Religious Trends

Review: ‘Christianity and New Religious Movements’ by Derek Cooper - TGC

“Around 47% of Americans feel hopeful about 2024, contrasting with 22% who feel discouraged and 31% experiencing mixed feelings, the poll results say.” - CPost

“These spiritual communities discard doctrine, prefer questions over answers and have no intention of converting anybody to anything.” - RNS

“Online church attendees read the Bible more than onsite worshipers. Nonbelievers outpace Christians in valuing several pro-social Bible-based behaviors. And Black Americans are more spiritually vibrant than whites and Hispanics.” - BPNews

“data from the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) does not show ongoing growth. Between 2010 and 2018, the share of Chinese adults who formally identify with Christianity remained stable at about 2%” - Pew

“belief in spirits or a spiritual realm beyond this world is widespread, even among those who don’t consider themselves religious.” - Pew

Related – Study: Most Americans are spiritual but a growing number say they are not religious - RNS

“In 2008, 62% of never attenders were Democrats and 20% were Republicans…. in 2016, it dropped to only 31 points (56% vs 25%)…. in 2022 the gap was just 29 points (53% vs 24%)…. The Democrats are losing their advantage with never attenders.” - Ryan Burge

“Maybe there are regions where attendance may be actually climbing. That’s what I did in the map below using data from 2008 and 2022.” - Ryan Burge

“Not all research data agrees, but some recent studies indicate that the growth of religiously unaffiliated Americans has slowed or stopped.” - Lifeway

“There’s no single answer, but the most compelling explanation is that changes in American family life precipitated this national decline. American families have changed dramatically over the past few decades and many churches have been slow to respond.” - IFS