Many churchgoers are not familiar with the term “deconstruction,” but if they are, they’ve likely seen it within the church pews they sit in on a regular basis.
A Lifeway Research study of Protestant churchgoers in the United States found more than 1 in 3 (36%) are familiar or very familiar with “the concept of an individual deconstructing their faith in which they systematically dissect and often reject Christian beliefs they grew up with.” Meanwhile, more than 1 in 4 (28%) have not heard of the term before.
A similar Lifeway Research study shows pastors are more likely to be familiar with deconstruction. Among U.S. Protestant pastors, more than 2 in 5 (46%) are familiar or very familiar with the concept of deconstruction, and 14% have not heard the term.
However, among those who have heard of the term, churchgoers are more likely than pastors to say they have seen attendees of their church methodically deconstruct their faith (37% v. 27%).
“It’s not surprising the majority of churchgoers are not very familiar with the term ‘deconstruction,’ since it often describes a person’s private journey or one that’s shared within a limited social set,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research.
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“The fluid nature of the term and its affinity among those on social media or podcasts distances it from many Christians. The term can be used both to represent a total abolishing of one’s faith or to describe one’s personal questioning and working out their salvation to greater faith.”
Familiarity with the term
There is a correlation between the churchgoer’s age and their familiarity with the term “deconstruction.” Churchgoers over the age of 65 are the most likely to say they have not heard the term “deconstruction” before (51%) and the least likely to say they are familiar or very familiar with the term (12%). The younger the churchgoer, the more likely they are to have heard the term before and be familiar with it.
Similarly, younger pastors, those 18-44, are the most likely to say they’re very familiar with deconstruction (36%), while pastors 65 and older are the least likely to possess that same level of familiarity (12%).
“The study did not ask churchgoers the characteristics of those they see deconstructing their faith, but strong age patterns in those noticing the dissection of their faith imply it is more common among those under age 50,” McConnell said.
African American pastors are more likely than white pastors to not have heard of deconstruction (24% v. 13%). Within the pews, however, white churchgoers (33%) are among the most likely and African American churchgoers (16%) are among the least likely to say they’re not familiar with the term.
Churchgoers with evangelical beliefs are less likely than those without these beliefs to be familiar or very familiar with the term “deconstruction” (33% v. 39%) and more likely to have not heard the term before (32% v. 26%).
Deconstruction in the pews
More than 1 in 3 churchgoers who have heard of deconstruction have seen it play out among church attendees in their congregations (37%). The oldest churchgoers, those over 65, are the most likely to say they have not seen it in the pews of their churches (64%). And younger churchgoers, those age 18-34 (48%) and 35-49 (49%), are more likely to say they have than those age 50-64 (31%) and over 65 (15%).
Denominationally, Methodist (19%) and Restorationist movement (29%) churchgoers are among the least likely to say they have not seen deconstruction among attendees in their churches. However, the majority of Methodist (63%) and Restorationist movement (55%) pastors say they have not seen people in their congregation deconstructing their faith.
“While the majority of churchgoers have not seen anyone in their own congregation deconstructing their faith, the numbers are not insignificant,” McConnell said. “When a culture moves away from God, individuals question the teachings they have received.”
Similar to the fact that evangelical pastors are more likely than mainline pastors to say they haven’t seen deconstruction taking place in their churches (72% v. 62%), churchgoers with evangelical beliefs are more likely than those without evangelical beliefs to say they have not seen someone in their church deconstruct their faith (54% v. 43%).
This article originally appeared at Lifeway Research.
Marissa Postell Sullivan is the managing editor for Lifeway Research.
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5 Responses
Joel Furches has an interesting blog “Switching Sides” where he looks at deconversion from a psychological point of view. I believe he’s working on a doctoral thesis with his research. One interesting observation of his was that deconversion was much more likely on the extremes of fundamentalism or liberalism.
I’m curious if someone here, or the writer, can give specifics re: which beliefs might be changed in a congregation under the concept of deconstruction.
Deconstruction is such a nebulous term. I see many people on social media coming to terms with the social and behavioral teachings they learned in church – for example, teachings around marriage, family, and purity. I don’t consider those type of things to be “faith.” Many of these people still have faith in Jesus, they are just changing their perspectives on these ancillary church teachings and calling it deconstruction.
Deconstruction doesn’t actually mean “demolition;” instead it means “breaking down” or analyzing something (especially the words in a work of fiction or nonfiction) to discover its true significance, which is supposedly almost never exactly what the author intended.
So, lots of people are rejecting/demolishing/tergiversating/destroying their faith. They are not typically ‘deconstructing’ it. The closest we have to deconstruction of the Bible is what Gnostics did and still do.
Isn’t this just the logical outcome of progressive Christianity? Soon the mainline will be no more.