The headline number is the sharp drop in the percentage of Americans who self-identify as Christian since Pew's last major survey in 2007, from 78.4 percent to 70.6 percent in 2014, an eight-point plunge. If Pew's numbers are accurate, there are some five million fewer Christians in the U.S. than seven years ago.
And that's not the worst data point. First, the number of "nones" — atheists, agnostics, and can't-be-bothereds, mostly — has jumped to 22.8 percent of the U.S. population, from 16.1 percent, and those numbers come from all age cohorts and regional and racial demographics. Second, the younger generations are notably less Christian than the group above them: 36 percent of the 18-to-24 group are religiously unaffiliated, tapering down to 9 percent of those 65 and older.
Most of the 19 million new "nones" came from Christian churches. Getting new members is important for any Christian denomination, but keeping congregants in the fold is essential. As my colleague Michael Brendan Dougherty argues, it's easier to revive lapsed churchgoers than mass-convert new ones. Even with religion-switching common, people are still more likely to stay in the faith tradition they were raised in, including no religion at all. If millennials drop away from Christianity, it's hard to see how Christian churches can make up for the accumulative losses.
I tend toward optimism, but there's no sugar-coating this. I'll outsource the jeremiad to Rod Dreher at The American Conservative:
We are staring at the face of a European-style collapse within a couple of generations. If you think the children being born now to religiously observant millennial parents are, on the whole, going to be more pious than their parents' generation, you are whistling past the graveyard. Once this decline gets going, it's very hard to stop. [The American Conservative]
But there's still time to turn this decline around, or at least temper its downward trajectory. So, here are a few modest proposals on how to reverse the decline of American Christianity:
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1. Stop acting like there is a "war on Christianity"
If there were a war on Christianity in the most Christian nation in the world, Christians would be the superpower. But there isn't. There is a growing embrace of secularism and materialism, probably, but setting up Christianity as in a war with these forces or other religions needlessly creates "enemies." It forces people to pick sides when in most cases they needn't, and it encourages Christian congregants to be defensive.
2. Don't use your religion to promote partisan politics
More than most, Christians should understand the risks of striving for political power. At various points in history, the Christian church was very involved in secular politics, and it usually didn't end well. At least part of the decline of American Christianity since its high point in the late 1950s is due to the mixing of religion with power politics. Specifically, conservative power politics.
Starting in about 1974, writes Robert Putnam in Bowling Alone, religious conservatives concocted a potent mix of "new issues (abortion, sexual morality, 'family values'), new techniques (television and other instruments of contemporary political organizing), and a new generation of political entrepreneurs," fed that into their established church networks, and created "the largest, best-organized grassroots social movement of the last quarter century."
That was great for Republicans, and good for Christians who favor a smaller, purer church in line with their particular understanding of Jesus' teachings. But it wasn't very good for Christianity as a whole.
Christianity can bring positive change in the world — the Civil Rights Movement wouldn't have happened without the organizational and social networks of Christian churches, and their willingness to form outside alliances. But power corrupts.
As it turns out, Christians have a model for spiritual versus temporal power: Jesus Christ. When Jesus entered Jerusalem for his last earthly Passover, he was greeted by exuberant crowds who wanted him to be a king, the kind who would overthrow their Roman oppressors. Jesus's disciples likely wanted that, too. Christians believe that Jesus actively rejected such a role — at one point, the devil even offered Jesus all the kingdoms on Earth. Jesus said no. The churches that bear his name should, too.
3. Open the church doors wider
Enduring religions need hard-headed administrators and talented theologians, but they also need their mystics. There is room in Christianity for the Elaine Heaths and RichardRohrs of the faith. Also, stop calling Oprah Winfrey a heretical witch — she calls herself a Christian, and she's probably drawing more converts than you are.
Don't try to drive away the Christian left. Christianity isn't inherently conservative or liberal, as we understand the words today. Partisanship automatically shuts out a good third of potential adherents. Liberal writers like Ana Marie Cox shouldn't have to "come out" as Christian.
Christian conservatives will quickly point to the congregation-hemorrhaging mainline Protestant denominations — the Episcopalians, Presbyterians, United Methodists — and they would have a point. But liberal ideas about helping the poor and turning the other cheek are baked into Christianity.
Pope Francis has changed the focus and tone of the Catholic Church without modifying its doctrine: He still abhors abortion, for example, but he also understands the need to talk about feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and loving the outcasts. He won't be able to single-handedly turn around 40 years of conservative appropriation of Christianity, but if the pope can get communist Cuba's Raul Castro to consider returning to church, he's certainly proved effective at making the church's tent a little bigger and more welcoming.
Religion is more than faith or a vague sense of spiritual connection to a higher power. It is a choice, and it is a habit, and it's a social commitment in a time when many people think they fulfill their social needs elsewhere. Religion is hard, and it is rewarding. Wiser people than me will have to figure out how best to get people to start plugging back into organized Christianity. But making the church a more welcoming spiritual home is a good place to start.
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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
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