Is America Losing Its Religion

A couple of weeks ago, this story caused quite a stir in the local blogosphere. At the time I wanted to write something on it, but decided to hold off until I had more time to really do it justice. I’m not sure if that time is now, but I decided to go ahead and tackle the issue anyway.

The story deals with a recent survey that found that 15% of American’s claim no religion, Baptists fell from 19.3% in 1990 to 15.8%, those who refer to themselves as Christian, Protestant, non-denominational, evangelical, and/or “born again” held steady at 14.2%, Jews fell from 1.8% to 1.2%, and the number of people who identify themselves as part of one of the new religious movements (Wiccan, pagan, “Spiritualist,” etc.) has reached 2.8 million.

Money Quote –

Kosmin concluded from the 1990 data that many saw God as a "personal hobby," and that the USA is "a greenhouse for spiritual sprouts."

Today, he says, "religion has become more like a fashion statement, not a deep personal commitment for many."

The local reactions seemed to start with the post hark! good news: religion less popular by Peace Arena. Rena’s stance was that this is a good sign stating “I think religion is mostly a negative influence on society.”

Fried Green Onions responded with the post Our local peacenik drives his point home with an (authoritative study?) from the HUFF Post via a tiny tiny global studies liberal college in lala land. The crux of Jim’s response was to discount the survey stating that it was a “shaky study from a tiny college.” He then went on a rant about Marxism, Evolution, neo-Darwinism, and Sociobiology, which I admittedly had a hard time following. I will try re-reading it later.

JMBZine.com then followed with the post Is religion less popular or is something else going on?. Of all of the local posts on the subject, J.M.’s was the most in-depth. Here is a section of the post that I found to be very thoughtful and pretty spot on –

Second, I think many people within the category of “none” actually are very spiritual, even if not religious. During my time in the liberal mecca of Austin, I encountered many people who were critical of religion and didn’t consider themselves religious (it seemed to be the majority viewpoint of the UT campus population and the Austin activist community), yet were deeply spiritual. Some found beliefs in other religious traditions (picking and choosing what felt right to them — which by the way, I think is a-ok). Others took more free form paths, or even just had a deep and abiding faith in the power of collective humanity.

I think all of these things, while not “religious,” are spiritual in nature. A belief in a power higher than oneself, a belief in the connectedness of all existence, a belief that consciousness may continue in some way after a death, a belief that there is more to existence than that experienced through our senses . . . I think all of these things are a kind of spiritual belief.

I know that there are many who are truly atheists (which is also ok in my book… as a believer in God, I tend to think God loves everyone and believes in everyone. God doesn’t “need” our love to be able to love and care for us. And since I’m a heretic and don’t believe in hell, I don’t think atheists, infidels or anyone is going to be tormented in the afterlife), but I think most who describe themselves as atheists or agnostics, are still spiritual even though they reject religion.

Local blogs were obviously not the only ones to chime in on this subject. Classically Liberal chimed in with the post The post-Christian shift in America continues and the Faith & Reason section of USA Today offered up the post What’s your religious ‘path?’ Any? Many? or None?. CLS started his post with the following, which I found very interesting –

For several years I have been claiming that the United States is entering a post-Christian stage of intellectual development, something I consider to be a positive trend. I argued that this trend was part of a wider trend toward more social liberalism in generally, another thing which I consider to be generally positive. Last year I wrote: “Americans are moving rapidly and quickly toward social liberalism… The American people got tired of the culture wars and they seem to be abandoning the cultural conservatives.” All this is part of our country “moving toward a post-Christian culture.”

The Faith & Reason post ended with something also worth quoting –

Eighteen years later, the new ARIS appears to prove them right. Americans are more disengaged from traditional religious denominations and Judeo-Christian ideas about God than ever before. And yet, the language of political persuasion used by the conservative right and progressive left is still steeped in Biblical morality and ethics.

Do you think the trends of the last generation will continue in the next? Which "path" will you be on? Will it be the same one as your parents or your children?

Overall I think that this survey shows the growing diversity in the United States and to me that is far from a bad thing. While I completely disagree with Rena and do not believe that “religion is mostly a negative influence on society” I do understand and empathize with where many of the non-believers are coming from. While the USA’s religious framework is changing the fact remains that the majority of American’s (especially those in power) are Christian and for those of non-Christian religious beliefs, the landscape can feel daunting. The problem that I think many non-believers have with organized religion has more to do with the organization and the organization(s) need to hold on to power than it does with actual faith or spirituality.

To me all religions offer a path to heaven, enlightenment, paradise, or whatever you want to call it. We spend too much time debating the minutia differences instead of focusing on the holistic similarities. Faith and spirituality is something that can unite us, if we don’t let religion get in the way.