Study: Almost one in five Americans has no religious affiliation
by Tom Roberts | Oct. 9, 2012
ncronline.org/news/faith-parish/study-almost-one-five-americans-have-no-religious-affiliation
Bethesda, Md. —
Alexis de Tocqueville’s 19th-century observation that “the Christian religion” had a greater influence on America than any other country in the world might still be true, but if he were visiting today, he’d find Americans dropping their formal religious affiliations in unprecedented numbers.
In the last five years, the number of people who claim no religious affiliation has increased from slightly more than 15 percent to just under 20 percent of all U.S. adults, according to a new study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, one of seven projects that make up the Pew Research Center. The study was done in partnership with the PBS program “Religion & Ethics Newsweekly.”
According to the report, titled ” ‘Nones’ on the Rise,” the almost 20 percent (33 million people) who are unaffiliated include 13 million self-described atheists and agnostics, or almost 6 percent of the U.S. population.
The study also established that only 48 percent of American adults say they are Protestant, the “first time in Pew Research Center surveys that the Protestant share of the population has dipped significantly below 50 percent,” the report says. Five years ago, Protestants made up 53 percent of the population.
In comments Saturday to a meeting of the Religion Newswriters Association held in Bethesda, Md., the researchers said the new numbers, based both on recent surveys as well as other materials from past polling, confirms a consistent trend showing a declining attachment to religious institutions. The drop occurs across such demographic divides as age, levels of education and income.
In an interview with NCR, Pew Forum senior researcher Gregory Smith described as “twin milestones” the increase in the number of unaffiliated and the drop in the Protestant population, a decrease that occurred primarily among white Protestants among both those who describe themselves as evangelicals and those who describe themselves as non-evangelicals.
While the margins of error, a function of the size of polling samples, for various components of the study range from 2.1 to 4.5 percentage points, Smith said the margin of error for the findings regarding the number of unaffiliated and the number of Protestants is 0.9 percentage points because it is based on polling of 17,010 people, an unusually large number. He said the figure is an aggregate of polls done in a six-month period by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.
The finding that Protestants now make up less than half the adult population in the United States is an especially dramatic result because the country has always been mostly Protestant, Smith said. As recently as the 1980s, Protestants accounted for six in 10 Americans, he added.
Lack of affiliation, the study points out, doesn’t mean a lack of religion or spirituality. According to the study, “many of the country’s 46 million unaffiliated adults are religious or spiritual in some way. Two-thirds of them say they believe in God (68 percent)” and “more than a third classify themselves as ‘spiritual’ but not ‘religious’ (37 percent).” Further, 21 percent of them say they pray every day, and most of them, according to the survey, are not hostile toward organized religion but “think that churches and other religious institutions benefit society by strengthening community bonds and aiding the poor.”
How long denominations will be around to provide such benefits is the question. In fact, the only religious groups to remain relatively unchanged are Black Protestant (8 percent), other minority Protestant (6 percent), Orthodox (1 percent), Mormon (2 percent) and Catholic (23 percent). The stability in the Catholic population has largely to do with the influx of Latin American immigrants, previous Pew studies have documented.
The percentage of the population identifying as Christian dropped from 78 percent in 2007 to 73 percent this year.
Among the oldest generation surveyed, termed the “Greatest” in the survey and consisting of those born between 1913 and 1927, the number of unaffiliated has dropped from 7 percent to 5 percent between 2007 and this year.
In the “Silent” generation, born 1928-1945, the percentage of unaffiliated remains unchanged at 9 percent in the same five-year period.
“Boomers,” born 1946-1964, show an increase of unaffiliated over the same period, from 12 percent to 15 percent.
The number of unaffiliated among “Gen Xers,” born 1965-1980, increased from 18 percent to 21 percent.
“Older Millennials,” born 1981-1989, showed an increase in unaffiliated from 26 percent to 30 percent.
Finally, among “Younger Millennials,” born 1990-1994 and surveyed for the first time, the percentage of unaffiliated was 34 percent.
So while the lack of affiliation increases among the young, the trend to drop religious affiliation began with the boomers and increases in subsequent generations.
The study shows the percentage of Americans raised without an affiliation has risen slowly, from about 3 percent in the early 1970s to about 8 percent during the past decade. However, the current survey found that about 74 percent of adults who are now unaffiliated were raised “with some affiliation.”
