American churches have been languishing in an "attendance recession." Fewer Americans go to church. Now, from the Pew Research Center, comes word that Americans who identify with a specific religion declined six percent in the past seven years. Belief in God, praying daily and religious service attendance have dropped since 2007.
Curiously, there has been an increase in those who said religion was "very important" -- defined as weekly reading of Scripture, participating in a small group and regularly talking about their faith. Pew's research shows that more than 6 in 10 religiously unaffiliated Americans still believe in God and 1 in 5 pray daily. As Martin Marty, University of Chicago historian, put it years ago, contemporary Americans are "believers but not joiners." Pew has now documented a growing "deinstitutionalization" of religion in general and Christianity in particular.
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