In spite of -- or more likely because of -- the surge of the right and of Christian extremists, there has been an "acute" fall in the numbers of Christians here in the US, according to the Pew Research Center and reported in the New York Times. Apparently the hardest hit have been mainstream Protestants and Catholics. Evangelicals are maintaining their ground. But younger Americans are not going to church.
Younger adults have been particularly likely to join the unaffiliated in recent years. In 2007, 25 percent of 18-to-26-year-olds were unaffiliated; now 34 percent of the same cohort is unaffiliated.
But the unaffiliated share of the population is increasing among older Americans as well. The Christian share of the population born before 1964 has dipped by 2 percentage points since 2007. ...NYT
And yes, a lot of us have seen this coming as a result of disgust many Americans have experienced with the rise of the extreme right, violence, and the celebration of ignorance and racism.
The declining number of self-identified Christians could be the result of a political backlash against the association of Christianity with conservative political values.
“The two are now intertwined,” said Mike Hout, a professor of sociology at New York University. “You can’t use one to predict the other, because if the Republicans switched to more economic or immigration issues, then perhaps the rise of the unaffiliated will slow down.”...NYT
