Axios - The U.S. is undergoing its fastest religious shift in modern history, marked by a rapid increase in the religiously unaffiliated and numerous church closures nationwide, Axios' Russell Contreras writes.
The great unchurching of America comes as identity and reality are increasingly shaped by non-institutional spiritual sources — YouTube mystics, TikTok tarot, digital skeptics, folk saints and AI-generated prayer bots.
It's a tectonic transformation that has profound implications for race, civic identity, political persuasion and the ability to govern a fracturing moral landscape.
By the numbers:
- Nearly three in 10 American adults identify as religiously unaffiliated — a 33% jump since 2013, according to the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). That's quicker than almost any major religious shift in modern U.S. history, and it's happening across racial groups.
- About four in ten Americans ages 18 to 29 identify as religiously unaffiliated (38%), an increase from 32% in 2013, PRRI said.
- Gallup polling finds 57% of Americans seldom or never attend religious services, a jump from 40% in 2000.
... An unprecedented 15,000 churches are expected to shut their doors this year, far more than the few thousand expected to open, according to denominational reports and church consultants. These churches once served as community gathering places for Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, voting precincts, or town halls, leaving a void.
Megachurches show signs of stability, but not enough to reverse overall declines. Share this story.
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