Will They Call Me ‘Boomer’? An ‘older millennial’ Catholic wonders if he’ll be viewed as privileged
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Lower-income Americans are less likely to go to church. The survey data is very strong on this point, notwithstanding the media-driven stereotype that the poorest and least-educated people go to church in America. The actual data, though, shows that the most educated Americans are most likely to go to church, and higher income is also linked to church attendance. Knowing the real relationships and real outcomes can help us avoid swallowing the culture’s lies and avoid making wrong choices based on those misrepresentations.
Acclaimed sociologist Christian Smith conducted a series of large surveys with young Americans, following up with those individuals years later to study their religious views and how they changed over time. Professor Smith found that 26% of low-income families never went to a church service while only 15% of high-income families had the same complete lack of attendance. Similarly, he found that 30% of low-income families went to religious services weekly compared to 43% for middle income and 45% for high-income families. This is consistent with more recent research as well.
Ryan Burge, the most prolific current scholar on religion data who runs GraphsAboutReligion.com, has reached similar conclusions with more recent data: “Religion in the 21st Century America has become an enclave for people who have done everything ‘right.’” Religion has become a “luxury good” for people with solid incomes, and the poor are the least likely group to attend church services. The poor are the least likely to attend religious services. Burge’s data specific to Catholics and income also shows an interesting correlation.
It is important to note, though, that high income does not mean “rich” in the colloquial sense. Americans often cling to the belief that they are middle class, even if they are in the top ten percent of income earners. When surveys discuss high-income households, they are often talking household earning over $100,000 per year, not over a million. Even so, the media stereotype still represents Christians as bitter poor people “clinging” to their religion. The data, at least in America, just does not fit the stereotype.
At first glance, it may seem that this data does not reflect our lived experience. Even outside the media narrative, we see how rich, secular cities seem most hostile to faith and the poor, rural areas have more faith. JD Vance even makes a point on this in his book Hillbilly Elegy based on his lived experience, noting that the poor Appalachian communities claim strong religious identity but actually attend church less than the report. He concludes they may be overstating their religious attendance in surveys.
There is, however, data supporting the idea that the income in an area has a strong and stereotypical correlation with church attendance in that area. Professor Smith noted that wealthier areas are less religious. If the median family income in a county was in the lowest quartile, 44% of the population went to church weekly compared with only 33% in areas where income was in the highest quartile. The trend carried across into other measures of religiosity as well. Georgetown’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate explains it clearly: “The fit between GDP per capita and frequency of Mass attendance is stronger than religiosity and Mass attendance… In higher-income countries, religiosity falls.” This fits the obvious experience of rich, secular countries and rich, secular cities being hostile to faith.
We are all aware of the stories about wealthy people and particularly the children of wealthy people who lose their faith seemingly as the result of a life or privilege. But many of us also have anecdotes about people who grew up in an impoverished, difficult situation that they blame their religious upbringing on. There is likely a combination of things that matter, and a solid family foundation is probably more important than that family’s income. A faith-filled life, however, may be easier with a healthy income while not living in a rich, secular area.
Of course, poverty is a more complicated issue for Christians that cannot be addressed only with survey data. Crisis Magazine had an excellent debate over whether poverty is or is not a path to heaven. Patrick J. Moran explains that: “The goal is not to have nothing but—like the material poor—to know that you have nothing without God. Such trust in Him frees us from inordinate attachment to created things and leads to our sanctity. It is certainly a path to Heaven.” This was in response to John Mac Ghlionn asserting that “the poor aren’t moral mascots” and that: “If love for the poor is to mean anything, it must involve helping them stop being poor—not through pity, not through pageantry, but through opportunity, through the structure of education and the restoration of self-reliance.”
As a parent, I want my children to succeed, but I place a higher value on them becoming saints than on becoming millionaires. We should worry less about securing their inheritance and more about securing their eternal rest. More broadly, people with higher incomes are less likely to report that they feel lonely. I want my kids to thrive in the areas that matter, and avoiding poverty certainly seems to help with that.
I do not think that wealth makes people better. But there is a lot of evidence that poverty creates problems. Two hundred fifty years ago, Dr. Samuel Johnson explained it well: “Resolve not to be poor. Whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult.” I hope my children and my future grandchildren take this lesson to heart.
J.C. Miller is an attorney and father of seven from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Follow him on X (@JCMillerEsq).
J.C. Miller is an attorney and father of seven from Michigan.
