Religiosity & Rocky Ground
So, 2020 rolls around, lunacy strikes, governments around the world start forcing people to stay home and "non-essential" businesses to close. Other businesses close voluntarily. Some states (and countries) force churches to close. Other churches close voluntarily.
A significant number of people start "doing church online."
Churches reopen.
People don't go back.
A Gallup post (referencing one of their infamous polls) states, "...a 17-point drop in the percentage of U.S. adults who say religion is an important part of their daily life – from 66% in 2015 to 49% today."
Of course, your neighbor who burns all that incense and who hears God talk to her and claims to be "very spiritual" – is indistinguishable from the life-long pastor or priest when it comes to polls like this; to say nothing of the numerous cults large and small.
However, anecdotally, I can tell you that more than a few church-going folks lost their church-going momentum, found that they enjoyed having their Sundays back, and never returned when their churches re-opened. With my anecdotes in hand, when I see these numbers, I don't see Christians falling away from the faith. I see people who had been "doing the church thing," who inflated these numbers for years, and who are now being true to their actual convictions.
13 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2 And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow.4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6 but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears, let him hear.”
Speaking of irrational governments acting irrationally, this is one of my favorite videos of the era. The Guy Who Decides COVID Restrictions. Enjoy!