NPR: People Say They're Leaving Religion Because Of Anti-LGBTQ Teachings And Abuse

[TTL News 308]

Quote

 

People in the U.S. are leaving and switching faith traditions in large numbers. The idea of "religious churning" is very common in America, according to a new survey from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). 

It finds that around one-quarter (26%) of Americans now identify as religiously unaffiliated, a number that has risen over the last decade and is now the largest single religious group in the U.S. That's similar to what other surveys and polls have also found, including Pew Research. 

PRRI found that the number of those who describe themselves as "nothing in particular" has held steady since 2013, but those who identify as atheists have doubled (from 2% to 4%) and those who say they're agnostic has more than doubled (from 2% to 5%).

 

Read the rest here.

[Chris 2,161]

LGBTQLMNOP has nothing to do with it for me. And while the child abuse scandal and how the church “handled” it was absolutely disgusting, that didn’t either.

What did it for me, and perhaps us as a family, was a feeling of not being welcome.

When our oldest was born, we made an effort to go to church as a family. Then one day the priest, who never struck me as approachable anyway, made a comment about “competition” from our infant son.

No competition today Father, not any after that. We never went back.

Then they changed everything, which made things harder when I’d be there for a baptism or whatever. 

No sense of belonging and no sense of community is what pushed me away. Still we’ve continued to support the church financially.

Happily, I’ve found some sense of community in a Catholic fraternal organization and have been to church three whole times in the past year or so. Which is more than the 20 prior. And I’ve enjoyed it.

Doesn't mean you’ll find me there frequently, but I do feel more comfortable and even enjoy Mass. Even if I still have no idea what to say and when.

While I’m all for tradition, I think Catholicism needs to find a better way to make itself relevant to younger families and in modern life. 

[Ann 263]

I attended Parochial School and grew up attending Church when Mass in Latin.  I continued attending after the Church changed Mass to English but felt “something” was lost.  For me, it wasn’t the same and I eventually stopped going to Church.   I miss the beauty, the structure, the solemnity the feeling of being “home”, of the Latin Mass of my childhood.