Children being raised in America these days attend church far less frequently than their parents and grandparents did, mainly because when their parents became adults, they stopped attending church as well, poll reveals.
A recent poll from Gallup showed that more than 30 percent of Americans had dwindled from regularly attending religious services in their lifetime, and even a majority, 58 percent, either attend church seldom or never at all.
Though the shift in church attendance patterns has been decades in the making, Gallup's data reflects a significant downturn in the current generational shift from parents to children.
"The changes in church attendance have occurred within the current generation of parents and children. The results suggest adults' experience as children was similar to that of their parents, but today's adults have very different religious habits," Gallup expressed in a news release.
Parents are the reason behind the decrease in the frequency
Further, it was reported that among American adults who have kids under 18 years old, only 31 percent regularly attend a church, synagogue, mosque, or temple weekly or nearly weekly, providing an association of the frequency of children's church attendance today, which is far less than the young ones from the prior generations.
However, this 31 percent is more than double (67%) of the American adults who admitted that they attended religious service regularly when they were still kids and growing up. A similar percentage also revealed that as far as they can remember, they attend regularly because their parents attended weekly or nearly weekly before, Baptist News reported.
As for the group of non-attenders, 25 percent said they seldom attend, while 33 percent admitted they never participate in religious services anymore.
Increase in Americans without religious affiliation
The recent data correlated with another poll by Gallup and other organizations about religious identification and church membership.
Last year, there was an average of 21 percent of adults from the U.S. expressed that they have no religious preference. This number is almost triple the eight percent of American adults with no religious preference in 2000.
Furthermore, Gallup has also found that there has been an increase in the number of Americans that are not members of a community faith, a first in modern history.
On the other hand, about 80 percent of Americans claim to be a part of religious affiliation, with 70 percent saying they are Christian.
Despite the decline in church attendance, it has also been found that 25 percent of Americans with no religious preference at least have the interest to explore religion, Alaska Watchman stated.
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