Why fewer marriages, lower levels of faith are related

[Michie]

New report sees strong link between men not going to church, marriage declines and struggling Christianity​

A large new survey suggests that as men disappear from living with their children and couples stop marrying or they divorce, Christianity in the U.S. takes a major hit.

The Nationwide Study on Faith and Relationships, by the church consulting group Communio, says bluntly that failures in family life translate into declines in faith. And it says churches, faced with shrinking attendance, need to promote healthy marriage and fatherhood.

As the report puts it: “Family decline appears to fuel faith decline.”

The study underpinning the report was conducted by surveying 19,000 attendees at church services in 13 states on a specific Sunday. The churches, all Christian faiths, included 112 evangelical, Protestant and Catholic congregations.

In the study, the researchers note that marriage rates have fallen more than 30% since 2000 and a whopping 61% since 1970. Meanwhile, less than half of young adults under 30 grew up in homes with married parents.

J.P. De Gance, report author and the founder and president of Communio, said those who attend church are more likely to have involved fathers in their lives. And that’s essential, he added, for family well-being, but also for strengthening faith. He also sees it as a powerful hedge against a national epidemic of loneliness.

“Everyone is deeply concerned about the rise of religious nonaffiliation,” De Gance told Deseret News. “Second, they are concerned about loneliness. Our survey IDs both of those phenomena as being caused by the same thing: our society’s flight from marriage. Never have fewer people been married, which also means we are at the highest point in the nation’s history where adults have grown up without the continuous presence of a father in the home, which is a fruit of marriage.”

Continued below.

Men aren’t going to church. What does that mean for marriage and families?

New report sees strong link between men not going to church, marriage declines and struggling Christianity

www.deseret.com