Is Traditional Religion Obsolete?

My thoughts on reading Why Religion Went Obsolete, by Christian Smith

I’m remembering several years ago, eating lunch with my friend and colleague, Charlotte. Between bites of salad, she sighed a bit and said, “The church has been in decline the entire course of my ministry.” Actually, the decline in mainline Protestantism began in the mid-60’s, when Charlotte and I were in elementary school.

Early in my ministry, trying to understand the rise of mega-churches, I pored over a book entitled, Why Conservative Churches Are Growing. The author, Dean Kelley, worked for the National Council of Churches. His work was originally published in 1972!

Walk into almost any church building affiliated with the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church USA, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), United Church of Christ - among others - and you’ll likely find a framed photograph of the congregation in the 1940’s or 50’s - hundreds of dressed-up men, women and children standing in front of the church building. In some dusty closet you’ll discover archives with records of the women’s association, the bowling and softball leagues. Poke around; someone is willing to tell you about “the good old days” when the Sunday School rooms were full and the children’s choir performed once a month, wearing robes.

So what happened? Every year, for most of my life, books have been published with theories - the rise of the evangelicals, the worship wars, the trend toward “spiritual but not religious” and on. Christian Smith, a practicing Catholic and professor at Notre Dame, casts a wider net. His book begins with this sentence, “Americans have lost faith in traditional religion.” He is defining “traditional religion” to include Judaism, Eastern Orthodox churches, Black Protestantism, Mormonism, white evangelical Protestantism…as well as mainline Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. Here’s what he means by obsolete: “having been superseded by alternatives that most users deem preferable.”

In this scholarly and well-researched book, he describes the long-term social trends which laid the groundwork for the downturn (declining membership in organizations, mass consumerism, etc.). Then came the 90’s: capitalism on steroids, the digital revolution, changing parenting styles…Smith summarizes, “The social and cultural conditions that had previously sustained American religion were eroding dramatically.”

It was the 2000’s, he contends, that assured the obsolescence of religion. Smith describes what he calls the post-boomer zeitgeist, one completely incompatible with the practice of traditional religion (the traditional practice of religion?) Quotes from interviews include these: “I don’t really have faith in anyone or anything,” “The Bible makes my eyes roll.” Millennials see hypocrisy, they’re turned off by religious scandals and by some church’s rejection of those who identify as LGBTQ. Smith concludes, “American traditional religion is, for post-Boomers, now culturally polluted, and that contamination cannot be quickly and easily cleaned up.”

He tries to throw a bone of hope to his readers (who are surely mostly church people) - the final sentences include these, “Religion will not go extinct. But it will likely remain a marginalized species in an unfavorable American sociocultural ecosystem.”

I’m trying to sit with Smith’s findings and not immediately jump to, “Yes, but”, “What about…”. His is an uncomfortable, important book to read, and I found it very thought-provoking.

I’d love to be in conversation with others who read this book. And I’d love to be able to ask Smith a few questions. Here are some of my musings. Some researchers say the rise in mainline Protestantism in the 1950’s was an anomaly. That makes sense to me. I know it is still the case that the decline has been precipitous and disastrous - still I’d like his take. I don’t think he pays nearly enough attention to the Christian nationalism movement. Smith mentions young people who are spiritually seeking, but he doesn’t believe their searches will end in pews. I am not so ready to draw that conclusion. The seeking means something, as does the loneliness epidemic. People are hungry for meaning and belonging. This book has left me very curious to study the mainline Protestant churches that are bucking the trend and connecting with the millennials.