Is it possible that church politics are driving people away?

[The Backlash Cometh]

Below is an article that reports that the church is losing members. Mostly, they're losing the poorer members.

So, I wanted to throw my hat in the ring and suggest that it's not only because the church is not helping them where they need it the most, but also because churches have become so political and anti-poor, that they just can't relate to them anymore.

Less-educated Americans dropping out of church fastest -- study

When people have little to help them in times of trouble, there’s one place they can count on: the church they attend. But a new study suggests they’re losing interest in houses of worship.

Although attendance has fallen for all white Americans over the last generation, it's fallen twice as fast for the less-educated, says the study, presented this past weekend at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.

"Religious congregations may be one of the few institutional sectors less educated Americans can turn to for for social, economic and emotional support in the fact of today's tough times," researcher W. Bradford Wilcox says in a statement. "Yet it appears that increasingly few of them are choosing to do so."

Poignantly titled "No Money, No Honey, No Church: The Deinstitutionalization of Religious Life Among the White Working Class," the paper focuses on whites because black and Latino churchgoing is less affected by income and education. Religions represented included Catholics, Protestants, Jews and Mormons.


http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/sfl-fv-blog-working-class,0,4102690.story

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. Yes and No.

[closeupready]

2. And the materialism. Poor people struggling, while church leaders jet around the country

like industrial titans or Donald Trump. Kind of saps your enthusiasm for these 'selfless' holy men.

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. some of the comments in the article are very interesting.

Rich people are there to social network.

[Fumesucker]

26. Yep, I'd be willing to bet that more "bidness" goes on in church than on the golf course..

[Initech]

38. George Carlin was right - "God is all knowing, all powerful, but he just cant handle money!"

[LiberalLoner]

3. You might be right! I remember reading something about how younger

people especially were starting to tire of politics mixed in with their religion.

[uponit7771]

20. Yeap, that report came out early 2009-is I think...it was right, the political hate at church is...

...enormous

[LWolf]

4. I wonder if Christian churches

whose leaders actually try to act like Jesus, and encourage their members to do the same, are losing members.

[bluestateguy]

6. You are expected to pony up an offering for the collection plate each week

and there can be some social stigma if you do not do so. Hence, many who can't afford it will just stay away from church.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. And maybe they're just too tired from working two jobs to get up early Sunday morning?

[krabigirl]

9. Yep.

[formercia]

37. I used to put an empty envelope in the basket

and the Church Ladies would nod in approval.

[QC]

8. Polls find young people identifying churches with politics and homophobia,

so yes, it's the politicization that's driving people away.

This is why so many churches pitched at younger people call themselves family life centers, or communities, or worship centers, or what have you--anything but churches.

[gratuitous]

10. Our congregation is doing pretty well

But then, we open the sanctuary doors to practically anyone, we have a gay pastor, and we have opened and are maintaining a BVS House to invite young volunteers from across the country to perform their two years of service in our community. We also turned over a large portion of our property to a community garden two years ago, and several years ago we dedicated the lower floor of our building to the Day Center for a homeless family program. It's quite inspiring to see the dedication available when a welcoming space is provided.

We don't have a whole lot of money, but it seems that whenever we expand our service commitments the funds materialize.

[The Backlash Cometh]

21. Your church sounds very appealing.

[monmouth]

11. The hypocrisy of the Catholic Church and birth control has angered

many and in many cases the non-punishment or slap on the wrist to the worst of them (pedophiles) I'm sure has something to do with it.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

12. Great news.

But I suspect that only part of it is the conservatism being promoted by some christianazis like AFA, that is really pissing people off.
It is likely that religion is losing its aura of success and power, because, in great part, it does not work. People recognize that prayer means absolutely nothing and provides no one with any relief. They realize that too many priests and ministers sexually attack their children, then look in horror as the churches cover up the crimes.
They see the hypocrisy that afflicts these huge organizations. And they drop out because of it.

[Warpy]

13. Perhaps they also need to look at the "no money" part

People who are flush with living wages feel they can pay the admission price in the collection plate every Sunday. Many even formally tithe.

People on the bottom who can't feed themselves can no longer do that. Combine that with the solidly Republican, hate anyone who aint rich politics, and they end up feeling like freeloading relatives, and nobody but a freeloading relative wants to feel like that. So they leave.

That includes former pillars of those churches whose jobs dried up and were then given to younger, cheaper people.

Those churches became very much "pay to play" churches and now that so many of their members can no longer pay the fee, the butts are not in the pews.

The only wonder is that they never thought this would happen.

[Bragi]

14. I hope they stay the course and keep shrinking /nt

[QC]

15. Great article here by an evangelical polling firm that explains what's happening:

http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/16-teensnext-gen/94-a-new-generation-expresses-its-skepticism-and-frustration-with-christianity

[The Backlash Cometh]

23. Good article. Thanks,

[QC]

39. You're welcome. There's some interesting stuff in that article. n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

30. hmm that might explain

the even hysterical posturing from the AFA and other far right fundie groups.

[Bake]

16. "Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

I remember Somebody saying that. The churches, however, don't care about that. All they want is money and power.

