Religion in America

Is Christianity doomed in America? According to a recent Pew study and the many online responses to this study, you could quickly draw the conclusion that the end is near. However, as any good marketer would know, you have to understand the circumstances and determine what is driving the behavior to determine if opportunities exist to change the trend through efforts of marketing.

The study and the accompanying articles seems to expose a few specific areas were the membership is particularly in decline. The study reveals that decline is more dramatic amongst traditional Roman Catholic or Protestants churches. [1] The study doesn’t show that religion on a whole is declining, as reported “Non-Christian faiths, like Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism generally held steady or increased their share of the population.” [1] The study purports that the bulk of the decline can be squarely placed amongst Millennials. “Millennials -- those born in the 1980s and 1990s -- are the least religious generation of Americans in the last six decades.” (4). before an acceptance that the sky has fallen can be made, there is still a bigger picture to be examined.

Alex Johnson from UsNews provides the following leveling perspective. “it's easy to overlook an important point — the U.S. remains overwhelmingly Christian, with 7 of 10 Americans identifying with a Christian faith.” (3) Other sources that look beyond the borders of America see an amazing increase in Christianity outside America. Particularly in Communist China. “Christianity is surging in China… in 2007 there were about 60 million Christians in Communist China. Now, they noted, more than 40 new Christian churches…are starting up every week.” If this trend were to hold for even another decade, there would be more Christians in China than any other nation in the world." [3] So why is the participation rising in China and declining in America? To answer this question we have to look again at Millennials to understand...