The baby boomers are still faithful, but the generation immediately following them, known as Generation X, is falling away in large numbers.

"The percentage of people ages 39 to 57 who attended a worship service during the week, either in person or online, fell to 28% in 2023, down from 41% in 2020, according to a survey this year. This was the largest percentage-point drop of all age groups examined in the survey of 2,000 adults conducted by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University."

"John Newman, 41, no longer attends or donates to church, but will still respond 'Catholic' on a survey and supports Catholic schools and their sports programs. Newman, who went to Catholic schools, stopped going to church in his 30s, when he says that a new priest marginalized people who were gay, living out of wedlock or divorced. 'I’m not interested in hearing those sermons,' says Newman, who lives in the Chicago area."

The Wall St. Journal via MSN:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/why-middle-aged-americans-aren-t-going-back-to-church/ar-AA1eFcKP?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=ea3c4ad9fb9f40018ffd1fc438bcbbfa&ei=117



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/2023 10:19AM by summer.

> "John Newman, 41, no longer attends or donates to
> church, but will still respond 'Catholic' on a
> survey and supports Catholic schools and their
> sports programs. Newman, who went to Catholic
> schools, stopped going to church in his 30s, when
> he says that a new priest marginalized people who
> were gay, living out of wedlock or divorced.
> 'I’m not interested in hearing those sermons,'
> says Newman, who lives in the Chicago area."
>

It is a negative feedback loop. "Normal" people leave, so the fanatics remain, as those fanatics become more the norm, more reasonable people are forced out. I have been asked to attend a mass or two in recent years and homily is nothing like I remember growing up in the late '90s.

Even as I converted as an 18 year old at the end of the last century I don't remember TSCC being so anti gay. I mean it was obvious it was a "sin" but it was not as much of a central theme.

This is what I've noticed since the turn of the 21st Century.


I knew a friend's mother in her 80s who died from COVID-19. Church (not Mormon) was the nexus of her social life in the neighbourhood of the Midwestern town she grew up in. Girl Scouts, high school volleyball, dances, weddings, dinners, etc. all these activities were organized and connected through the church. The religion just sort of came along for the ride. All the people in the area were in her church or a nearby one. People from different ethnic groups simply were not part of this way of life.



Now fast-forward towards the 1990s. The all-white, all-"Christian" suburban America around large metro areas is starting to change. Educated professionals of colour and immigrants start to move in. These are people who can't be dismissed as stereotypes. Mosques, Hindu temples, and predominately black churches start to rise. Neighbourhoods change, and megachurches start to rise. The "I'm not racist, I just have an ethnocentric preference" thing starts to bring a lot of people like this together. This is when the self-isolating bubble thing takes off, and TV preachers and Fox News see a business opportunity.


So now it's the 21st Century. Church isn't needed as a social focal point any longer. You don't need the social approval of a church community to have sex or a relationship. The "circle the wagons" / "siege mentality" of (mostly white) "Christians" who feel under threat because of a changing world have spent the last thirty years living in a selective information bubble, and their children reject the racist and intolerant exclusion that their parents saw as "normal."

I find that immigrants the be more likely to attend church compared to people born and raised here (Especially white Americans). I can think of two formerly Lutheran churches of the top of my head near me, that are no more but replaced with a non denominational church that has non English services.

It is also interesting to note that it is not limited to your more evangelical churches. Even the liberal and accepting churches are having issues filling the pew. Even the churches with Pride flags out front seem to have few members or attendees under 50.

2020 was COVID. How do they know this is generational? I don't even think young people are dropping it like many here do. Mormonism has always had bad retaining practices.

In my life I've seen man people leave. It is probably at least 10 percent in my experience.

The article mentions that some Gen X'ers stopped attending during the pandemic, but then never returned. I think by now anyone who wants to be in church at present is in church. The article points to a number of reasons, including an increasing disconnect with church doctrine and policies, time constraints for a generation that is now caring for both children and sometimes their parents as well, etc.

My grandkids walked away from the church in large numbers!

I think that I'm the only one from my age group who visits my former home ward. My mom has confirmed that none of the people who grew up with me show up at church. I'm thoroughly done with the church and I'm not worried about mistakenly feeling something sentimental that's going to sweep me back into the hoopla of being Mormon. I went thru a lot trying to make the church work and I am peace by never returning.