Bake

[gratuitous]

17. Nope

As I mentioned up-thread, our congregation is doing okay, even without much money or any power. But don't let a little thing like facts get in the way of broad-brushing; it's quite acceptable and even stylish at DU.

[Bake]

22. Pardon my broad brush. I'm talking about the superchurches

And the denominations (like the SBC) that foster them and put them up as models for how things ought to be. And people like Al Mohler at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Bake

[happyslug]

18. This is part of the larger movement, a movement of NOT joining ANYTHING

This has been noted several times over the last 20 or more years, you have less and less people joining ALL types of organizations. The primary reason is a lack of time, more and more people are working odd hours so they are NOT free doing the time periods when most social organizations meet. This is especially true of the lower classes, they are more and more expected to work odd hours, work on the weekends etc. Thus this is ECONOMICALLY based change NOT anything else. A similar situation occurred in the late 1800s through WWII, then it reversed as economic disparity went down in the 1950s and 1960s. That was the high time for Church Attendance. joining bowling leagues, adults participating in Little league and even Volunteer Fire Departments. All have seen a DROP in participation over the last 20 or more years. The drop in Church attendance is just one aspect of this drop in ALL social activities and that drop is dangerous for the Country, for such participation in social groups are the keystone to getting people to work together, something any society not only needs, but will crumble if it disappears.

[Ezlivin]

28. Read "Bowling Alone" by Robert Putnam

He goes into meticulous detail in describing how and why we lost our community.

The book should be required reading for anyone wanting to know more about the cultural shift we're undergoing.

[Quantess]

19. Yeah, or maybe they have to work Sundays to make ends meet,

with the crappy wages these days.

[Bonhomme Richard]

24. It was the final straw for me as a catholic.

When I noticed all the fur coats at church as a kid I began to question the followers motivations. I slowly drifted away but gave up all hope when they started supporting republicans.

[Maeve]

25. I left because of the politics and the greed

I could tolerate the anti-abortion crap for the most part, especially when they weren't getting anywhere with it, but the anti-gay focus is just too strong anymore. And while the congregation was fine with gathering food for the poor, Christmas gifts for the underprivileged (there's an interesting word, ain't it?), etc...where is the help for the struggling family? Available...if you go begging for it. Want your kids raised in the faith? Pony up the cash and jump thru the hoops, mandatory volunteerism (another nice term) and oh, never mind, your marriage was outside the church so you can't be a godparent or confirmation sponsor no matter how you live otherwise (happened to a friend, who quit the church, too)...And the "you can tithe and be blessed" lecture when the budget was tight? Screw that.

[Capitalocracy]

27. They might also be losing people to Facebook.

OK, that sounds like something a wingnut would say, but hear me out... I think much of the success of religion is because it was the original social network. Now we have very effective online secular alternatives.

[Blue_Tires]

29. I left church behind when so many pastors were cheering on the Iraq invasion...

[starroute]

31. I suspect it has more to do with the decline of community

Church-going was always strongest in small towns and closely-knit neighborhoods, where everybody had known each other for generations and the church was a social hub. But as people move to the cities or suburbs and live among strangers, the churches are no longer rooted in the community. Even if people continued to attend services, they may not know their fellow-parishioners as more than once-a-week acquaintances.

If the black and Latino churches are less affected, it's probably because those communities are more intact -- but they're likely to be hit as well within a generation.

The mega-churches may actually be a response to this suburban de-racination. They take it as a given and substitute all sorts of activities targeted to specific interest groups as an alternative. But ultimately, that sort of thing doesn't have the power to keep people emotionally committed, especially during hard economic times.

The politicization and end-time cults may be another attempt to hold onto adherents -- but as such, they seem to be developing a small group of fanatical devotees at the expense of driving away everyone else.

The religious impulse is real -- but for 90% of people, 90% of the time, church-going is purely a social and emotional experience. And as such, it's in as much trouble as any of our other failing social institutions.

[dawg]

32. As someone who actually believes all that stuff ...

about God and the devil and such, it seems to me that bringing conservative politics into the church is the smartest thing Satan ever did. A whole generation is being driven away from Christ because of the politics, intolerance, and judgmental attitudes they encounter in the churches.

Personally, I think it's a tragedy. I find much beauty and truth in the teachings of Jesus Christ. I think the world would be a better place if more people studied them.

[The Backlash Cometh]

33. I miss the church's leadership too.

The right-wing thought is all over the place, but make no mistake that Catholic churches made a terrible mistake holding onto acquainted ideas for too long.

[dembotoz]

34. the church no longer seems to stand for social justice.

we--they -- should be working to help get people involved and employed.
people fed
with medical care
and a roof.

this god damn-quite litereally in my eyes notion of pull yourself up by your bootstraps and the
poor are poor becasue they have easy to correct faults has turned me off big time.
the more republican they act the less likely i am to attend

[The Backlash Cometh]

35. Social justice. So true.

[applegrove]

36. The internet gives people a community that church used to provide.

[The Backlash Cometh]

40. You know, that is so true.