For many people in America, church plays a big role in their live. They pray before meals or daily and attend church on Sundays. 47% of Americans were registered church members in 2020, 41% still attend church once a month, 20% every week. In Germany, about 46% of people are still Christian, but only 5% still attend church once a month. But why is that, why are many people leaving church and how different are churches in America and Germany?
If you visit Germany, you are going to come across a lot of churches. Nearly every town and city has one and you can see their high towers, reaching above the roofs, far away. There are about 45,000 churches in Germany on an area of about 140,000 square miles. For comparison, in America there are 350,000 – 400,000 churches on about 3,500,000 square miles. There are about 3 times as many churches per square mile in Germany.
But although there are so many more churches, less people go to church regularly. Most people only go to church about 2-3 times a year for celebrations like Easter and Christmas. But why are so many registered in church if they aren‘t really active when they have to pay taxes for being registered church members. Usually people to get baptized and become a church member because it is traditional, their parents like the idea of godparents or their parents want them to be religious. Some parents also give their children the choice, but others also get baptized because it increases their chance to get into a school that is under a sponsorship of the Catholic or Protestant Church. Tradition or things like marriage and funerals that are often still tied to the church keep inactive people in church and many people also don‘t know, that they pay a church tax.
Church has lost a lot of it‘s popularity in the recent past because it refuses to get more modern, not only making church services boring for many people but also because they represent conservative, questionable opinions. Another thing that made people exit church was that both Catholic and Protestant Church had sexual abuse and violence scandals. 3677 boys and girls were abused in the Catholic Church from potentially 1670 pastors, deacons or other church officials, although there is no guarantee, that these numbers are all. In the Protestant Church, a study talks about 2.225 victims und 1.259 accused officials, but ,because of missing informations leading to not every case being taken into account, also estimating the real numbers to be 9.355 victims and 3.497 perpetrators, while reminding that these numbers are estimates.
Just like the buildings, churches in America are more modern, in my opinion making services less boring and more enjoyable. And although the American church attendance and membership numbers too are going down, the American church is probably going to have a slower decline than German churches, as the people that regularly attend church wont go away soon. But no matter where, church helps people and brings them together.
