{"id":79274,"date":"2025-12-27T07:57:01","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T12:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/?p=79274"},"modified":"2026-02-02T23:23:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T04:23:37","slug":"the-great-unchurching-of-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/the-great-unchurching-of-america\/","title":{"rendered":"The Great &#8216;Unchurching&#8217; Of America"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>From Axios:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The U.S. is undergoing its fastest religious shift in modern history, marked by a rapid increase in the<span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00a0<a class=\"gtmContentClick\" style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/11\/13\/gallup-us-religion-plunge-shift-global-declines\" target=\"_self\" data-vars-link-text=\"religiously unaffiliated\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/11\/13\/gallup-us-religion-plunge-shift-global-declines\" data-vars-content-id=\"6ccd9efe-1116-4f33-80c3-c4b5f3b533b2\" data-vars-headline=\"The great unchurching of America\" data-vars-event-category=\"story\" data-vars-sub-category=\"story\" data-vars-item=\"in_content_link\">religiously unaffiliated<\/a>\u00a0and numerous\u00a0<a class=\"gtmContentClick\" style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/10\/03\/us-churches-close-religious-shift-christians\" target=\"_self\" data-vars-link-text=\"church closures\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/10\/03\/us-churches-close-religious-shift-christians\" data-vars-content-id=\"6ccd9efe-1116-4f33-80c3-c4b5f3b533b2\" data-vars-headline=\"The great unchurching of America\" data-vars-event-category=\"story\" data-vars-sub-category=\"story\" data-vars-item=\"in_content_link\">church closures<\/a>\u00a0nationwide.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Why it matters:\u00a0<\/strong>The great unchurching of America [which is mainly among Protestants] comes as identity and reality are increasingly shaped by non-institutional spiritual sources \u2014 YouTube mystics, <a class=\"gtmContentClick\" style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.boshemiamagazine.com\/blog\/tik-tok-tarot-jennifer-cartwright\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-vars-link-text=\"TikTok tarot\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.boshemiamagazine.com\/blog\/tik-tok-tarot-jennifer-cartwright\" data-vars-content-id=\"6ccd9efe-1116-4f33-80c3-c4b5f3b533b2\" data-vars-headline=\"The great unchurching of America\" data-vars-event-category=\"story\" data-vars-sub-category=\"story\" data-vars-item=\"in_content_link\">TikTok tarot<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"gtmContentClick\" style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@poetryofreality\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-vars-link-text=\"digital skeptics\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@poetryofreality\" data-vars-content-id=\"6ccd9efe-1116-4f33-80c3-c4b5f3b533b2\" data-vars-headline=\"The great unchurching of America\" data-vars-event-category=\"story\" data-vars-sub-category=\"story\" data-vars-item=\"in_content_link\">digital skeptics<\/a>, folk saints and\u00a0<a class=\"gtmContentClick\" style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/11\/12\/christian-ai-chatbot-jesus-god-satan-churches\" target=\"_self\" data-vars-link-text=\"AI-generated prayer bots\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/11\/12\/christian-ai-chatbot-jesus-god-satan-churches\" data-vars-content-id=\"6ccd9efe-1116-4f33-80c3-c4b5f3b533b2\" data-vars-headline=\"The great unchurching of America\" data-vars-event-category=\"story\" data-vars-sub-category=\"story\" data-vars-item=\"in_content_link\">AI-generated prayer bots<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">[SD note: the situation is exacerbated by clergy scandals, dry prolonged sermons, modernized rituals, and focus on theology rather than deliverance, healing, and the supernatural aspects of Christianity; <\/span><em>scroll for more:]<\/em><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><!-- spiritdaily.org --><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6350947343102800\" data-ad-slot=\"9237292177\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><script>(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It&#8217;s a tectonic transformation that has profound implications for race, civic identity, political persuasion and the ability to govern a fracturing moral landscape. <strong>By the numbers:\u00a0<\/strong>Nearly three in 10 American adults today identify as religiously unaffiliated \u2014 a 33% jump since 2013, according to the nonpartisan\u00a0<a class=\"gtmContentClick\" href=\"https:\/\/prri.org\/spotlight\/2024-prri-census-of-american-religion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-vars-link-text=\"Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI)\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/prri.org\/spotlight\/2024-prri-census-of-american-religion\/\" data-vars-content-id=\"6ccd9efe-1116-4f33-80c3-c4b5f3b533b2\" data-vars-headline=\"The great unchurching of America\" data-vars-event-category=\"story\" data-vars-sub-category=\"story\" data-vars-item=\"in_content_link\">Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI)<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"gsp_post_data\" \r\n\t            data-post_type=\"post\" \r\n\t            data-cat=\"church,commentary\" \r\n\t            data-modified=\"120\"\r\n\t            data-created=\"1766822221\"\r\n\t            data-title=\"The Great &#8216;Unchurching&#8217; Of America\" \r\n\t            data-home=\"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From Axios: The U.S. is undergoing its fastest religious shift in modern history, marked by a rapid increase in the\u00a0religiously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[44,36],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-79274","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-church","7":"category-commentary","8":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79274\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}