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eastbound 18 hours ago

[flagged]

fwip 17 hours ago | parent | next [-]

A sitcom making fun of a situation doesn't mean it's a real problem.

triceratops 17 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That show is like 10 years old now.

toomuchtodo 18 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I empathize with the straight white Christian as a fellow human, and wish them support (I donate to organizations that provide crisis support, but this does not scale, we need more scale [community building via robust government support imho]), but also recognize that religious belief is rapidly declining in the US [1], ~100k churches are anticipated to close over the next 5-10 years [2], and so while this support should be provided to the religious folks who need it, it is not a growing or long term support need [3] (imho, specifically in the context of a religious leader providing said support) from a systems thinking perspective. Citations below for this area of the knowledge graph.

TLDR This is a human support capacity and capability issue. We should fix it, to the best of our ability, imho.

[1] Drop in U.S. Religiosity Among Largest in World - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45916273 - November 2025 (1 comment)

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46484284 (citations)

[3] When Are Half Your Members Going to be Dead? - https://www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/when-are-half-your-mem... - January 29th, 2026

> The means are denoted in red, and you can see that most of the numbers are at least 55 years old. For instance, the average adult member of an Episcopal church is 61 years old. For Southern Baptists, it’s 58. The Assemblies of God are doing a bit better on this metric at 54. But look at the modal age for a lot of these groups—this is probably the most important metric when it comes to understanding the future of American Protestant Christianity. For many, the modal age is significantly higher than the mean. In a bunch of mainline Protestant denominations, it’s between 67 and 69 years old. For the Assemblies of God, the modal age is 69, which is 15 years older than the mean. What does this mean? Well, the mean can be pulled down by a decent chunk of younger folks. If you have a good core of 30-year-olds, they can counterbalance those 60-year-olds in that calculation. That’s not true for the mode. It gives you a much better sense of when “the tipping point” is going to come.

[4] The Generational Collapse of American Religion - https://www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/the-generational-colla... - January 19th, 2026 ("So why do overall levels of attendance decline? Well, because each successive birth cohort is less religiously active than the previous one. That’s the main driver of religious decline—it’s a decay function across cohorts.")

As an atheist, this topic is one of many that stays on my mind and keeps me awake sometimes.

How A Decline In Churchgoing Led To A Rise In ‘Deaths Of Despair’ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46408406 - December 2025 (2 comments)

Find Your People - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44074017 - May 2025 (283 comments)

snarf21 16 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I would argue that the change isn't really about the church as an institution. It is about a 'thing' to belong to and a place to go to every week/month. I've been reading Victor Frankl's Man's Search For Meaning and it he talks a lot about having a purpose. That is the thing that we have lost. This is why so many feel so lost. We have always been a tribal species. This is what makes "othering" so powerful in today's political climate. Anyone who looks/thinks/behaves different is bad even if we would otherwise be best friends. Instead we go through each day covering up our loneliness and lost feeling with anything that will distract us.

This isn't even new but it is rapidly accelerating. Roll back to the 40s where all houses had a front porch and people sat around talking to each other. Everyone knew their neighbors and kids played freely and everyone felt more safe and actually connected. Then television came along and people rushed to the living room after dinner instead of to the front porch. Now almost no one knows their neighbors beyond superficial "How are you?"s let alone knowing and hanging out with several. It is so bad now that people in the same family sit on the same couch with the television on but all they are doing is scrolling their phone. And this isn't the last chapter, it is going to get worse when all AI and VR merge into custom hamster wheel content that fills but doesn't satisfy. The solution is for us to re-find our purpose, find a hobby, go outside for a walk, volunteer with a cause, visit people, make phone calls and write letters.

toomuchtodo 16 hours ago | parent [-]

Strongly agree. Intentional community and defending what is needed to support it is the only path forward, imho. What that looks like will be based on the participants of that cultivated community.

The Real Luxuries In Life - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49578866 - September 2026 (243 comments)

https://cutoffthespigot.substack.com/p/the-learning-curve-po...

https://thepeoplescommunity.substack.com/

gameman144 17 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I don't think this is an unreasonable view, but it does seem to me that the declining Christianity rates aren't super useful on their own for determining actions from a systems thinking perspective.

Maybe rates are declining because the religion is legitimately not appealing, in which case your action is right. An opponent would say that it's declining because it's culturally discouraged (since even religious pockets are exposed to the national zeitgeist), in which case ignoring it would be the exact opposite of what we'd want to do.

triceratops 16 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> it's declining because it's culturally discouraged

By whom?

toomuchtodo 16 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I have thoughts on why religion is declining, and I don't believe it's because it's culturally discouraged. Young people want community, but they do not want to be told what to do by a hierarchy and spiritual leaders simply because "they say so" and related historical texts. The power and control through belief systems and hierarchy inherent to religion are breaking down. Is it because of social media [think increased velocity of cultural Overton Window and societal norm transition]? Younger people are more empowered and can support themselves while avoiding these institutions? Brain structure changing as it relates to social needs, fear, and tribalism? Hard to say yet, but I am excited to understand over time as a scholar.

For comparison, Japan legislated that religious indoctrination and withholding education or healthcare from your children due to religious beliefs should be classified as child abuse.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48634883 (citations)

What it's like to close a Church with Ryan Burge - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni8DiT3Cb5g - July 26th, 2024

Forced participation in religious activities to be classified as child abuse - https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/politics/politics-government... - December 27th, 2022

Government guidelines define child abuse from religious parents - https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14802375 - December 22nd, 2022

wat10000 17 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Spare me the oppression fantasy. The fricken’ governor is a straight white Christian!

Screaming_O 16 hours ago | parent [-]

Come on, Newsom is as Christian as Bill Clinton was faithful.

wat10000 15 hours ago | parent | next [-]

How's that? I don't know that much about the guy, but it looks like he was raised in the faith, never gave it up, and talks about how his faith influences and guides him in public life. Seems pretty Christian to me.

We could debate about appearance versus true belief, but in the context of "try coming out as a straight white Christian in California" only the appearance actually matters.

watwut 16 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

They did not said "good person" nor "saint" nor "republicans would agree with him". They said "christian". And he is one.