Well holy shit America. We need to talk about what's happening to religion in this country, becuase it's absolutley fucking wild!
We are witnessing what behavioral psychologists call an "extinction burst", a desperate and frantic spike in activity right before something dies off. And American religion is flopping like a fish out of goddamn water.
Unlike Preachers, Numbers Don't Lie
Let's take a look at the facts. The number of People who identify as Christian has dwindled, dropping 16 percentage points since 2007 from 78% to just 62% of American adults. Those numbers are not a gentle decline, they are a freefall into the pavement.
Meanwhile, the people who say fuck it to organized religion are the only group that is growing. From 21% in 2013 to 26% in 2023. Those numbers have nearly tripled since 2000 when only 8% of Americans gave religion the spiritual finger.
Church membership has fallen below 50% for the first time in American histoy. We went from 69% in the late 90's to 49% by 2020. The church is collapsing and that should scare the shit out of every megachurch pastor who's looking to buy a new jet!
The Extinction Burst In Action
Here's where the extinction burst comes in. When something is dying, it often gets more extreme, more desperate, more fucking obnoxious before it finally kicks the bucket. Sound familiar? We're seeing exactly that with American Christianity. The remaining believers are doubling down on the crazy political extremism, culture war bullshit, and more desperate attempts to legislate their beliefs into everyone else's lives. It's like watching a wounded animal lash out before it dies.
The moderate, reasonable religious folks are quietly walking away, leaving behind the hardcore fundamentalists who think the solution to declining membership is to scream louder about gay people and abortion. It's a brilliant strategy if your goal is to drive even more people away.
The Writing's on the Wall Next to the Cross
Only 16% of Americans now say religion is the most important thing in their lives. Only 53% think it's important at all, down from 72% a decade ago.
Why This Matters
The extinction burst we're witnessing, the political extremism, the culture war garbage, the attempts to impose religious law is the final, frantic flailing of an institution that knows it's fucked.
The Future Belongs To The Unbeliever
When your response to declining membership is to become more hateful, more exclusionary, and more politically toxic, you've pretty much written your own obituary. The future belongs to the Unbeliever and they're not particularly interested in what the pulpit has to say about it. Religion in America isn't just declining it's collapsing, and we all saw this extinction burst coming from a mile away.