Aug 4, 2020
On this episode of The Resistance Library Podcast Dan and Sam
discuss the overall decline in American participation in social
life.
Church attendance in the United States is at an all-time low,
according to a Gallup poll released in April 2019. This decline has
not been a steady one. Indeed, over the last 20 years, church
attendance has fallen by 20 percent. This might not sound like
cause for concern off the bat. And if you’re not a person of faith,
you might rightly wonder why you would care about such a
thing.
Church attendance is simply a measure of something deeper: social
cohesion. It’s worth noting that the religions with the highest
rate of attendance according to Pew Forum have almost notoriously
high levels of social cohesion: Latter-Day Saints, Jehovah’s
Witnesses, Evangelical Protestants, Mormons and historically black
churches top the list.
There’s also the question of religious donations. Religious giving
has declined by 50 percent since 1990, according to a 2016 article
in the
New York Times.
This means people who previously used religious services to make
ends meet now either have to go without or receive funding from the
government. This, in turn, strengthens the central power of the
state.
It is our position that
civil
society – those elements of society which exist independently of
big government and big business – are essential to a functioning
and
free
society. What’s more, these institutions are in rapid decline in
the United States, and have been for over 50 years.
Such a breakdown is a prelude to tyranny, and has been facilitated
in part
(either
wittingly or unwittingly) by government policies favoring
deindustrialization, financialization and centralization of the
economy as well as the welfare state. The historical roots of this
breakdown are explored below, along with what concerned citizens
can do to mitigate its impact on their loved ones.
You can read the full article “Bowling
Alone: How Washington Has Helped Destroy American Civil Society and
Family Life” at Ammo.com.
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