In God We Trust(ed)

“The most secular and the most religious Americans

have diametrically opposing views.” – American Grace

For the first time since the Gallup poll surveyed religion in America, membership in a church, mosque, or synagogue, has fallen below 50 percent.  Reaching its peak at 76 percent in the late 1940s, religious membership has dropped by 20 points over the past 20 years, in every category regardless of gender, age, and political affiliation.  With worshippers barred from entering churches in the COVID era, that number is certain to fall further as new routines have now taken root.  But the real divide in religion can be traced back to the 1960s, and thereafter, when politics arrived and began to segregate by partisan policies.

By 2016, the world’s newest major religion was a category called “nones”.  “Nones” were those who had become religiously unaffiliated, the unchurched, whose main reason for their lack of connection was doubts surrounding biblical doctrine and a growing aversion to the merger between religion and politics.  In the US, a quarter of individuals now identify as “nones”.

In Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell’s 2012 tome, “American Grace”, the authors take a comprehensive look at trends in religion spanning the past 50 years.  In particular, the decline of religion following the sexual revolution in the 1960s was quickly countered with a rise in evangelicalism and the founding of the Religious Right, a conservative political group formed to address the growing lack of morality. Another fracture occurred, when Democrats in 1980, included abortion in their political platform, adding fuel to the culture and political wars.  Since then, Democrats have become increasingly more secular, while Conservatives remain largely religious.

The 1950s saw the addition of “In God We Trust” on American currency, the inclusion of “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, and the construction of Ten Commandment monuments across the country.  Americanism was viewed by the majority in the US as God-centric, recognizing that our unalienable rights came from the God in heaven.  Churches in America enjoyed bipartisan support.

The 1960s experienced a secular shift with bans on state-sponsored prayer in public schools.  But the real story of the 60s was the change in women’s morality.  The birth control pill was approved in 1960, facilitating a sexual liberation unseen in history.  The 1973 Roe V. Wade decision gave women further control and freedom in the area of family planning, by offering them an easy alternative for unwanted pregnancies.  Women further asserted themselves in the workforce, turning “Father Knows Best” on its ear.

The right responded to this perceived new danger to Christian morals and values with the rise of evangelicalism and the Religious Right in the 1970s, tightening the links between politics and religion.  A backlash swiftly followed, particularly among young people, with a turn to more secular thinking, leading to the new group of unaffiliated “nones”.  The ultimate result was a chasm between the conservative right and the secular left, with a dwindling few in the center.  The cultural wars of the 1990s continued with bills expanding religious freedom to Americans outside the Sunday service, including the ability to practice their faith during the workweek.  At the same time, secular Americans pushed back, again, by demanding the removal of religious monuments on public property.

Today, the highest rates of church memberships in the US include Protestants, conservatives, Republicans, married adults, college graduates, Southerners, and Blacks.  The biggest declines in religion are seen on the East Coast and from individuals who identify as Democrats.  Yet, despite the declines in membership, Americans are still the most religious nation in the world, with 7 in 10 affiliated with some form of organized religion, with these religious citizens outperforming their counterparts in both charitable endeavors and volunteering.

The emergence of the “nones”, the unchurched, has created a vacuum for individuals of faith, with no place to go.  Secular churches, heavy on social justice, are filling the void.  Weak on the gospel of Jesus, but strong on progressive ideology, God is being replaced with the woke mob.  Some say that politics is downstream of culture, so if we want to change politics, we must first change the culture.  Resurrecting true believers back into the pews, right or left is the first step back.