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In reply to the discussion: Gallup: U.S. church membership dips below 50% for first time [View all]NQAS
(10,749 posts)But this is not 1937.
The population a few years later (1940) was 132,164,569. So, at most, 96 million were churchgoers; take out children, and that number drops.
And religious observance at the time was, I think, fairly conventional, with "mass" religion events consisting of traveling tent revivals.
Also, while certain (so-called) religious leaders made their vile voices rise above the rest - the one that comes to mind is Charles Coughlin - those numbers were relatively small and the means of communication relatively limited.
The population today is 331,002,651. That translate to - again, at most -165,501,325; take out the children for more accurate numbers. (That data is out there, but I'm too lazy to search for it.)
Plus, communication and political influence are much changed from 1940.
All of that said, I think it's an interesting drop in percentages, and one would hope that that figure will be used to make some very valid points about the overly significant role that religion plays in our politics.
One more, maybe related, point. A few years ago I read that pure-bred (that's a joke) whites will become a minority around 2040. I think that's great, and 2040 is not all that far away.