If the ranks of those who claim no affiliation are growing, the number who say religion is very important in their lives has remained fairly constant — 58 percent today compared with 61 percent in 2007. At the same time, the number who say prayer is an important part of their daily lives is at 76 percent, the same figure as 25 years ago.
And the United States remains far more religious than other countries. For instance, according to the report, the percentage of those in Britain who see religion as very important in their lives stands at 17 percent; in France, 13 percent; Germany, 21 percent; and Spain, 22 percent.
The downturn in affiliation is reflected in a downturn in church attendance. Between 2003 and 2012, the number of U.S. adults who report attending weekly or more often has dropped from 39 percent to 37 percent; the number who attend monthly or yearly dropped one point, from 34 percent to 33 percent; and the number who attend seldom or never rose from 25 percent to 29 percent.
Why are Americans walking away from religion?
by Tom Roberts | Oct. 9, 2012
ncronline.org/node/36491
Bethesda, Md. —
While the data that show people in the United States are walking away from organized religion in unprecedented numbers are overwhelmingly clear, they don’t answer the more nagging question: Why?
Included in the study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, called ” ‘Nones’ on the rise,” are four theories advanced by those who study societal trends. And perhaps it is no surprise in this political year that the one that seems most probable (none is provable by the data) has to do with religion and politics.
One theory holds that the increase in “nones” is reflective of other social trends, “including the postponement of marriage and parenthood by growing numbers of young adults.”
The study’s authors, however, note that while polls show that among adults under 30, “married people are more likely to have a religious affiliation than are unmarried people,” other data demonstrate that Americans do not become more affiliated with religious organizations as they marry and age; in fact, they say, “the percentage of people in each generation who are religiously affiliated has remained stable, or decreased slightly, as that generation has aged.”
How about the “bowling alone” syndrome, which defines the reality that increasingly Americans are living more separate lives and disengaging from all forms of communal activities, such as service clubs and other community groups? Is it merely extending to churches? The researchers say that could be the case, since those who are religiously active are more likely, according to surveys, to be engaged in community activities and groups. The theory also seems to square with the “nones” study that finds “religiously unaffiliated Americans are less inclined than Americans as a whole to feel that it is very important to belong to ‘a community of people who share your values and beliefs.’”
Another theory blames the growth of secularization and its links to wealth as a reason for disengagement from religion. Again, the data provide some justification. According to the Pew report, past surveys in other countries show “an association between these measures of religiosity and a country’s national wealth.” Countries with a high gross domestic product tended to be less religious than countries with a low GDP. But the United States, with both a high GDP and high levels of religious commitment, was always the exception to the rule. Until now. Some suggest that the rise of the “nones” is a sign of advancing secularization.
The theory that appears to have the most support from the recent data is the one called “Political backlash.”
“Several leading scholars contend that young adults, in particular, have turned away from organized religion because they perceive it as deeply entangled with conservative politics and do not want to have any association with it,” according to the report.
The researchers cite several studies and quote from a recent book American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, by Robert Putnam and David Campbell, who argue that in recent decades “[r]eligiosity and conservative politics became increasingly aligned, and abortion and gay rights became emblematic of the emergent culture wars.” Consequently, say Putnam and Campbell, many young Americans came to view religion as “judgmental, homophobic, hypocritical, and too political.”
Indeed, the current survey figures bear out some of that thesis. And the Democrats’ “God problem” of recent years may be turning into a political and demographic advantage. According to the most recent Pew report, the unaffiliated are “concentrated among younger adults, political liberals and people who take liberal positions on same-sex marriage.”
Two thirds of unaffiliated say churches and other religious institutions “are too concerned with money and power (70 percent) and too involved in politics (67 percent).” The unaffiliated also are less likely than the affiliated to be concerned with a president’s religious beliefs. While the unaffiliated have increased in both parties, the increase is greater among Democrats.
Almost one in five Americans has no religious affiliation
Almost 82% of Catholics now believe birth control is morally acceptable. Vatican II opened the Church to the world and the Church has gone downhill, with the world, ever since.
www.gallup.com/poll/154799/americans-including-catholics-say-birth-control-morally.aspx