<story><title>Gallup: U.S. church membership dips below 50% for first time</title><url>https://www.axios.com/church-membership-gallup-26cc020b-5405-417a-a786-e10c286a30db.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>CedarMills</author><text>As a believer and someone who attends church regularly, this is sad but not unexpected. From my own personal experience - if the church cannot answer questions clearly, their members will look for answers somewhere else. A lot of churches unfortunately are so elementary in their teaching or turn to &amp;quot;feel good preaching&amp;quot; (see Elevation Church). The longterm effect is that a person ends up being tired of getting the same &amp;quot;baby food&amp;quot; and they look to other places. The churches where theology is solid (and clear) tend to be stronger in number and in regular attendance.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>filoeleven</author><text>The American evangelical movement is particularly rabid, and subscribes overwhelmingly to Christian nationalism.  It is entirely too mixed into politics, and is trying to create a theocratic state where “everyone must live like Christians (for my definition of Christian).”&lt;p&gt;One of the high points for me regarding religion in the past couple years was finding The Holy Post podcast.  One host is Phil Vischer, AKA Bob the Tomato, the creator of Veggie Tales.  I have some fundamental (heh) disagreements with their perspective at this point, but they remind me of what I thought the church was while growing up within it, and they still largely reflect what I think it should be.  They acknowledge that there’s lots of room for disagreement, they don’t think they have all the answers, and they strike me as genuinely loving people.&lt;p&gt;If I had heard more people talking like them 20 years ago, I might not have left the church.  It’s not a question of “baby food” so much as “cultural identity,” and the cultural identity of the American church is largely flag-waving rah-rah nationalism.  Not sure what stats you’re referencing, because megachurches are still quite popular here and quite clear on their “theology.”&lt;p&gt;If you the parent poster are not located in America, please disregard this post entirely.</text></comment>
<story><title>Gallup: U.S. church membership dips below 50% for first time</title><url>https://www.axios.com/church-membership-gallup-26cc020b-5405-417a-a786-e10c286a30db.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>CedarMills</author><text>As a believer and someone who attends church regularly, this is sad but not unexpected. From my own personal experience - if the church cannot answer questions clearly, their members will look for answers somewhere else. A lot of churches unfortunately are so elementary in their teaching or turn to &amp;quot;feel good preaching&amp;quot; (see Elevation Church). The longterm effect is that a person ends up being tired of getting the same &amp;quot;baby food&amp;quot; and they look to other places. The churches where theology is solid (and clear) tend to be stronger in number and in regular attendance.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>49531</author><text>As someone who was raised in a religious home who no longer attends any church I think it&amp;#x27;s less to do with not answering questions and more to do with a hostile rejection of religion generally. It wasn&amp;#x27;t until I had children of my own that I realized I needed to distance myself from religion. I know there is a large variety of what is taught from religion to religion and sect to sect but I&amp;#x27;d like to steer clear from any organization that takes a negative view on basic things like homosexuality. I cannot fathom exposing my (or any) kids to that kind of worldview.</text></comment>