A double whammy for NC churches: COVID cuts attendance amid another troubling trend
As COVID waves cut attendance at places of worship, a wave of another sort is eroding the foundation of religious affiliation in the U.S., particularly among Christians.
A new survey by Pew Research Center found that over the last decade the portion of the U.S. population that identifies as Christian has fallen from 75 percent in 2011 to 63 percent today. Meanwhile, 20 percent of U.S. adults describe their religious affiliation as “nothing in particular,” up from 14 percent a decade ago.
“The secularizing shifts evident in American society so far in the 21st century show no signs of slowing,” the research group said.
This trend comes as churches are taking a COVID pounding as regular churchgoers have avoided in-person worship for fear of infection.
The Rev. Dr. Robert C. Scott of St. Paul Baptist Church in Charlotte said that before the pandemic his Black mega church held two Sunday services that drew as many as 2,400 worshipers. These days, the church holds just one Sunday service that attracts 300 to 400 people.
In Raleigh at the Edenton Street Methodist Church, the Rev. Greg Moore, senior pastor, said in-person services were not held from March 2020 to August 2021 and attendance at the 4,000-member church now is about 60 percent of what it was before COVID caused the shutdown.
The Catholic Diocese of Raleigh reports that Mass attendance “rebounded significantly,” but is “generally slightly below pre-pandemic attendance levels.”
How much church attendance will ultimately come back is unknown, but a new spike in infections brought on by the omicron variant surely will not help. The decline in in-person worship could intensify the longer-term drift from religious affiliation.
The Pew survey found that the share of U.S. adults who identify as Protestant has fallen from 52 percent in 2007 to 40 percent today. Catholic identification has remained relatively steady at 21 percent, a showing helped by the nation’s increased Hispanic population.
“We’re becoming more secularized overall, but I think the pace toward it is higher among whites than African Americans as well as other ethnic groups,” Scott said. “What is happening in Europe is beginning to happen in America.”
At Edenton Street Methodist, Moore sees a parallel between wavering church attendance and the Great Resignation. Just as the disruptions of the pandemic have prompted many to rethink what they want from work, he said, so has the suspension and the return of in-person church services moved people to reconsider their relationship with their church.
“People are in this inflection point where they’re trying to figure out what they want to do with their life and church is one of those questions,” Moore said. “We are reconsidering everything.”
A questioning congregation may worry some church leaders, but Moore sees it differently. “From my standpoint, it’s a great opportunity to really help people reassess what their life is oriented toward. What are the things that are sacred in their life?”
In some ways, the idea that a pandemic’s disruptions may accelerate a trend toward secularization is counterintuitive. The arrival of a virus that has killed more than 800,000 Americans in less than two years would seem to be a calamity that would turn more people toward churches and prayer.
Bishop Luis Rafael Zarama of the Catholic Diocese of Raleigh hopes that may still be the effect. He said in a statement: “Oftentimes, as humans we only recognize our relationship with God in the extremes. We thank him when something wonderful happens; we lament when we feel abandoned by him. I pray that one outcome of the pandemic is that we might appreciate more during such a turbulent time that God is always waiting for us. He will always be there whenever we are ready to accept him.”