For the first time ever, the percentage of Americans who belong to a house of worship such as a church or synagogue has fallen below 50%, according to a new Gallup survey.

The recent poll found that only 47% of Americans reported membership in a place of worship in 2020, continuing a steep downward trend that began in the early 2000s.  In 1937, when Gallup first began tracking church membership, 73% of Americans reported belonging to a house of worship.  Membership (and church attendance) continued at nearly the same high levels for almost seven more decades.  In 1999, 70% of Americans still said they belonged to a house of worship.  For some reason, or reasons, membership began steadily declining in the early 2000s, a trend that continues apace, with no sign of slowing.

Gallup said of its survey's findings: "Over the past two decades, the percentage of Americans who do not identify with any religion has grown from 8% in 1998–2000 to 13% in 2008–2010 and 21% over the past three years.  As would be expected, Americans without a religious preference are highly unlikely to belong to a church, synagogue or mosque, although a small proportion — 4% in the 2018–2020 data — say they do.  That figure is down from 10% between 1998 and 2000."

Those from younger generations in particular are rapidly abandoning or avoiding religion.  Gallup noted, "Church membership is strongly correlated with age, as 66% of traditionalists — U.S. adults born before 1946 — belong to a church, compared with 58% of baby boomers, 50% of those in Generation X and 36% of Millennials."  (The flight from Christian churches is even more striking when you realize that a higher percentage of Americans are members of a mosque than ever before, though that percentage is still low.)

Violent — and other — crime is rising in virtually all major American cities.  Rates of addiction, depression, and suicide are also rising dramatically.  Syringes and human feces line the streets and sidewalks of formerly paradisaical cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Portland.  A growing number of us find it difficult to figure out what sex we may be.  Pot, shrooms, and even hard drugs are being legalized in many locales.  Criminals are being let out of jail, while hardworking small business–owners are being ushered into jail.  Police departments are being demonized and defunded.  There is a growing push to legalize polygamy.  Yet it is a crime to say, "All Lives Matter."

But this is all just coincidence, post hoc, ergo propter hoc randomness, right?  It can't possibly be a result of the staggeringly rapid loss of religiosity that is occurring in America and much of the West, can it?  Nah!

So let's let those on the left continue to criminalize Christianity and legalize crime.  What could possibly go wrong?

After all, they are vouching for Gomorrah.  It was tolerant and inclusive, you see.

Image: Arcadja.com via Picryl, Public Domain.

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