How Fatherlessness Drove Church Decline and How Churches Can Reverse It

"My father? I never knew him," Eminem once lamented. "Never seen a picture of him." His father's absence drove much of the Detroit rapper's work and life.

As we celebrate Father's Day in America—and all the good dads doing their best to provide for their families and communities—it is worth remembering the damage done to children when fathers are not in the picture. That is, the wounds that absence leaves behind and the tragic outcomes, including vastly higher rates of incarceration for boys and drastically higher teenage pregnancy rates for girls.

It turns out, according to a recent nationwide study of faith and relationships, that fatherlessness is a root cause of Christianity's collapse over the past 40 years in America. The same study also provided a ray of hope for American Christians. No social institution in the nation is better situated to tackle the fatherless problem—and the loneliness problem too—than the church, according to J.P. DeGance, president and CEO of Communio, the nonprofit ministry that commissioned the new study. Communio dedicates its time and resources to equipping churches to evangelize through healthy marriages and relationships

"What's important to first understand is the explosive growth of religious 'nones,' those who check on a box that they hold no religion," DeGance told Newsweek. "We're now at a staggering 29 percent of all Americans checking that box."

In 2007, when Pew Research first began polling on the question of religious identity, Christians outranked "nones" by 78 to 16 percent, a 5-to-1 ratio. It is now a mere 3-to-1, as only 63 percent of Americans identify as Christians.

What is driving that change? "It's a well-known fact that the current growth in religious nonaffiliation began sometime between the mid-1980s and early 1990s, about 25 to 30 years after the start of the sexual revolution," DeGance said. In 1960, he added, we began to experience explosive growth in nonmarital births and divorce, which had the effect of shrinking the number of children who grew up with a dad in the home.

"That's what has driven the rise of religious nonaffiliation," DeGance explained. "The collapse of marriage was the root cause, which also explains the decline in church attendance and the explosive growth of loneliness in our country too."

DeGance noted that there are many good divorced dads and many valiant single mothers doing God's work trying to raise their kids without the father's help. But the data overwhelmingly supports DeGance's claim. Communion's study is based on the findings of 19,000 surveys gathered from 112 different congregations spread across 13 different states. They were gathered from evangelical and protestant churches of all kinds and Catholic churches too.

One data point stood out above the rest. "It turns out that 80 percent of everybody in the pews on Sunday morning grew up in a home with continuously married biological parents, and that trend held across all age groups, from the oldest Gen Zs to the youngest boomers," DeGance said. 80 percent!

Fatherlessness, it turns out, doesn't just lead to poor outcomes on social indexes, DeGance's research revealed. It has profound spiritual consequences too. When marriage collapses, church attendance collapses. And the social institution designed to nurture and love children collapses along with it.

"There's been a revolution in family structure of the last 60 years," DeGance said. "So what's changed as pastors look at what's going on with the diminishing numbers in the pews? What they're not frequently understanding is that what's driving the loss of people from the pews is the collapse of the family itself. That's the leading indicator."

As marriage collapsed, rates of fatherlessness rose precipitously, which further eroded the foundational relationship that drives church attendance. DeGance's research echoed other research in the field about father-child connections, specifically regarding religious practices.

"Oxford University Press published a 40-year longitudinal study that followed 350 families with over 3,000 adults over the time frame," DeGance said. "What they disproportionately found was that an adult's description of his or her relationship being warm and close with her dad was the biggest predictor of whether or not that adult practiced faith as an adult."

The study also revealed some compelling data on loneliness in America. Indeed, on May 3, the U.S. surgeon general issued and reissued an advisory on an epidemic of loneliness. And not long ago, the United Kingdom created a Cabinet-level minister for loneliness because of its impacts on public health outcomes. Loneliness, it turns out, shortens lifespans by 15 years. It's the public health equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

The group witnessing the largest growth in loneliness was not, as one might expect, old people. Gen Z and millennials were suffering the most. "Lonelier than the loneliest group of widows and widowers are 30- to 39- year-old men and women who have never married," DeGance said. "And what is fueling their loneliness epidemic is their flight from marriage."

There was positive news for regular churchgoers, not just on the family formation front but the loneliness front too. "Only 15 percent of married people are considered lonely, using existing health indicators, while at least 50 percent of every other single demographic in the country is considered lonely."

In short, regular churchgoers are much less likely than their peers outside the church to be lonely. And much more likely to be fathers living in the same home with their kids.

DeGance had an urgent message to church leaders and Christians across the country. "Unless the church becomes deeply interested in solving the problems of fatherlessness and loneliness at the root cause, and that's the institution of marriage, the church will not see true renewal, absent a miraculous intervention by God."

DeGance and his organization are hard at work doing just that, equipping churches to respond to these urgent social problems happening outside their walls. Problems churches are uniquely situated to address, if only they dare. "We are equipping churches to think of marriage ministry not as something that's hiding in the basement of the church but on the front porch. And then be the light into the community and reach out and invite people in around relationship ministry by providing fun things to do," DeGance said.

For everyone out there in America celebrating Father's Day—and all of you who aren't as well—there is great news to report about marriage and the positive impact it has on kids. And on the loneliness problem and the church itself, whether you are a believer or not.

It's news well worth spreading.