People in the U.S. are leaving and switching faith traditions in large numbers. The idea of “religious churning” is very common in America, according to a new survey from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).
It finds that around one-quarter (26%) of Americans now identify as religiously unaffiliated, a number that has risen over the last decade and is now the largest single religious group in the U.S. That’s similar to what other surveys and polls have also found, including Pew Research.
There is also another way of looking at it: If pastors focus on ministering to teens, those teens become more faithful but then leave to the coasts for work when they reach adulthood and churches on the coasts receive more money due to the work of the home church. Meanwhile, if the pastors focus on the old people, those old people die and leave money to the home churches. So there is a financial incentive to ignore things that matter to the youth and focus on what matters to the elderly, at least in the short run.
Church is a business and baby jesus is crying