Thread by @shadihamid

1. New Gallup numbers are out on US religion. Yes, church membership isn't an exact proxy for religiosity. But membership tells us about the structured presence of religion in people's lives. As a measure, it's likely to have more political implications than personal belief

2. But individual religiosity has *also *decreased, if not to the same extent. There has been a significant decrease in number of Americans who say God or religion is important in their daily lives, and the numbers are particularly low for young Americans

pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020…

3. Secularization is real and rapid. "Nones"—atheists, agnostics, and those claiming no religion—today represent a quarter of the population. And this has happened over a relatively short period of time

pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-…

4. Still, declining church membership is an important figure b/c it reflects two troubling trends: rapid secularization *and* decline in association, belonging, and community. The latter can present just as much, if not more, of an ideological vacuum as lack of individual faith

5. In my @TheAtlantic essay, I argue that decline in *religious* belief is a particular problem for the US since believing is at the center of the American idea. So if religious belief and association declines, other things will have to take their place

theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

6. Unlike European countries, with remain based around ethnicity and a longer history of being a particular people in a particular place, Americans don't have that to fall back on. So any rapid shift in beliefs is bound to be destabilizing in a way that it wasn't across Europe