by Kerry Dougherty
Of all the disheartening news this week, the piece that hit me hardest was this story in The Hill:
“Churchgoing and Belief in God Stand at Historic Lows, Despite a Megachurch Surge.”
The Hill cited studies that showed a dramatic drop in church attendance and – more alarmingly – a loss of belief in God during the pandemic.
Any wonder? Here in Virginia, the governor closed churches but kept the liquor stores open. His priorities were clear.
I regret that masses of people didn’t protest – peaceably, of course – such unconstitutional government-ordered church closures. Those emergency orders clearly violated the First Amendment, which, last time I checked, did not have a virus clause.
Instead, folks who’d been faithful churchgoers their entire lives, sat home on Sundays until THE GOVERNOR gave them permission to return. By then many had lost the churchgoing habit. Others had lost their faith.
In-person church attendance plummeted by 45 percent in the pandemic, according to an ABC News analysis. Most churches have reopened, but not all congregants have returned.
“People are not getting together much, generally speaking. Not just in church, but in the village,” said Thomas Groome, a professor in theology and religious education at Boston College. “People are staying home. They’re on their cellphones. They’re on the Internet…”
Belief in God was near-universal in previous generations. It’s a notion bound up in American identity, not to mention American currency.
No, I don’t believe you must attend worship services or believe in a Higher Power to be a good and moral person. But I do believe the connectedness of belonging to a faith community is important to the fabric of our nation.
Churches and synagogues don’t function just one hour one day a week. They offer food pantries and community outreach programs, where they care for the needy. Membership provides a feeling of belonging, of being part of a caring group of people with shared beliefs.
When folks stay home they often experience unhealthy feelings of loneliness and isolation. The country is convulsing through an epidemic of depression, suicides, drug overdoses and addiction. Much of this can be traced to the lockdowns.
Belief in God provides hope. Many in America feel hopeless.
The far left has always been antagonistic toward religion. They want people to rely on the government, not on each other or God.
While lockdowns and closures may not have been deliberately designed by leftists to tear people from their faith communities, from the far left’s perspective it was just a happy accident.
To some of us, it looks like the unraveling of America.
This column first appeared in Kerry: Unemployed andUnedited and is republished with permission.
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