Faith in Decline: “Will forgiveness decline too?”

/ Tom Delaney, O.F.S., M.A. Theo., Cert. Catech.
(photo: St. Stanislaus Church, Milwaukee, 2006)

Gallup released a new poll report today marking a steady 10 year decline in religiosity in the United States. Religious faith is a significant and frequent motivation for forgiveness at the personal level, and the Gallup data should cause at least a question, if not a concern, that the decline in religious faith will coincide with a decline in motivation for forgiveness at the mass level in our nation. Will we become a more unforgiving people? Will our nation become a more unforgiving place?

Here are my highlights from the Gallup poll report:

  • The 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 — ranks among the largest Gallup has recorded in any country over any 10-year period since 2007.
  • About half of Americans now say religion is not an important part of their daily life.
  • The importance of religion in daily life in the U.S. resembles that of countries such as Argentina, Ireland, Poland and Italy — where Catholicism is more influential — but significantly fewer Americans now identify as Christian compared with those populations.
  • The steady decline in U.S. religiosity over the past decade has been evident for years.
  • Fewer Americans identify with a religion.
  • Church attendance and membership are declining.
  • Religion holds a less important role in people’s lives than it once did.
  • The U.S. increasingly stands as an outlier: less religious than much of the world, but still more devout than most of its economic peers.

The possibilities to correlate the decline in religiosity with other mass measures are many. While our national rates of religiosity decline, the national crime rate has also declined (Federal Bureau of Investigations, 2025). At the same time, the prevalence of mental health distress and disorders is increasing (Centers for Disease Control, 2025). Sadly this is also reflected in the nation’s increasing rate of suicide as well (Centers for Disease Control, 2025). Social media use has also been increasing over the past ten years as well (Pew Research Center, 2024). It is a complex picture to be sure, and it is hard to tell if there is a relationship between one thing or another, or whether a change in one thing actually causes a change in another, but definitely one that we should be keeping an eye on.

In general, research has validated that religious faith has a positive effect on mental health (Lucchetti, et al, 2021), as has forgiveness (Harvard University, 2021), which adds even a documented physical health benefit. Researcher Lucchetti and colleagues observed that the effects of religion and spirituality on mental health are “likely bidirectional, and the manner in which religious beliefs are used to cope with distress (i.e. negative and positive), may affect mental health outcomes.” Perhaps this latest data from Gallup can help us see the importance of supporting Catholic faith as an aid to people trying to cope with distress, and thus having a part in improving mental health outcomes. Perhaps an intentional refocus on mental health, and things like forgiveness that promote mental health, will make Catholic faith appealing and valuable to people in a new way. One example of this effort is the International Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers, and there are others that can be listed. The work is important, and it’s certainly the right time!

Please share these words to benefit someone today.

This text is an original work of its author Tom Delaney and was entirely composed without the use of artificial intelligence (AI).

If your parish or faith community is seeking a deeper experience of forgiveness, healing, mercy, and spiritual renewal, Live and Forgive is here to help. To begin the conversation, email Live and Forgive presenter and facilitator Tom Delaney at tom@liveandforgive.com — he will be glad to connect with you for a conversation. Please type in your email and click “Subscribe” below to stay connected and get Live and Forgive articles delivered to you.

Take your learning deeper! Enter the term or word for any idea or thing you saw in this article that you want to know more about, and you will get a list of other articles that also talk about that idea or thing!

Leave a comment