The great mid-20th century comic Lenny Bruce was years ahead of his time when he declared, “Every day, people are straying away from the church and going back to God.”
But Lenny was only partly right. He should have mentioned synagogues, too. And he might have been wrong about people “going back to God.”
In the quarterly magazine Mere Orthodoxy, editor-in-chief Jake Meador recently reported that about 40 million Americans have stopped going to traditional religious services over the past 25 years.
“That’s something like 25 percent of the population, and it represents the largest concentrated change in church attendance in American history,” Meador wrote.
Or as The Atlantic magazine declared earlier this year, “Take a drive down Main Street of just about any major city in the country, and … you might find more churches for sale than homes.”
An exaggeration but point well taken. And we’ve only hinted at the Jews, who worry routinely about the effects of intermarriage and see our Hebrew schools emptying.
Earlier this summer, a Gallup poll reported only 31 percent of all Americans “attended church, synagogue, mosque or temple” in the previous week. Ten years ago, that figure was 39 percent.
Twenty-five years ago, 70 percent of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque. Today, only 47 percent make the same claim.
In 2000, less than 10 percent said they “don’t identify with any religion.” Today, that figure is higher than 20 percent. And three-quarters of those people say they aren’t interested in exploring any religion.
There’s a new book titled “The Great Dechurching: Who’s Leaving, Why Are They Going, and What Will It Take to Bring Them Back?” (Zondervan) by Jim Davis and Michael Graham with Ryan P. Burge.
They interviewed more than 7,000 Americans, asking why so many are straying from traditional organized religions and finding other ways (or none) to express their sense of spirituality.
Some pointed to religious abuse, and some to corruption. But more pointed to “far more banal reasons. … Contemporary America simply isn’t set up to promote mutuality, care, or common life. Rather, it is designed to maximize individual accomplishment as defined by professional and financial success.
“Such a system leaves precious little time or energy for forms of community that don’t contribute to one’s own professional life or, as one ages, the professional prospects of one’s own children.”
The last word touches a nerve.
When we bring children into religious education, we’re hoping to do more than introduce ancient rituals. We’re offering them a tribe. We’re hoping they’ll take pride in the values and accomplishments of that tribe and connect the stories of thousands of years ago with the lives that they’re leading today.
It’s the last part that brings back memories of Hebrew school lessons from my era, and the big mistake that was made, and the curiosity about any changes made in the ensuing years.
Back then, nobody ever attempted to connect yesterday with today. It felt as if all Jewish history, all cultural contributions, happened 5,000 years ago.
We learned about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but nobody mentioned Einstein or Freud or Jonas Salk.
Jews are 0.2 percent of the world’s population, but we’ve won 22 percent of the Nobel prizes, which is statistically impossible.
But it’s true.
Every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday of my youth meant two hours of Hebrew school. That’s six hours a week. Figuring roughly 40 weeks a year, that’s 240 hours every year, adding up to well over a thousand hours of study.
Couldn’t we find a few minutes in there for Sandy Koufax and Hank Greenberg and Sid Luckman?
Not because they were great Jewish athletes and defy the scholar-nerd stereotype, but to instill pride of a fellow tribesman.
Isn’t there time to look at Golda Meir, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Barbra Streisand?
What we’re talking about is instilling pride, telling our children that there’s a connection of greatness with thousands of years ago and today, and that they’re part of that connection.
Instill that pride in a child, and it becomes part of a personal narrative, a personal heartbeat. And it holds through the years, so that they never want to let it go.
Michael Olesker’s latest book, “Boogie: Life on A Merry-Go-Round,” was recently published by Apprentice House. It’s the life story of Baltimore legend Leonard “Boogie” Weinglass, an original “Diner” guy who grew up to create the Merry-Go-Round clothing chain and contribute millions to charity.
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