affiliation that distinguishes Generation Z. They are also far more likely to identify as atheist or agnostic,” Cox said, noting that some 18% of the cohort identified as either atheist or agnostic.

Cox pointed to a number of factors that have impacted a diminished view of organized religion, including a breach of trust.

“Gallup has found that trust and confidence in organized religion have plummeted over the past two decades. In 2021, only 37% of the public reported having a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in religious institutions, a massive decline since 2001 when 60 percent reported feeling confident,” he said.

He further added that while only 35% of Americans overall believe religion causes more harm than good, among the disaffiliated who were raised in religious homes, 69% say religion causes problems more than it provides solutions. Some 63% of Americans who have always been religiously unaffiliated also believe religion causes more problems in society than it solves.

Only 40% of Gen Z see raising children with religion as a good thing.