Farewell to a Christian Lifestyle in the United States

In our last “Reflections” we noted that church attendance in the United States of America is still better than in Canada. The religious convictions of Americans also appear to be stronger than those of their Canadian counterparts. In short, the condition of Christianity—in the general sense of the word—seems to be more encouraging on the south side of the American/Canadian border than on the north side.

Nonetheless, it is questionable whether this is true. Recent studies reveal some frightening developments in the U.S. regarding church attendance as well as moral viewpoints of young adults. It seems that in both countries there is a rapid decline in religious observance and moral behavior. Canadians in large numbers say farewell to the church, and many Americans are in danger of doing the same. Others who still remain associated with a church are drifting away from a Christian lifestyle at an alarming pace.

Religious decline

A recent survey conducted by Ipsos Reid asked respondents in twenty countries if they agreed with the statement that religion is “very important to me in my daily life.” In Canada, 39% answered “Yes.” In the United States, 63% answered “Yes.” One might think this a favorable result as far as the Americans are concerned. Yet the level of religious support in the U.S. appears to be eroding as well. When Ipsos Reid (formerly called Angus Reid Group) asked the same question in a 1992 survey, the result was 83% “Yes” for the U.S. and 61% for Canada. In other words Canadians dropped from 61% to 39% while Americans dropped from 83% to 63% (a considerable drop in both countries)!

The result of the survey gives even more concern when we compare it with the figures in other countries, especially in the Middle East and the Far East. Predominantly Muslim countries included in the survey clearly show a higher level of religious devotion. Religion was important to 65% of Lebanese respondents, 89% of Egyptians, and 96% of Saudis. While church influence in North America and Western Europe is waning, the influence of the church in Russia is constantly on the rise. This applies especially to the Russian Orthodox Church. Despite decades of atheist communism, more than 50% of the Russians today say religion is an important part of their lives which is up from 34% fourteen years ago.

It seems that science, technology, and materialism play an important role in the steady decline of religion in the Western countries. Modern science claims we do not need God or the church to explain the reality around us; efficient technology gives us a feeling of power, safety and independence; and materialism threatens to push away all serious thoughts about our soul and eternity. Wooden churches with “golden Christians” have made way for golden churches with “wooden Christians”, and those golden churches are emptying out by the week!

Frightening disengagement

Another recent study was carried out by Life Way Christian Resources, an organization belonging to the large Southern Baptist Convention. It appeared that an increasing number of young people in the U.S. are either at the point of leaving the church or, at least, are experiencing the church as irrelevant since their questions are not answered there. Whereas in 1980 still more than 100,000 young people between 18 and 34 years old were baptized in Baptist churches all over the southern states, that number had dropped to 60,000 in 2005.

The result of this survey concurs with the findings of the so-called Barna Group. Workers of this organization based their research on data collected from 2,124 teenagers and 22,103 adults, including 3,583 of twenty years and older. Their findings show that “despite strong levels of spiritual activity during the teen years, most twenty-somethings disengage from active participation in the Christian faith during their adult years—and often beyond that.” Specifically, 61% of today’s young adults who were churchgoing as teenagers are now “spiritually disengaged.” Spiritual disengagement is identified by the researchers as being inactive when it comes to church attendance, Bible reading, or prayer. Only 20% of the twenty-plus age group has maintained spiritual activity consistent with that of their high school days, the study revealed. “In total, 6 out of 10 twenty-somethings were involved in a church during their teen years but have failed to translate that into active spirituality during their early adulthood,” Mr. Barna said.

Moreover, for most adults this disengagement seems to extend further into the stages of adulthood, specifically parenthood. Despite parental desires to give children religious and moral guidance, the new study noted that “just one-third of twenty-somethings who are parents regularly take their children to church, compared with two-fifths of parents in their thirties and half of parents who are 40 years and older.”

A message for us?

When we hear about all these alarming facts and mind-boggling figures, we may be tempted to deny the reality behind them. We may tell ourselves that these are developments in other churches and that they do not affect us. I hope this is true, but I am not completely sure of it. In general teenagers and young adults constitute a very vulnerable group. The well-known saying, “If only they find a decent boyfriend or girlfriend everything will turn out well after all,” may have contained a grain of truth in the past, but it does not apply to each and every case today. The reality is that not all our young people marry. If they do, they may join themselves to someone outside the church; even if they marry someone of our own church, everything does not always “turn out well after all.”

