Episode 25 - Griffin Gooch on Restoring Trust in Religious Institutions

Trust in the government is low, and has been for a long time. Moral individualism, a sort of autonomy from traditional authorities, is high and rising. Where some have lost their faith in institutions, others never had it.

A major part of that story is the decline of participation in religion. As of a 2021-2023 survey period, approximately 30% of Americans attended religious services weekly, down from 42% 20 years earlier. Though there is some indication members of Generation Z are significantly less likely to identify as atheists than their parents, they are more likely to identify as spiritual, not necessarily as religious. From data courtesy of Substack’s own Ryan Burge, the writer and scholar behind Graphs About Religion and the author of multiple books regarding Americans’ church attendance and non-attendance, Gen Zers are the least likely to attend weekly and the most likely to attend never; I am not aware of a reason we should expect that to change anytime soon.

Griffin Gooch is a self-described “almost fully-trained theologian”—completing his in-process doctorate at the University of Aberdeen will make it official. Griffin teaches at Northpoint College in Michigan and is the brains behind no fewer than three separate Substack newsletters:

* Reality Theology with Griffin Gooch, where his “aim is to connect academic disciplines that try to describe reality (psychology, sociology, philosophy, personal development, artistic studies, and so on) with a theological worldview.”

* The Remarkable Ordinary, where Griffin publishes “ordinary stories of Christian kindness, hospitality, and integrity[,]” with the aim of providing “anti-moral failure, anti-church scandal, anti-Christian hypocrisy journalism.”

* The Deadly Seven, a “collaborative, limited run Substack on the Seven Deadly Sins and their relevance to twenty-first century modernity.”

As an elder member of Gen Z, former committed atheist, and now-even-more-committed Christian—and a good, good man—Gooch seems well-situated to speak to the fundamental question at the heart of all of this: once institutions have lost—perhaps forfeited—the people’s trust, how do they get it back?

For more content and to subscribe to the Never Close the Inquiry newsletter, please visit neverclosetheinquiry.substack.com and follow on instagram @neverclosetheinquiry

Please like, rate, comment, and subscribe!