Gen X-er here. As Gen-X-rs, we grew up on 'Mr Rogers', 'Sesame Street', 'Star Trek'(both the original series re-runs and the animated series), that showed us a world and potential future where all people were welcomed and diversity was encouraged. We grew up with the ERA movement, the beginning of Title IX, the first female astronauts (who were all medical doctors or had PhD's in STEM), first female Supreme Court Justice and first female candidate from a major party to be on a Presidential ticket . We were the children of the hippies. We were the "latchkey kids", where often both parents worked and we had to learn to think for ourselves without constant parental oversight. In short, we were raised in a world where *gasp* people who were different than us were not vilified, women could reach for the stars and the highest levels of government, and independent thought was a necessary life skill. It is no coincidence that Gen-X is the first generation where a majority believed in equality for the LGBTQ community.

I think many of us continued in church in to adulthood mostly out of a sense of tradition, but were never truly devout. As we are now in middle age, and doing the mid-life crisis thing, it is clear the common religious message of divisiveness, fear of "others", and rejection of critical thinking, is just not resonating with us. We are wanting to sever those ties and live the second half of our lives consistent with the messages we were raised with in our youth. Just my thoughts on the matter.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/2023 04:16PM by alsd.

That's an eloquent and persuasive post.

I think it takes generations to move generational families from the church. My children accept both the things they see in the world and the bigotry of their leaders and don't seem to have the cognitive dissonance I still am suffering though I've rationally resolved it in my thinking. Those roots rub deep.

The key, I think, is that your wife remains a faithful Mormon. If she and you had left together and when your daughters were relatively young, I doubt the latter would have stayed Mormon.

Yours is a tough situation.

It is and it also means I'm closer to many many Mormons. My reference group isn't reflected in this thread.

I’m Gen X and didn’t care about any of that stuff. I thought Star Trek was for nerds. I always knew the church was a scam and was as stupid as Star Trek and Mr. Rogers.

Rubicon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I’m Gen X and didn’t care about any of that
> stuff. I thought Star Trek was for nerds. I always
> knew the church was a scam and was as stupid as
> Star Trek and Mr. Rogers.

You sound like a fun person.

Lol. I wonder if he ever had the naivete or wonder if a child in his life. Mr. Rogers is never in the category as Mormon.

I was born in 1956, in SLC, and am a graduate of Skyline HS (1974) and the U of U (1978). As it used to be defined, my birth year was the LAST of the boomers. I will question your comment about boomers still being faithful. I will venture to say that close to 50% (maybe more) of my peers from HS and the U quit going when we were 19 to 21 years old. Yes some went back (my middle brother being one), but I will stick to my guns on 50% having left.

Okay boomer.







[Couldn't resist]

LW, I quit attending most everything way back in 1976. I was never made a Deacon in 1968, when I should have been. My dad said if I was not going to live up to the rules, then to not do it. I officially resigned in 1986, after our son was born. And I have been in an LKDS church 3x since; for the blessings on my TBM brother's three kids. .

I fear, Dave, that you are taking my attempt at humor more seriously than it deserves.

I'm jealous of you--both your early separation from the church and the fact that your father was apparently relatively supportive. My family was very different: I was completely shunned when I left.

On the topic of baby boomers and the church, I think we are in agreement. After my disastrous mission, I went walkabout for a long time. When our children came along Lot and I attempted a reconciliation. One thing that surprised me was the age of the bishops and stake presidents. When I had been bucktoothed and pigtailed, most of those guys were in their 30s, 40s, and 50s. When I attempted to re-engage, however, they were in their late 60s and 70s. It was as if the old guys in SLC only trusted their own generation, people who must have been pre-boomers. I remember thinking there was no way those septuagenarians could appeal to the youngsters.

Thankfully for us and our family, it did not take long to realize that all of the nasty elements of our childhood Mormonism had grown much more pronounced while the countervailing strengths had eroded. So, probably like you and like the generations after us, we defected fast and forcefully.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/2023 11:02PM by Lot's Wife.

I did forget that you have a wry sense of humor. Families are weird though. My family roots in LDS go back to the 1840s. One direct ancestor (dad's side) has his name on the This Is The Place Monument. One ancestor (mom side) was in the group that pushed handcarts across the plains. Another froze to death at Martin's Cove in Wyoming.

