Dechurched America: 40M worshippers no longer attend

https://www.npr.org/2023/05/16/1176206568/less-important-rel... (“NPR: The importance of religion in the lives of Americans is shrinking”)

https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/09/13/modeling-the... (“Pew Research: Modeling the Future of Religion in America”)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/22/us-churches-... (“The Guardian: Losing their religion: why US churches are on the decline”)

https://news.gallup.com/poll/341963/church-membership-falls-... (“Gallup: U.S. Church Membership Falls Below Majority for First Time“)

People breaking out into free thought ... its an amazing thing. Religious stories as a child sound intimidating and impressive. When you start becoming your own person they just dont resonate ... especially when fiction has much better stories. Id rather live in greek mythology or onepiece or even lord of the rings. Western religions are silly and self serving ... Mormon church in the US is the 2nd largest land owner ... and they dont pay taxes.

If indeed 40 people don't go to church, they're not really worshippers any longer, are they? Yes, I read the article, I think the author is cherry picking data to support a predetermined conclusion.

I'd imagine that COVID had something to do with this. Churchgoers started watching mass on the net, and called it going to church.