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WHY PEOPLE DON'T
GOTOCHURCH
1
f that's what religion
is all about, it ain't
for me."
"1 don't feel a person
has to go to church to
live a Christian life. I'm
not against church. It's
just that 1 doo' t feel
1
have to go to church to
be a Christian."
"No priest, no church
is going to possess me."
"1 think the churches
have gotten like a lot of
parts of society. They
have to worry so much
about paying the rent
that they have forgotten
the good news....
1
find
sorne of the clergy are
very wonderful people,
but a lot of them haveto
seek out the almighty
dollar so much ... that
(they] are robbing the
people of the great heri-
-
tage of the church.... The leaders
are afraid oftheology."
" l feel religion is fine for sorne
people, if you need it. Sorne people
use itas a crutch."
"I didn't see anything [in church)
worth taking.... Now it's anything
goes, just so you don' t hurt any–
body. It doesn't make any differ–
ence. God probably doesn't exist
anyhow."
The foregoing quotes are from
the book
Who Are the Unchurched?
An Exploratory Study.
The author,
J. Russell Hale, is a clergyman and
professor who traveled nationwide
to do on-the-spot interviews with
nonchurchgoers in six counties of
the United States especially selected
for their large proportion of "out–
siders." In every location, inter–
viewer Hale sought to identify not
only the individual's reasons for not
attending church. but any regional.
social, economic and geographical
The
PLAIN TRUTH August 1978
by
Lawson C. Briggs
cha racteristics that might predispose
to higher rates of nonattendance.
But most of all, as a clergyman him–
self, Hale sought to pinpoint and
verify just how the churches them–
selves were failing in reaching and
holding the people.
The Unchurched Are Leglon
Nonattendance at church does not
of itself necessarily sign ify either un–
belief or irreligion. Although
over 90 percent of the American
peopie reported to Gallup pollsters
in 1976 that they believed in God
and in heaven (and most of these
believe Jesus was the Son of God.
with a majority expecting He will
someday return to earth), sorne 40
percent (near 80 million) are not on
any church roll and even fewer
regularly attend either church or
synagogue.
The situation in the United States
seems in some respects to be almost
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"
the reverse of the case in
parts of Europe. In Eu–
rope, for various reasons
probably associated with
history and the estab–
lishment (at least until
lately) of churches as of–
ficial arms of and part–
ners in government,
large majorities of the
formally churched are
functionally irreligious.
These Europeans merely
found themselves uncon–
sulted, perhaps "birth–
right " members of
national churches or of
reco gni ze d minorit y
churches. among whose
members they were born
and grew up.
In the United States.
such is only marginally
so. There are, of course.
the dropouts whose
@
Punch-Rotnco
names rema in on the
books but whose faces are never
seen in services. But the more likely
ci rcumstance is that the unchurched
are often believers in God and reli–
gion, but believers whom no church
can call its own.
Why do these believers not pro–
fess themselves to be Christians
through church membership and at–
tendance?
And why is it that while 60 per–
cent of U.S. citizens are church
members. in any given week a full
61 percent of the total population
does not attend any worship ser–
vice?
Contrary to popular opinion. the
unchurched a re primarily rural
rather than urban. And as a corol–
lary, ten of the fifteen largest U.S.
cities rank well below the national
average of nonmembership. Smaller
communities are apparently not as
conducive to religiosity as com–
monly supposed. For while they
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