Progressive Religious Movements are Losing Members

Photo by Josh Haner/The New York Times

Ross Douthat, in his Op/Ed New York Times column, Can Liberal Christianity Be Saved? sounds the death knell for progressive religious movements in America. Members of the liberal Episcopal Church have watched attendance figures drop 23 percent in the last decade, "and not a single Episcopal diocese in the country saw churchgoing increase." The problem is not contained to the Episcopal Church.

"Practically every denomination — Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian — that has tried to adapt itself to contemporary liberal values has seen an Episcopal-style plunge in church attendance. Within the Catholic Church, too, the most progressive-minded religious orders have often failed to generate the vocations necessary to sustain themselves."

Judaism shows the same trends. The Jewish Daily Forward reports that "nearly half of Jewish adults raised Reform [the most liberal wing of American Judaism], a new study shows, leave the denomination, most of them in favor of an unaffiliated Jewish life. In recent years, the movement’s growth has stalled, with affiliation holding steady thanks only to new members replacing those who have left."

Why? Douthat claims that "leaders of the Episcopal Church and similar bodies often don't seem to be offering anything you can't already get from purely secular liberalism." I agree. Those that aren't interested in praying to a transcendent G-d can give charity, support the homeless, work for income equality, provide education, fight injustice, and find a community of like-minded individuals outside of any religious institution. If a church or synagogue membership predominantly serves as a triage officer, directing people here and there for good works and downplays spiritual fervor and a relationship with and, especially, responsibilities to G-d, why not join any benevolence society instead? If G-d won't reward you for taking communion or saying the Shema or punish you for not doing so, why not just join the Democratic party and keep your weekends free?