Is the West experiencing a revival of Christianity? It’s a question we often ponder here at The Free Press. We’ve covered the rise of a religious podcast with millions of female fans, the boom of an app that’s making people better Christians, the packed Gen-Z churches in New York City, and the renaissance of a monastery on a remote island off the coast of Scotland.
But the revival is uneven. It’s happening online, and in many Catholic churches, and some Orthodox traditions. At the same time, across America, mainline Protestant churches—think American Baptists, Episcopalians, evangelical Lutherans—are dying. Sanctuaries once full of people worshipping side by side, without concern for political or cultural differences, now sit half empty. And political scientist and American Baptist pastor Ryan P. Burge has a theory about why.
In his brand-new book, The Vanishing Church, which is out January 13, Burge argues that the political polarization of American society has seeped into the pews, causing many to leave the kinds of churches long known for welcoming doubters and rejecting dogma. The consequences for the country, he warns in the following excerpt, could be catastrophic. —The Editors
Nine. There were nine people in the room, including myself. As I sat facing the congregation, listening to the pianist begin the service with a short prelude, I counted again. I didn’t want anyone else to know what I was doing—a pastor counting heads on a Sunday morning is never a good look—so I tried to bounce my eyes quickly around the room. Thankfully, it doesn’t take long to count to nine. After I was satisfied that I hadn’t missed anyone hiding in the corners, the realization washed over me: It was the first Sunday we hadn’t broken double digits.
This was just over two years ago, at the end of 2023. By that point, I’d been the pastor at First Baptist Church of Mount Vernon, Illinois, for 17 years; when I began at age 24, it took two deacons to help me serve the bread and grape juice during Communion. Even a few years earlier, 30 faithful members would gather in this small room each Sunday to sing hymns, hear me muddle my way through a sermon, and recite the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostles’ Creed together. They were worshipping in the same building where many of them had seen their children baptized or said final goodbyes to spouses. The vast majority had gone through every life stage in that building on the north side of town. It was the one permanent thing in their lives.
But all these people had either died or moved away, and no one was coming in their place. Hence why, that Sunday morning, it was all too easy to find a seat. It only took about 90 seconds for me to make sure everyone was served the body and the blood.
Less than a year later, the church would hold its final worship service.
First Baptist Church of Mount Vernon wasn’t an anomaly. From 1972 to 2022, the share of Americans who belong to mainline Protestant churches—of which mine was one—declined from 31 percent to just 9 percent.