After my parents divorced in 1963, my mom actually was shunned by the other ladies in our neighborhood. And my siblings and I were not really allowed to play or interact with certain neighborhood kids very much. Took many years to get past all that. And is the reason I quit doing most any church activities as a teen, EXCEPT for MIA. I quit doing that even, when the bishop decided that you could not participate in things like basketball unless you attended at least 5 meetings a month. So I quit.

I do find it ironic though that my now TBM middle brother was the wildest guy on the planet, but is now the most uber TBM person I know. My oldest brother is still listed as a member, but has not been inside a mormon church for over 50 years. And I am the only one that actually resigned. And to boot, my TBM brother says I am still listed and even gave me my membership number....

I'm a little younger than you, and I count myself as a boomer. My older brother and I are both out, and his kids were raised with only a very small dollop of Christianity. They are out as well -- were never truly in.

But I think for those who still go to church, it's mainly the Silent Generation and the Boomers.

The Boomers have a pretty well fixed starting point, the end of WWII. The end is a bit arbitrary. Late 1963 after the Kennedy assassination would work, or the Vietnam buildup in 1965-7.

1965 seems like a good compromise, and it is a nice 20 year block. Easy to remember. That’s when the early Boomers started having children of their own, referred to as the Echo Boom.

Now the youngest Boomers are closing in on 60 years old. That’s getting a little old to be bishopric or auxiliary leaders. I’m expecting the church to start having serious challenges filling ward callings. I think the Boomers were the leadership backbone, and they are aging out.

vs those who can't -- and spent their formative years in the late 1960s or 1970s, not the 1950s.


Same goes for Millennials. Gen X remembers Reagan getting shot, but Millennials were too young to remember.


Millennials remember the Challenger explosion and the end of the Soviet Union, but Gen Z do not.

You make a good point that as the Boomers age out, the Mormon church is losing a large number of experienced leaders.

Whenever someone complains about the Boomers, my response is that we're all retired now, or close to it. The younger generations are in charge, and have been for a while. Good luck to them.

The Boomers were defined as the decade AFTER WW2 ended, so 1946 to 1956.

...so "Post-Atomic," meaning after July of 1945...?

I personally like using that demarcation, not that anyone important is going to care at this late date.  All of those personally involved with this issue put their dentures in one plate at a time...

I can't find any reference to the Baby Boom being defined as a single decade, and plenty defining it as 1946 to 1964.

From the wikipedia article:
A significant degree of consensus exists around the date range of the baby boomer cohort, with the generation considered to cover those born from 1946 to 1964 by various organizations such as the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary,[28] Pew Research Center,[29] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics,[30][31] Federal Reserve Board,[32] Australian Bureau of Statistics,[33] Gallup,[34] YouGov[35] and Australia's Social Research Center.[36] The United States Census Bureau defines baby boomers as "individuals born in the United States between mid-1946 and mid-1964".[37][38] Landon Jones, in his book Great Expectations: America and the Baby Boom Generation (1980), defined the span of the baby-boom generation as extending from 1946 through 1964.[39]

Others have delimited the baby boom period differently. Authors William Strauss and Neil Howe, in their 1991 book Generations, define the social generation of boomers as that cohort born from 1943 to 1960, who were too young to have any personal memory of World War II, but old enough to remember the postwar American High before John F. Kennedy's assassination.[40]

Full article (20,000+ words - more than you ever wanted to know!):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02CKkyhEzHc

"This could be the conquest of our generation

First we had the sea, then the west, the moon, drugs

The inner journey, the outer journey

We have finally found something worthwhile

Something to upstage the f**king baby boomers"


"F**king baby boomers..."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2023 10:08AM by anybody.

My brother and I were born 2 years apart. He is a Boomer from 1964, and I am a GenX (1966). He perfectly fits the stereotype of a boomer. I am a proud GenX (latchkey kid who drank from hoses and embraced the music of the 80's [new wave]). Scary how significant our generational gap really is.

Just anecdotal.

HH =)

Yes, I would say that for the boomers, the popular music of choice was rock and roll, ranging from the Beach Boys to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and for the younger boomers, Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, etc. I have to say that the New Wave wooshed right over my head. Disco was largely a mystery as well. I remember going out to bars and dance clubs, and having to sit down in the middle of a disco number, because it just wouldn't end. Grunge was something else I just didn't get.

My parents were Greatest Generation, and they loved Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, etc. Perhaps the different generations can be defined by their taste in popular music.

Things can change in cultures with in few years.