J.P. De Gance, the founder and president of Communio, a nonprofit that equips churches to strengthen the marriage and relationship health of its members, recently discussed the results of the Communio Nationwide Study on Faith and Relationships at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank. During his speech, De Gance said the study’s results suggest that the decline in resident fatherhood and the collapse of marriage are likely explanations for the increase in religious non-affiliation throughout the United States.

The study’s conclusions are drawn from a nationwide survey completed by 19,000 attendees at 112 different churches across 13 different states. The survey also analyzed a variety of denominations, including Protestant and Catholic churches.

Overall, the survey found that 80% of church attendees grew up in a home where their mother and father stayed married, a trend that remained true regardless of age. In addition, 87% of all 25- to 29-year-old never-married men in church had parents who remained married. “So what this means is folks in church on Sunday are categorically more likely to have grown up with a resident dad in the home than someone who is not in church on Sunday,” De Gance said, noting that the results are not “definitive,” as one in five people in church grew up without married parents. “But it does make it less likely for those folks to show up on Sunday morning,” he said.

Presenting the data on the growth of non-religious affiliation, De Gance said the findings show that religious non-affiliation began to increase between 1986 and 1991 and then rapidly grew in the mid-90s. According to De Gance, this result makes sense, as the children who grew up in homes where their parents didn’t remain married became adults. He asserted that a “married dad” is the “missing ingredient now,” citing an Oxford University Press longitudinal study referenced in the Faith and Relationships study. The longitudinal study followed 3,000 adults and 350 families within a 40-year time frame.

One of the study’s most notable findings, according to De Gance, is that adults who reported a close relationship with their fathers were more likely to report having the same faith as their parents by 25 percentage points. On the other hand, the study found that a closer relationship with their mother did not appear to have a statistical effect on whether an adult had the same faith as their parents.

De Gance referenced a book by Paul Vitz titled Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism, which analyzed 30 of the world’s most well-known atheists. Throughout the book, according to De Gance, there is a reoccurring theme of absentee fathers or broken relationships with a dad.

Biblical Connections: It should be no surprise to followers of the Bible that the statistical data backs up the idea that family matters when it comes to faith. God Himself established the family in the early chapters in Genesis and the Book of Deuteronomy has a strong emphasis on how the family is the main unit for sharing faith. For example, Deuteronomy 6:6-7 states, “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” The breakdown of the family is a massive tragedy that has not only occurred in our culture but has also occurred in our churches. This breakdown of the family leads to a breakdown in faith and a loss of passing down our faith to the next generation.

PRAY: Pray this attack and destruction of the family unit in America will change and God’s design for the family will once again became the normal structure in society.