David Quinn
Sooner or later the hyper-individualism that exists in the West will burn itself out and the Church has to be ready to meet the disaffected, writes David Quinn
A major new study published earlier this year showed a huge increase in the number of Irish people who say they never go to church.
The study, called Historical Political Cleavages and Post-Crisis Transformations in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland, 1953-2020, found that the percentage who say they never go has jumped to 50% from 19% over the period 2011-2016. In other words, it has increased two and a half times. That is a historical level of change.
Over 70% of Americans still say they belong to a given religion even if they are no longer registered with one”
Meanwhile, in the US, a new survey from the polling company, Gallup, has found that the number of Americans who say they don’t belong to a particular Church, synagogue, mosque etc, is now below half for the first time since polling began in the 1970s. The figure is 47%.
This is not the same as identifying with a religion, by the way. For example, someone might still describe themselves as ‘Catholic’ on a census form, or to a pollster, but not go to any given Church. In the US, unlike in Ireland, people tend to formally register with the place of worship they attend. Over 70% of Americans still say they belong to a given religion even if they are no longer registered with one.
The aforementioned study that includes Ireland did offer a crumb of comfort. While there has been a huge increase in the number who say they never go to church, the fall-off in those who attend regularly has been much smaller, from 33% to 28% since 2016.
What seems to have happened is that those who were going only on very rare occasions, or sporadically (a few times a year), have now switched into the ‘never go’ camp.
Needless to say, the situation varies greatly by age, with older people far more likely to attend while younger people are far less likely to do so.
What is clearly happening is that, as time passes, those who are barely connected with a Church are now drifting away completely. They might still say they are Catholic (or Protestant) in some vague way, but they are non-practicing. Some may turn up to have their children baptised and confirmed, or for weddings and funerals, but that is about it.
Non-affiliation
This kind of non-affiliation is affecting many other parts of society, and not just religion. This cannot be emphasised enough. In general, we belong to fewer organisations and institutions than was once the case.
Far fewer belong to trades unions, for instance. Far fewer belong to political parties, or vote, than in decades past. Far fewer identify with a given party, let alone formally belong to it. Many more are floating voters, when they vote.
Marriage rates have declined. Fewer than half of Irish adults are now married. Cohabitation has sharply increased, and some cohabiting couples never marry. Those who don’t marry in the end usually break up. Many children have much less stability in their lives as a result.
What we are witnessing is the continued rise and consequences of a type of individualism that puts personal freedom first and wants to be unencumbered. Belonging to something can made demands.
They also believe that they are saved, unless they do something truly drastic”
Religion is seen as something that involves rules and regulations, the opposite of freedom.
An additional problem for organised religion is that many people are content to be ‘spiritual’, which is roughly the equivalent of being a floating voter.
They feel no need to belong to any actual religious community because, lip service aside, they actually don’t feel the need to belong to any community at all, aside maybe from their families or society as a whole, and even in those cases often only weakly.
They also believe that they are saved, unless they do something truly drastic. That is to say, they believe they are right with God except in extreme circumstances. God also makes no real demands and expects little from you, they think. He is more of a spiritual comfort blanket.
They tend to have a favourable opinion of Jesus, but they don’t think Jesus makes too many demands either, even though the commandments to love your neighbours as yourself, and to do to others as you would want them to do to you, demand gigantic self-sacrifice.
Sacrifice
In the case of families, people are still willing to sacrifice a lot, but as mentioned, fewer marry than was once the case, many men do not play an active part in raising their children, and many abortions take place each year.
Paradoxically, we also see the rise of pseudo-religions like ‘wokeness’, the slang term given to the ideology that sacralises the likes of race and gender, making them totems or idols that can be only spoken about in certain ways or else you run the risk of landing yourself in extremely serious trouble.
The Church has simply to play the long game. It has existed for 2,000 years and has seen almost everything. Soon or later the sort of hyper-individualism that exists in the West will burn itself out.
It must offer this and have confidence in its basic message, in season and out of season”
In the meantime, the Church has to keep on presenting Jesus to the world as best it can and invite people to join the community of his followers. That is what the Church is, and is all it can ever be. It must offer this and have confidence in its basic message, in season and out of season.