# Who typically did NOT go to church in the 1950s? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 23, 2025, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-typically-did-not-go-to-church-in-the-1950s/1025971 "2025-12-23T00:47:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-typically-did-not-go-to-church-in-the-1950s/1025971/41 "2025-12-24T17:07:33Z")
Please pick an appropriate book from that list and report a summary of what it says on the OP’s question. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-typically-did-not-go-to-church-in-the-1950s/1025971/42 "2025-12-24T17:57:24Z")
Nah. The op was asking not only who it was who did not go but > [@themapleleaf](#): > > Is there any way in which those who in 1955 went to church and those who didn’t could be distinguished? The answer to that question is yes, by using classic methods that historians use, and for those of us who are not historians by looking up their work, which exists. It is not unknowable. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-typically-did-not-go-to-church-in-the-1950s/1025971/43 "2025-12-24T18:28:41Z")
FWIW someone actually intrigued by the question can get a Kindle copy of the second, which sounds promising, for under $16 … > **[The Fifties Spiritual Marketplace: American Religion in a Decade of Conflict:...](https://www.amazon.com/Fifties-Spiritual-Marketplace-American-Religion/dp/081352346X)** > > The Fifties Spiritual Marketplace: American Religion in a Decade of Conflict \[Ellwood, Robert S., Ellwood, Robert S.\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. The Fifties Spiritual Marketplace: American Religion in a Decade of Conflict ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-typically-did-not-go-to-church-in-the-1950s/1025971/44 "2025-12-24T20:34:58Z")
The OP request for demographics is slightly answered, albeit obliquely, and FWIW, in an article about that second book. Not directly who did not go to church regularly then, but where the big increase was anyway. Suburbia. And supply side driven. > **[The 1950s - Powerful Years for Religion](https://today.usc.edu/the-1950s-powerful-years-for-religion/)** > > Robert Ellwood's new book mixes religion with history, politics and culture. He says they're inseparable. > He characterizes the decade’s thriving organized religion as a supply-side phenomenon, in which suburbanites could almost always find a church of their denomination close by. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-typically-did-not-go-to-church-in-the-1950s/1025971/45 "2025-12-24T21:33:28Z")
So “Build it and they ~~will~~ did come.”? ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2025, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-typically-did-not-go-to-church-in-the-1950s/1025971/46 "2025-12-24T21:37:42Z")
To Kingdom Come. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2025, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-typically-did-not-go-to-church-in-the-1950s/1025971/47 "2025-12-25T02:52:21Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Rockwell was a master at creating art that told a full short story. Note that Dad in that picture has two tufts of hair on either side of his head, is wearing red, and has smoke hanging over him. Clearly, Satanic! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-typically-did-not-go-to-church-in-the-1950s/1025971.md?page=2)