It seems that especially young people who are studying in higher institutions of learning such as colleges and universities run the risk of ending up in a kind of spiritual no man’s land. Often they are not yet married. They are no longer attending church-related high schools, but they may not feel old or secure enough to make public confession of faith either. In their studies they are confronted with deviating lifestyles and hard questions to which they do not always have an answer. When they lose contact with their local congregations, a process of estrangement from the church may set in.

The same thing may happen to young adults who do not pursue higher education but who are totally absorbed in their daily work. They are getting married, raising children, and earning money to improve their standard of living or to pay off old debts. The danger is that all those things are done without the Lord and that the values and norms learned at home and at school are not integrated in their personality and daily life. They become parents, sometimes already at an early age, and they have their children baptized, but spiritually they are “disengaged,” to use a word from the Barna study. Do we, as older parents and grandparents or as office-bearers, have an open eye for this phenomenon? Do we as a church give enough attention to our young adults?

The great divide

The Barna Research Group examined not only church attendance and religious involvement of young adults in their 20’s and 30’s but also viewpoints and behavior in regard to moral issues. More than 7,000 adults from across the U.S.A. were interviewed in seven separate surveys for the study. The research focused on 16 different areas of moral and sexual behavior among these young adults, a group known as the “Buster” generation, and compared their behavior with that of adults over the age of 40.

According to the study, Busters were twice as likely to have viewed movies or videos with an immoral character during the month prior to the survey; two and a half times more likely to report having had an intimate physical encounter outside of marriage; and three times more likely to have viewed pornography on the internet.

Overall, Busters’ views on moral behavior and physical behavior are less conventional than that of their predecessors in 13 of the 16 different areas. The bottom line is that there is a great divide between younger and older Americans when it comes to agreeing on how to lead a moral life.

The outcome of the survey, according to the director of the research, David Kinnaman, “paints a compelling picture that moral values are shifting very quickly and significantly within the Christian community as well as outside of it. Faith made some difference but not a particularly strong difference in most people’s lives. Young Christian adults in their 20’s and 30’s look more like non-Christian adults in their 20’s and 30’s than they do like older Christians.” In other words, their non-Christian peers seem to have more influence than their Christian parents!

Oh, Canada! Oh, America!

In a previous article we noted that large numbers of Canadians are saying farewell to the church. In this article we saw that increasing numbers of Americans are doing the same or are about to do the same. Especially the dramatic abandoning of a Christian lifestyle in the U.S. is an alarming development. There is reason to be deeply concerned.

Earlier in this article I mentioned modern science, improved technology, and increasing materialism as factors causing this downward trend. Another factor is the influence of the communication media: radio, television, videos, DVDs, the Internet, mobile telephones, etc. The influence of these media can never be overestimated, for they are very powerful, whereas we as fallen creatures are very weak. Our confession is that we are inclined to all evil, but do we really believe it?

At the beginning of this year a well-known media outlet gave the following announcement: “In 2007 U.S. teens and adults will spend two months watching TV, 41 days listening to the radio, and more than a week browsing the Internet.” The announcement actually was a prediction but apparently it is based on current trends and growing patterns. In a word, it is staggering!

If I am not mistaken, the use of the Internet will increase rapidly also within our circles. The NRC— thus far always averse to the television—has discovered and embraced the Internet! People use the electronic highway for educational programs, business activities, banking, shopping, holidays and hotel bookings, air flights, the weather forecast, and much more. I am afraid that many church members are on the open Internet with no Christian provider, reliable filter, or methods of accountability in place. How long will it be before our religion will cave in and our well-built “Christian house” will collapse? How many professing and baptized NRC members in North America and in the Netherlands are already saying farewell to the church as well as to a Christian lifestyle? These are developments that should give us much concern. We hope to reflect on that in the next issue of our denominational periodical.

— Rev. C. Sonnevelt
Lethbridge, AB

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