Young Adults are not Returning to Church After Marriage and Children

It has always been conventional wisdom that young people who leave the church in their late teens or early 20's later marry and with children return to church. While this pattern still happens in some cases, statistically it is declining.  Identifying with the church is declining in both percentages and in raw numbers.

A professor who is a Southern Baptist recently reviewed his denominations quest for power of other humans. It's early century justifying slavery was the start. Now it continues with power over women. Southern Baptists have been declining by 10% a year for several years. The denomination is now scrambling to change its theology--hoping this might stem the tide of decline. The irony of current times is that power has moved from those inside the denomination to those outside.

Probably there have been tomes written about this that I have never seen. I've always found it interesting to watch the exercise of power where ever it happens. I have a close friend, a Kurd, who laments that people in the Middle East cannot seem to take power without abusing it. The concept of sharing power with enemies is not considered.

I read once a short history of an intense dispute among men on a ship. On the crew were men of different countries and income classes. A ship officer took on the task of mediating the dispute. He had the power to remove people or lock them away on the ship for a while. The writer said that during the negotiations," ...the officer had the option of use his power to end the dispute. But in a uniquely American way, he did not use it." It all came to a successful resolution.

It seems like some of the church's problems come from its hierarchy thinking it has more power than it does. Southern Baptists coming from their southern culture has overstated its hold on people. The Catholic church coming from the cultures of the Middle East and Europe finds times have changed. There is a strong dose of old world authoritarian thinking. Whether it's slavery, segregation, women's rights or income class, looking down on and using power against another groups has a finite shelf life in the U.S.

All brands of Christianity should be searching, as the Southern Baptist Convention is doing, to pull back from power plays on women and lower income classes.