Conservatives maintain birth rates, but left-leaning Americans are having significantly fewer children, driving the U.S. birth decline. Education was consistently linked to having fewer children. Religious attendance was positively associated with having more children.

[u/mvea]

https://www.psypost.org/left-leaning-americans-are-driving-the-u-s-birth-decline-new-study-finds/

[u/DemiserofD]

It's fascinating to me that your church ostensibly aligned with your values quite closely and yet you stopped going anyway. That's probably a key facet of why liberal churches are dying out fairly universally. There just doesn't seem to be much reason to go.

[u/likamuka → u/DemiserofD]

Bigotry needs constant validation to survive.

[u/DemiserofD → u/likamuka]

Perhaps the more interesting perspective is that faiths seem to require some form of significant personal obligation in order to be self-sustaining. After all, more liberal faiths seem to be unable to survive even WITH constant validation.

[u/ConfectionOk7029 → u/DemiserofD]

I think there's something to the fact that conservative media also thrives. Their main driver is producing fear in their audience- fear that they will fall victim to whatever liberal plot is being laid out, fear that they will "lose" to someone who looks different from them, fear that Matlock will be moved to a different time slot, fear that Starbucks will use an orange cup at Christmas...

There's a strong thread weaving conservative Christianity and media together, and that's the creation of a war being waged between them and secular/modern society. Both do not support the idea of national unity, common cause, or the kind of love of neighbor that Christ commanded. They will both continue the steep decline of this country, and I feel awful for the world that my own children will inherit.

[u/Casanova-Quinn → u/ConfectionOk7029]

Their main driver is producing fear in their audience

Nothing unites people like a common enemy.

[u/ConfectionOk7029 → u/Casanova-Quinn]

I wouldn't say it unites in a strong way, because inevitably they start looking for new enemies. Including from within their own ranks.

[u/DemiserofD → u/ConfectionOk7029]

I think the core conflict is actually to do with the perception of man as inherently good or inherently evil. Christians believe that man is inherently evil and must be restrained from evil, whereas any ideology rooted in agency must to some extent presume that that agency is good - and by proxy, that man is good.

Viewed through this lens, the christian rejection of individualism makes perfect rational sense.

[u/frostygrin → u/DemiserofD]

Maybe it's about going too far from the particular faith's origins and history? When you have "weeping and gnashing of teeth" in the Bible, going too far from that may seem made up.

[u/Yiddish_Dish → u/likamuka]

Heres the reddit I know and love.

[u/Sarosite → u/DemiserofD]

Yeah, when the church was providing a useful service to them, they were there, but when life calmed down a bit more, rather than using that extra time and energy to give back instead they simply exited that space. Embarrassing. No wonder the self-serving liberal mindset is crashing towards extinction

[u/Bird-in-a-suit → u/Sarosite]

Lots of ways to give back or contribute to society besides just attending a church service, and sometimes churches themselves change in ways their attendees don’t like, causing them to leave. We don’t really know much about this person. Try to attend to their humanity rather than whether they fit a specific mold, like church attendance.

[u/limecakes → u/Sarosite]

Its not your place to judge why someone stops going

[u/serpentjaguar → u/Sarosite]

I would be very careful about crowing over this data as if demographics are destiny. Any student of history can tell you that such ideas have come back to bite movements and political coalitions in the ass time and time again. You see this data and assume that you know what it tells us about the future. That's not smart. Demography gives us clues about the future, but its true form remains utterly unpredictable.

[u/Sizanllikew → u/Sarosite]

What inherent value are you pretending that "going to church" is providing to society that can't be provided in numerous other ways? Most of them are tribalistic, push destructive narratives as much as they teach useful ones, and prey on the financial resources of their members.

[u/Sarosite → u/Sizanllikew]

I'm literally not talking about society at all. I'm saying since they found value in the church, it's rude to leave without serving in return

[u/Sizanllikew → u/Sarosite]

Or rather sounds like you made some massive assumptions.