It may be very practical, since the older folks are the ones claiming a little more affiliation. One of the most alluring benefits of membership in my synagogue, where everyone except our Rabbi has Medicare benefits, is a perk introduced a generation or two ago. Every member has entitlement to a burial plot in the congregational cemetery. As our membership swooned from 350 to 105 families in my time there, most of the departures were young adults who defected or disaffiliated, and older members who claimed their piece of eternity. Even those who retired to Florida maintain a nominal membership to keep that benefit, which continues into widowhood irrespective of membership if the spouse is already buried there.
Perhaps the older participants in the GSS and in the CES have had to bury a mate or had to consider their own final plans as chronic life-shortening conditions appear. The Silent Generation has Veterans who get free burial. We boomers have much less of that entitlement. The church or synagogue offers something very valuable to them which commercial sources find hard to duplicate. No additional attendance required.
That was my thought as well: some contingent turning toward religion as they approach the end of life. That turn could be more about belief / belonging--adopting religious beliefs and self-identifying as religious--without a change in religious attendance.
Could it be a simple return to previous generations were it’s not necessarily less acceptable to be unaffiliated but it’s more socially desirable to refer to oneself as a religious believer (rather an even spiritual) of some kind?
Came here to say the same thing as everyone else. If you look at the same demographic of people as they age, does their religiosity change over time - especially as they approach end of life?
"Guys, this is why this job is hard!" But you do such a great job! I and many others appreciate your efforts to untie the knots of data.
Great post. In regards to the "spiritual reversal" perhaps we are seeing the Spirit at work.
It may be very practical, since the older folks are the ones claiming a little more affiliation. One of the most alluring benefits of membership in my synagogue, where everyone except our Rabbi has Medicare benefits, is a perk introduced a generation or two ago. Every member has entitlement to a burial plot in the congregational cemetery. As our membership swooned from 350 to 105 families in my time there, most of the departures were young adults who defected or disaffiliated, and older members who claimed their piece of eternity. Even those who retired to Florida maintain a nominal membership to keep that benefit, which continues into widowhood irrespective of membership if the spouse is already buried there.
Perhaps the older participants in the GSS and in the CES have had to bury a mate or had to consider their own final plans as chronic life-shortening conditions appear. The Silent Generation has Veterans who get free burial. We boomers have much less of that entitlement. The church or synagogue offers something very valuable to them which commercial sources find hard to duplicate. No additional attendance required.
That was my thought as well: some contingent turning toward religion as they approach the end of life. That turn could be more about belief / belonging--adopting religious beliefs and self-identifying as religious--without a change in religious attendance.
Could it be a simple return to previous generations were it’s not necessarily less acceptable to be unaffiliated but it’s more socially desirable to refer to oneself as a religious believer (rather an even spiritual) of some kind?
Came here to say the same thing as everyone else. If you look at the same demographic of people as they age, does their religiosity change over time - especially as they approach end of life?
Could it be reversion to thinking about God more and thinking about oneself as eeligious as early boomers start to face the end of life?