It's these kinds of subtleties that make polls/census data on this hard to interpret? Has attendance declined? Adherence? Donations? They might just be measuri

It's these kinds of subtleties that make polls/census data on this hard to interpret? Has attendance declined? Adherence? Donations? They might just be measuring an evolution in what "member" means to respondents. I live in Ireland. Huge secularization over the last generation. I think it would be hard to narrate that story with church membership and/or census data alone. Even church attendance doesn't always mean what you think it means. It might not imply membership, beliefs or even census reported identity. IMO, the more interesting questions relate to what the churches preach, and how that evolves over time.