The Twilight of the Protestant Establishment

This chapter further documents the decline of mainline Protestant influence over the course of the late 1960s and early 1970s. It shows how the rise of the antiwar and black power movements, together with the emergence of a new generation of free market-minded corporate leaders, exacerbated the demographic and social trends that had been undermining Protestant moral authority since the mid-1960s. A particularly vexing problem, from the perspective of mainline leaders, was the exodus of young professionals from the church. As a result of this trend, the nation’s churches were increasingly dominated by politically conservative older churchgoers. As they worked simultaneously to address the concerns of young activists and assuage the fears of an aging churchgoing population, mainline elites found themselves caught in an insoluble demographic bind.