In the 1990s, media elites feared America’s apparently ascendant religiosity, particularly the “evangelicals.” In the 2000s, they cheered the decline of religiosity and the spread of secularism. In the 2010s, the cheers quieted a bit when the more astute began to see what a less religious America looked like.
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Deaths by drugs, alcohol and suicide, known as “deaths of despair,” dramatically increased among middle-aged white Americans in the late 20th century due to lower participation in organized religion that was preceded by a repeal of blue laws that prohibited commercial activities on Sunday, a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research shows.