EVANGELICALS AND THE YOUNG

The recent PRRI study (see blog post of 11 July) revealed two important factors about White Evangelical Christians in America: they are rapidly declining as a percentage of the American population (23% in 2006 to 14.5% in 2020), and they are the oldest group studied (median age, 56). These two factors suggest a critical failure of the Evangelicals to attract young people. Evangelicals would be defined as the "born-again" Christians as the Southern Baptists, Assemblies of God, and most of the megachurches. The Anglican Diocese of South Carolina is also in this camp.

Why are young Americans turning away from Evangelical religion in droves? That is a good question that may have a number of answers. Here is a thoughtful essay on what might be the factors involved in this: Why Some Younger Evangelicals are Leaving the Faith .

Studies show that young Americans are overwhelmingly in favor of protecting and extending human rights, such as marriage equality and transgendered rights, equality for women, and racial justice. They are very much on the progressive side of the contemporary culture war. Meanwhile, many Evangelical churches attached themselves to the conservative camp of the culture war, some of them becoming virtual arms of the Republican Party (80% of Evangelicals voted for Trump in 2016 and in 2020). As I have said on this blog more than once, it is fatal for churches as institutions to attach themselves to political bodies (e.g., catastrophic mistake of the Catholic Church in France before the Revolution). This is the grave mistake some Evangelicals made and are still making in American life. This is certainly a major reason why so many young people are fleeing the Evangelicals.

Young people's attachment to progressive attitudes does not bode well for the breakaway contingent in South Carolina. A denomination that was founded to keep open homosexuals and women from having equality and inclusion will hardly be a magnet for young people, even in conservative South Carolina. This could be a major reason for the drastic and relentless decline in the Anglican diocese's communicant numbers. A church that does not attract young people is a church without a future. The future does not look good for the ADSC any more than for the Evangelical churches in general.