NOT FOLLOWING IN FOOTSTEPS

A Keen Observer September 8, 2019

Last month I attended a service at a Methodist church in a Blackstone Valley town. It was a very small church with approximately 40 members, and it was without a minister. A black minister my wife knows was assigned there as an additional duty by the church hierarchy, in addition to the predominantly black congregation he pastors in Worcester. It was to be his first sermon in this all white church, so we showed up to give him moral support.

Everything went very well, and the church members were cordial. They were so desperate for someone to lead them, they weren’t about to let the new minister’s race become an issue.

As a devout atheist I wasn’t much interested in the service, but I looked around and did a head count. Only 19 of the 40 members had shown up that morning.

Approximately 80% of them were senior citizens, too. Since I call myself “a keen observer, my takeaway from this is that young people are not following in the footsteps of their elders with regard to religious worship. That accounts for the large number of churches around the country that are closing because there aren’t enough people in the pews to pony up for the collection plate.

A significant number of Catholic churches have had such declining memberships that the Bishop has asked the people who remain to consolidate by transferring to a nearby church. It’s not only Catholics. Temple Emanuel in Worcester, a Reform Jewish place of worship, closed down several years ago for the same reason.

If religion isn’t dead, it’s on life support. Here are some recent statistics: “ Overall, 35% of adult Millennials (Americans born between 1981 and 1996) are religiously unaffiliated. Far more Millennials say they have no religious affiliation compared with those who identify as evangelical Protestants (21%), Catholics (16%) or mainline Protestants (11%).

The fastest growing religion is no religion. A devout Catholic relative of mine has three adult children. Two of them don’t attend church at all, and the other only attends sporadically. He’s very disappointed, but what are you gonna do?

Newspapers are another example of the effects of young people and their reluctance to emulate their elders. They get their information from their phones or computers, or perhaps from the 24/7 cable TV coverage. You’ll rarely see people under the age of 65 reading a printed version of the news with their morning coffee or while sitting on the train heading to work.

As with many other endeavors, technology has devastated the newspaper business. It’s a tough call to determine what has been hurt more—religion or the traditional method of obtaining news.

WWE is still popular, but nowhere near what it used to be in the days of Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, and the Ultimate Warrior. Younger fans have left wrestling for Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), and boxing has been hurt as well. Millennials would rather see fighters in a cage than in a ring.

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) was at one time the most popular and well-attended sport in America. People loved to watch fast cars with heroic drivers being driven at life threatening speeds around and around a track. One suspects the attraction was the potential for a spectacular crash, but perhaps that’s being cynical. Whatever the reason, NASCAR is in a decline.

Sales of Harley-Davidson motorcycles have fallen drastically, and the company has been in and out of trouble for some time. The average age of a Harley buyer is 55. That makes sense because that demographic is more likely to have the disposable income to afford these very expensive machines. Younger riders are purchasing Japanese bikes because they’re faster and less costly. With Harleys you’re paying for the name and the positive resale value.

Finally, membership is disappearing in American Legion and Veterans of Foreign War (VFW) posts. Baby boomer military veterans loved those posts because of the camaraderie and the cheap drinks. Younger veterans haven’t followed in their footsteps.

Progressive Democrats promise change in our political system, but change happens, anyway. Technology and education are the major reasons for change that leads the decline of one business or belief system and the ascendance of others.

We have to be flexible in order to survive.

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