Rock or bedrock? 

     You may already know that this blogger spent nearly all the 1950s in high school, then college. Back then, Americans generally claimed membership in an established church. Even backsliders and unbelievers belonged somewhere, in the fellowship of Elks, Lions or golf-course membership.

     The 1960s saw upper mobility as the depression and war faded away, and enemies of Christianity saw an opening. Laws prohibiting Christ in public schools took effect, without complaint by Christians, that I know of.

     Then followed a weakening of family bonds. Divorce rates shot up in the 1970s. Columnist Janie B, Cheaney says "Gen Xers grew up in broken homes and perpetuated single parenthood themselves. Millennials eschew marriage and babies, and Gen Z isn't even dating."

     A quarter of Americans are atheists, agnostics or unaffiliated, and public engagement is in decline. 

     Many who have left or never knew organized religion have found no alternative method to build a sense of belonging. Mobility has stalled, she writes, replaced by technology. "The shallow and solitary experience of smartphones replaced the deep and communal experience of church."

     Even atheist Richard Dawkins is "slightly horrified" - not at the decline of Christian faith - but the decline in cathedrals, hymns and Christmas carols. He and others see the church as a crucial bedrock of society. 

     What they don't see, writes Cheaney, is that "social trends will not defeat the church. If Egyptian bondage and Babylonian captivity couldn't forestall God's purpose, neither will smartphones. The Rock is Christ."

            Jimmy