Old People are Leaving the Faith Just Like the Young

 

According to a poll referred to in the link, older members of churches are disappearing at a rapid rate. These are not ones who died. They usually are not people who complained about the church. They just stopped attending. The percentage is large.

This puts to rest an old saw repeated in comments to this blog a while back. It was that the church's problem will be solved when young people marry and have children. When they reach that point in their lives they return to church and it once again thrives. Neither young nor old are returning. As one commenter to the link pointed out, old people (like me) are on the short end of time and should be the most interested in an afterlife. Instead, they deal with their coming deaths without the faith's goofy stuff.

What is rather astounding is that pundits in the faith like the link author never bring up the possibility that one of the reasons the old are walking away is because they no longer believe. The link lists the reasons the old are disappearing. It's hard to get a ride to church, the church is not handicapped accessible, they liked to old music but not the new, the church service has changed, etc. All of these are reasons some have dropped out. But never mentioned is falling out of belief.

The link author, like many wrote write for Christian sites, makes a living writing books, giving lectures and doing paid consulting work for churches. When there is a problem like declining membership among the old, or the young for that matter, the reason assigned must have s solution. No solution, no consulting fee. The reasons given, access, music, etc. all have solutions. There is no solution for those who left due to non belief. It's good business not to suggest this as a problem. Better to ignore it. 

This hurts churches twice. First they have lost the revenue of older members. Second, if they hire a consultant who provides a worthless suggestion more money is gone.