Never to Return?

This morning, I read the latest analysis of the “dechurching” of America in The Atlantic (yes, it’s about America, but, as always, the trends are applicable throughout much of the West). “What happens when Americans stop going to church?” Daniel Williams asks. Well, broadly speaking, they become more polarized and politicized. But they also don’t tend to become atheists, agnostics, or even necessarily “nones” (although this last category is indeed growing). They tend to hang on to at least some version of Christian belief, but often a politically distorted version. And, absent the church, a largely self-referential one that reinforces their own views.

None of this is really news to anyone who has observed the trends over the last few decades (or more). But it’s perhaps worth making a few observations. First, it is politics, not religion, that is the actual arena in which many of us negotiate our hopes, fears, longings, loves, hates, etc. Whatever we might say about how our religious convictions are the most important thing in their lives, these are often mostly functioning as a justification for our political views. I see this all the time. Jesus is kicked around like a political football, being (mis)used to add spiritual legitimacy to the political projects of the right and the left. This was most obviously the case during Covid, at least in my experience. For many people, pandemic politics became the grand story that gave their lives meaning (again, on both the right and the left).

Second, the flight from the church’s role in contributing to the polarization of our culture is worth pondering. We hear over and over again that nobody bothers with institutions anymore, that everyone just goes online, finds their tribe, and hunkers down with like-minded people. I think this is more or less true. The church, flawed though it no doubt is and has always been, was (and is) one of the few remaining places where people are forced into contact with difference. And it is certainly one of the few remaining places where we could conceivably be told that it is our duty to love across difference. Which aside from being the truth of who we are and what we’re called to, could be useful.

Third, the flight from church has manifestly not come with a corresponding flight from moralizing. Williams puts it well:

But without a church community, in many cases, the nation’s political system becomes their church—and the results are polarizing. They bring whatever moral and social values they acquired from their church experience and then apply those values in the political sphere with an evangelical zeal.

Again, this seems obviously true to me on both the right and the left. Indeed, some of the most morally zealous people I have encountered have been those whose politics have become their church.

Finally, I couldn’t help but laugh at the very first line of the article:

Millions of Americans are leaving church, never to return…

Never to return? That seems a rather bold claim. How does the author know this?

Yes, the news seems bad for the church. No, things have not been trending in a hopeful direction for quite some time (at least in the West. It’s always worth reminding ourselves that we are not the whole world, and that Christianity is quite strong in other places). It is undeniable that if things persist on their present course, the future of the church looks dire indeed.

But never to return? I have been a pastor for a decade and a half now, and I have seen people return. Sometimes it’s young parents who return after a long absence because they have a vague sense that their kids need something. Sometimes it’s middle-aged people in an existential crisis of meaning and purpose. Sometimes it is older people licking their wounds after going through terrible things with their kids or grandkids. It could be someone in the middle of a predicament of some kind—divorce, death, health, career change, etc. Sometimes it’s just someone who is desperately lonely. Almost always it’s someone who’s been hurt or who has hurt someone, who realizes that there is something missing in their life and that this something has something to do with God.

The church, as I’ve said before, is not primarily a social organization or a political hub. It is not a counselling agency or a mental health care provider. It can probably make some small contribution in each of these areas, but that’s not what it’s for. Fundamentally, people need meaning in their lives. They need to know that they are part of a story that matters and that is going somewhere. They need to have some way to make moral sense of their experiences and a place to park their hope. They need to believe that there is help from the outside and that they can be forgiven.

At some point in our lives, I think we all come to the realization that despite what the wellness marketers are desperate to tell and sell us, we are not “enough.” Our politics devolve into self-congratulation, our tribes reveal themselves to be less than pure. The project of actualizing the kingdom of God reveals itself to be somehow beyond our capacity. And when we come to the end of ourselves… Well, the church is (still) here. We’re part of a long line of returners, after all. We’re all prodigals making our way home.

Image source.