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Where has God gone? US church membership plummets!
Yesterday, as I write this, anyhow, a friend popped up in chat and said the following. “Looking at the posting regarding the drop in church membership. I noticed that The highest rate of decline took place from 2010–2020. I think that many good folks said goodbye to the church because of the evangelical support for Trump. It was for many, the last straw. It would be interesting to see the statistics from 2015–2020. The unholy trinity of Trump, Franklin Graham, and the Falwells & Pool Boy.”
He was referring to reports, like this one from The Hill, that showed membership in churches falling below 50% for the first time, ever. This report was based on US polling data by the Gallup organization. He suggested, as you can see above, that Donald Trump and his followers, many of them evangelicals, may have had something to do with people distancing themselves from religious associations.
While Trump probably did not help in adding credibility to the respectability of religion, I don’t think this decline has a lot to do with Trump. After the Capitol coup-attempt orchestrated by Trump and his rabid followers on January 6, 2021, it makes sense that some might want to distance themselves from this madness. However, this movement away from religion is part of an ongoing trend, and where it will go is anybody’s guess at this point. For another…
