Douthat's Wager: Go to Church, Even If You Don't Believe

Douthat's Easter Sunday column was, in his words, an “implausible proposal” aimed at helping post-Christian readers fill a gap in their lives while helping their former churches fill their pews. Mainline churches—the long-established, theologically liberal denominations that in the twentieth century were closely associated with white American political power—have been aging and dwindling as younger Christians either join nondenominational evangelical churches or disaffiliate from religion altogether. Half of American Presbyterians are age 59 or over; half of atheists and agnostics are under 34.