{"id":67811,"date":"2023-07-12T06:00:02","date_gmt":"2023-07-12T10:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=67811"},"modified":"2023-07-12T08:14:22","modified_gmt":"2023-07-12T12:14:22","slug":"who-does-not-attend-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2023\/07\/who-does-not-attend-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Does Not Attend Church"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We know that church attendance is declining in the United States.\u00a0 But who, exactly, has stopped going to church?\u00a0 Lifeway Research<\/a> has dug into that question and has some fascinating findings.<\/p>\n

According to Lifeway researcher Aaron Earls, about a third of Americans attend church regularly, twice a month or more (32%); about a third sometimes attend (34% ); and about a third never attend (34%).<\/p>\n

Of the 34% who do not attend, as of 2022, here are the segments most unlike to go to church:<\/p>\n

Men<\/h4>\n
\nToday 38% of men say they never go to church.\u00a0 As compared to 30% of women.\n

This is concerning because, as I have blogged about,<\/a> research keeps showing that when fathers accompany their children to church, those children will usually go to church when they grow up.\u00a0 And when the fathers don\u2019t go, their children usually won\u2019t either.<\/p>\n

Young Adults<\/h4>\n

Of adults under 35, 40% never go to church.<\/p>\n

Lower- and working-class Americans<\/h4>\n

Among self-identified lower-class Americans, nearly half (47%) never go to church.\u00a0 Among the self-identified working class, 35% never attend.<\/p>\n

Among the middle class, 30% never attend, and among the upper class, only 24% never attend.<\/p>\n

This is something else that I have long been harping on!\u00a0 See my posts Why Don\u2019t Churches Try to Reach the Biggest Demographic of the Unchurched?<\/a> and Spiritual Crisis in the White Working Class<\/a>.\u00a0 And yet no one seems to believe me, as churches focus their outreach efforts on the middle class and the elites.<\/p>\n

The Never Married<\/h4>\n

Among Americans who have never married, 40% never go to church.\u00a0 Conversely, those who are married (30%) or widowed (31%) are the least likely to say they never attend.<\/p>\n

Non-Republicans<\/h4>\n

As recently as 1996, Democrats and Republicans attended church at the same rate.\u00a0 But then after that point, the political parties\u2019 church attendance began going in the opposite direction.\u00a0 Today 35% of Democrats say they never go to church.\u00a0 Only 22% of Republicans don \u2018t go to church, making them the least likely to say they never attend.\u00a0 But the biggest political segment that doesn\u2019t attend are the Independents at 38%.<\/p>\n

Any speculation about why this would be?\u00a0 What happened in 1996 to make Democrats less religious?\u00a0 I would think part of this is the rise of radical progressivism and identity politics within the party, with feminists shouting their abortions and the LGBTQ folks celebrating their sexual practices, requiring ideologies that do not accord with any traditional religion.\u00a0 But why are the less ideological Independents not going to church?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photo via pxfuel, royalty free stock photos<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Research from Lifeway shows that the segments of Americans who are most likely never to go to church are men, adults under 35, the lower and working classes, the never-married, and non-Republicans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":67910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,11,12,13,16,36,39],"tags":[484,4876,2507,2276],"class_list":["post-67811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america","category-church","category-culture","category-economics","category-family","category-politics","category-religions","tag-church-demographics","tag-church-going","tag-nones","tag-unchurched"],"yoast_head":"\nWho Does Not Attend Church<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Research from Lifeway shows that the segments of Americans who are most likely never to go to church are men, adults under 35, the lower and 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