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An interesting article about "the unchurching of America." [View all]
It's about how people aren't going to church much any more, focused specifically on Minnesota, but using national as well as local data. The data show that people who used to be church regulars aren't going much any more, because they view their church, or maybe all churches, as too dogmatic, or narrow, or irrelevant, or just unsatisfying in some way. According to the article one in four Americans claim no religion. But only about 3% call themselves atheists. It's an interesting analysis, for what it's worth.
Most of the men and women who were relaxing on yoga mats at a Minneapolis meditation center one recent weekend are not Sunday churchgoers, but they belong to the fastest-growing religion in the United States — none at all.
They included a former Lutheran who left the church because the Bible clashed with science, a former Catholic turned off by the concept of hell, a former Baptist uninspired by Sunday services, and a young man raised with no religion.
Together, they represent the biggest force behind the rising number of shuttered churches and empty pews across Minnesota and the United States. Nearly one in four Americans now declare themselves unaffiliated with any organized religion. The share of adults who identify as “none” has more than doubled since the 1990s — to 56 million and climbing. That’s now more than the membership of all mainline Protestants combined.
The church experience central to many of their parents’ lives never took root or has faded from their own.
http://www.startribune.com/fastest-growing-religion-in-minnesota-the-nation-is-none/498664191/
They included a former Lutheran who left the church because the Bible clashed with science, a former Catholic turned off by the concept of hell, a former Baptist uninspired by Sunday services, and a young man raised with no religion.
Together, they represent the biggest force behind the rising number of shuttered churches and empty pews across Minnesota and the United States. Nearly one in four Americans now declare themselves unaffiliated with any organized religion. The share of adults who identify as “none” has more than doubled since the 1990s — to 56 million and climbing. That’s now more than the membership of all mainline Protestants combined.
The church experience central to many of their parents’ lives never took root or has faded from their own.
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