Religious observance has taken a back seat in American’s lives. At the same time civility is trending south. Youth hide venomous attacks behind anonymous pseudonyms, human life is devaluated in the media we consume, and simple offenses turn to acts of violence. Our entertainment has descended into darker and more grittier overtones, where our hero’s morality and motive is often questionable. Shootings and gun violence have hit all time highs. There are many reasons for this rise of uncivil behavior, but much of these can be tied to the decline in the social fabric we once had.
In 1952 75% of Americans said religion was “very important,” that is now down to 51%. Also, at that time there was an 80 point gap between those who said religion “can answer” all or most of today’s problems (87%) to those who said it “can’t answer” (7%), now that gap is only 7 points, leaving Americans split if religion really has the answer anymore. Today, nearly four in ten (39%) young adults (ages 18-29) are religiously unaffiliated, whereas in 1986, for example, only 10% of young adults claimed no religious affiliation (see study)
So why are people leaving religion? Inconsistent doctrines or divisive attempts to control people’s will are certainly grounds to become disenfranchised and pull away from institutions which don’t contribute to people’s well being. But for the majority of those have left their religion, they simply stopped believing in the religion’s teachings (60%), their family was never that religious when they were growing up (32%), or they experienced negative religious teachings about or treatment of LGBT (29%) (see study).
Unfortunately, of those who have left religion, two-thirds believe “religion causes more problems in society than it solves” and also believe religion is “not important for children to learn good values.” However, as society has pulled away from religious participation, it has thrown the proverbial baby out with the bathwater. People and society as a whole may have left for some of the bad, but neglected the greater good and social fabric it provided.
One of the benefits from organized religion is the institutionalization of human values. These values not only serve as a backbone for good human conduct, but as a glue to good citizenly conduct. For many centuries Christianity held the 7 deadly sins and 7 heavily virtues as key tenants to righteous living. These behavioral principles were not of Christian invention, Plato had also a list of similar virtues, but Christianly continued to instill these virtues as parameters for a model citizen and contributing member to society.
However, as religious importance declined, so have the virtues which it champions. An interesting study analyzed all the words used in books from 1901 to 2000. Words relating to virtuous character and ethics, such as “honesty, patience, honor, kindness, wisdom, humility” showed a significant decline of 74%. The author commented “the words in a book reflect what is salient in the minds of a culture’s members, and simultaneously make these words even more salient. It’s a feedback cycle whereby people make cultural products and the cultural products make people,”
Virtuous living also holds value in the daily interactions of the workplace. If you were to sit in a performance review at your place of employment, would not these 7 deadly sins or 7 heavenly virtues play a major role in your performance rating? Though the names will not be the same, you will still see the same tenants of how well you work with your colleagues (wrath or patience, envy or kindness), are a team player (greed or charity), finding solutions to problems (sloth or diligence), are willing to take feedback and improve (pride or humility). One virtue of chastity over lust should especially be observed in the workplace and would reduce the all too frequent cases of sexual harassment experienced today.
These virtues have also provided a sense of higher purpose and accountability to laws which supersede that of civil law. As a civilization of people, living in harmony and progressing in industry and thought demands we follow a higher purpose than satisfying our own immediate needs. Civil law serves as a baseline to ensure orderly human conduct, but it does not serve as a motivator to do good or achieve greater human progress. The disciplined, virtuous life is always worth living. Whether it’s apart of a church or outside of it, this principle is valid for all citizens of a productive society.
Interestingly, Harvard scholar Clayton Christensen found a connection that democracy itself cannot flourish in a country without a strong religious foundation. The probability that democracy and free markets will flourish in a nation is proportional to “The extent of obedience to the unenforceable. Democracy-enabling religions are those that support the sanctity of life, the equality of people, the importance of respecting others’ property, and of personal honesty and integrity” (see article). He argues that even with the decline of religion we’ve been able to operate successfully with the momentum from the past religious foundations which have instilled some of those values in our culture who may not be religious but still “voluntarily obey the law, comply with contracts, value honesty and integrity and respect other people’s rights and property.” The fact is that culture is not sustainable protector of democracies enabling values, because it lacks the mechanisms and institutions for holding citizens accountable to the unenforceable.
Culture also fails to provide a sustainable and consistent standard of ethics. Culture enforces its standards subjectively based on majority interest and may not have ethical grounds. The extremes of this can be seen as cultural racism which regarded blacks as inferior through much of southern American history and alternatively the latest trend toward political correctness, which lends to similar mob mentality of demanding people are publicly shamed and even denied employment if not in agreement to public opinion. Neither of these lend to sensible ethical behavior, inclusion, or forgivable progression.
Secondly, religious observance with regular church attendance served to provide a consistent and reliable place to build community and have meaningful in-person interactions. As people have left their faith, they have tried to replace the community they once found in their faith, but often fail. Now, Americans are more lonely than ever. There is an epidemic of loneliness and as many as 46% of the entire US population feel lonely regularly.
Social bonds are a crucial competent to our own DNA. We are social animals and through history social bonds have been essential to our survival (see study). Loneliness is a serious issue, its effects on our health can be twice as deadly as obesity and as deadly as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. There are many factors at play, but research has shown that something as simple as believing in a supernatural being or attending a church will create “molecular remodeling” and our loneliness will in turn decrease.
In some scenarios, people have left their faith because they didn’t feel it was the right community for them, conflicts and offenses drove them away from regular attendance. Yes, there will always be abrasive personalities which have superiority complexes and will often offend. Whether in a church or a social group, that will be the case with any kind of community you belong to. Rather than avoiding these interactions at the cost of loosing good human connection, we need to learn how to manage living in communities with individuals we will dislike or that dislike us.
Rarely, in a Christian religious setting, do these conflicts and differences result in extreme dissonance and hatred without some efforts to reconcile. What is missing today is the resilience and vulnerability for people to approach each other, reconcile their offenses and find common ground. Leaving a faith to avoid this important experience only offsets their ability to integrate and collaborate in a community, whether in their faith or elsewhere.
What is important to understand through all of this is there are social benefactors of religions influence for developing local communities and building a moral structure. What is not been solved is how individuals and communities who have left their faiths will fill these gaps. A return to religious observance is the simplest answer. More complex, but likely more feasible, are social programs which directly address community involvement and encouraging a virtuous lifestyle, programs such as Scouts and Kiwanis. Unfortunately, these programs as well are in steady decline.
As of now, the most we can do is be aware of these important gaps and revitalize our determination to create community and encourage virtuous living wherever and with whatever organization that we may be with. If we neglectfully leave things to the current trends, the designs of generations past will fade and we’ll have a civilization which can longer work with the social grease it once had. Let us start now, if you are part of a church, try to welcome those to your faith or find an organization to join and be a contributing member of it. Teach our youth responsibility, integrity, and sociality. Find common ground and be inclusive of the diversity of contributions people can make. Stop damming others or the past and look for the good which has brought us to where we are and improve upon the bad. Making our churches, communities, and the world a better place starts with us, it was never someone else’s responsibility.
