World News and Trends: Church attendance declines while interest in God increases
A recent New Yorker feature article states that "God and the afterlife still do well in polls, clocking affirmative ratings of around 90 per cent for belief in God and 80 per cent for the afterlife."
The quote continues, "In fact according to a 1999 study by Mark Chaves, a sociologist at the University of Arizona, belief in the afterlife is going up, even as church attendance drops. Attendance and membership have been drifting lower ever since the baby boomers ... started to wander away again" (emphasis added)."
Statistical information is always subject to manipulation, but Chaves also claims that, on average, only 28 percent of Catholics attend Mass on any given weekend and about one in five Protestants attend church on Sunday. In general these downward trends have been confirmed by other sources.
Wrote Los Angeles Times religion writer Margaret Ramirez: "Church attendance is declining in the United States and other industrialized nations . . . At the same time, however, in both the United States and elsewhere, the percentage of people who report that they think about spiritual issues is holding steady or on the rise."
Those polled also showed considerable interest in the meaning and purpose of life itself. One member of the Michigan team "believes that the findings show that while allegiance to religious institutions declines, spiritual concerns remain strong but are displayed in different outlets from the Church."
Dan Wakefield put it this way in his recent book, How Do We Know When It's God? He wrote: "I haven't lost faith in God, but I've lost faith in words." The impression given by these various lines of thought is that God mainly reveals Himself in other ways than through the Bible and churches.
However, other observers have expressed serious misgivings about ungoverned spiritual expressions divorced both from the Bible and the church. They point out that this phenomenon reflects a move toward "cafeteria Christianity" in which believers pick and choose for themselves doctrines from different denominations and even New Age groups.
To further understand these important issues, please request our free booklets What Is Your Destiny?, The Church Jesus Built and How to Understand the Bible. (Sources: The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times.)
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John Ross Schroeder
John died on March 8, 2014, in Oxford, England, four days after suffering cardiac arrest while returning home from a press event in London. John was 77 and still going strong.
Some of John's work for The Good News appeared under his byline, but much didn't. He wrote more than a thousand articles over the years, but also wrote the Questions and Answers section of the magazine, compiled our Letters From Our Readers, and wrote many of the items in the Current Events and Trends section. He also contributed greatly to a number of our study guides and Bible Study Course lessons. His writing has touched the lives of literally millions of people over the years.
John traveled widely over the years as an accredited journalist, especially in Europe. His knowledge of European and Middle East history added a great deal to his articles on history and Bible prophecy.
In his later years he also pastored congregations in Northern Ireland and East Sussex, and that experience added another dimension to his writing. He and his wife Jan were an effective team in our British Isles office near their home.
John was a humble servant who dedicated his life to sharing the gospel—the good news—of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to all the world, and his work was known to readers in nearly every country of the world.
Scott Ashley
Scott Ashley was managing editor of Beyond Today magazine, United Church of God booklets and its printed Bible Study Course until his retirement in 2023. He also pastored three congregations in Colorado for 10 years from 2011-2021. He and his wife, Connie, live near Denver, Colorado.
Mr. Ashley attended Ambassador College in Big Sandy, Texas, graduating in 1976 with a theology major and minors in journalism and speech. It was there that he first became interested in publishing, an industry in which he worked for 50 years.
During his career, he has worked for several publishing companies in various capacities. He was employed by the United Church of God from 1995-2023, overseeing the planning, writing, editing, reviewing and production of Beyond Today magazine, several dozen booklets/study guides and a Bible study course covering major biblical teachings. His special interests are the Bible, archaeology, biblical culture, history and the Middle East.
