[Magdalen] Why some people have stopped going to church

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

I found this article interesting for some of the ideas it puts forward, and
for what it does not say.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/08/religious-participation-survey/496940/

or try this tinyurl:

http://tinyurl.com/j9yuemc

It points out that the stereotype of how people have been drifting away
from church is not completely borne out by the data, and even suggests a
subset of the population that is increasing church attendance.

However, I wonder if the view of hell has changed over the recent years. It
used to be (and the article comes tantalizingly close to touching on this)
that people went to church because they felt that they risked divine
punishment if they did not.  I remember well, a few years ago, when I
had finished a program after Coffee hour, some of us were talking about why
attend church. I suggested that  we would not risk hell for failing to
attend.

A man immediately asked, "Well, if we won't go to hell if we don't go to
church, why go at all?" I said that, strictly for myself, I go because I
really want to, that I enjoy attending church.  I am not sure, but I hope
it at least planted a seed.

I suspect that if a person does not actually derive pleasure out of going
to church (the pleasure can be in the form of feeling helped to be a better
Christian; it depends what floats your boat), the big thing that has
changed is that he no longer is frightened of what will happen to him is he
stays away. I don't know how this plays out in other denominations, but it
would certainly go a long way toward those folks who state they are just
"too lazy" (as the article says).

I wonder if hell is on Pew's radar.  Again, I don't know.  I suspect it is,
to some degree.

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy