I grew up in the northern suburbs of New York City in the 1960s. Like most Irish Catholics the era, we belonged to a church parish. It was the center of our lives—school, social, and spiritual needs were all overseen by the monsignor.
Every Sunday, our church held seven Masses from 7 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Each service was packed, some with standing room only. 7 masses 7 collections from a congregation that filled the pews. The collections were so lucrative that tuition was free in the adjoining parochial school for parishioners. This is no longer the case.
Much has changed in the last 60 years. Gallup Polling conducted a survey, published on March 29th of this year, titled “How Religious Are Americans?” In this article, I’ll focus on the stark contrast between Americans’ attitudes toward religious tradition, which impacts church attendance then and now. Here’s the data from Gallup on three questions:
Americans Identifying as Christian:
- 1965 — — 93%
- 2023 — — 68%
Those with no religion:
- 1965 — — -2%
- 2023 — — -22%