This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Oct. 9, 2012 - Twenty percent of American adults describe themselves as having no religious affiliation. That is more than 46 million Americans, according to a new study released today by the Pew Research Center, one of America's most respected polling and research nonprofit groups.
The number of Americans with no affiliation to a church, mosque, synagogue, temple or other house of worship has increased 5 percent over the past five years. Increase of non-affiliated Americans is strongest among young adults – with one-third of adults under 30 calling themselves unaffiliated, agnostic or atheist.
Many find the new data a startling change to happen so swiftly. “A 5 percent increase is significant,” said Greg Smith, a senior researcher on the study based on findings of a poll conducted by the nonpartisan Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Unaffiliated Americans are often tagged the Nones, since they check off “none of the above” when given a long list of religions. The Pew study is called “Nones on the Rise” and was co-sponsored by PBS’s weekly Religion & Ethics News Weekly, which airs on Sunday mornings on KETC-Channel 9.
Of those who told Pew pollsters they were unaffiliated, seven out of 10 said they were “nothing in particular,” while 17 percent called themselves agnostics (people who are unsure if there is a God) and 12 percent said they were atheists.
More men than women call themselves unaffiliated: 56 percent of the unaffiliated were men and 44 percent of the unaffiliated were women. More unmarried person than married persons were unaffiliated. There is no significant difference between those who are college educated and those who are not, dismissing myths that the educated tend to be less religious.
The Pew researchers who briefed a recent gathering of religion writers said that, since much of the lack of affiliated is among Americans under 30, this signals repercussions for American society in general, on a variety of cultural, commercial and educational issues.
God, not church
Two out of three of those who told Pew researchers that they are not members of houses of worship, say they believe in God. One in five of the non-affiliated say that they pray every day. More than one out of three define themselves as “spiritual but not religious.”
Most are not hostile to religion bodies. Nearly eight out of 10 say religious organizations help strengthen community bonds and play an important role in helping the poor and needy. However, 43 percent of the atheists and agnostics think religion's waning influence in American life is a good thing while only 22 percent agree among the Nones who are neither atheist nor agnostic see a drop in religion’s influence as a good thing.
The study was based on a telephone poll of 958 Americans by land line and cell phones in all 50 states in June and July. It compared many previous Pew polls and a variety of other polls including exit polls from the last presidential election.
The study will be made public today at the National Press Club in Washington. Pew’s researchers discussed it with religion reporters Saturday at the Religion Newswriters annual conference in Bethesda, Md.
Cultural response
Marcia Z. Nelson of Publishers Weekly, an industry magazine, predicted the study will pique interest of publishers wanting to market fiction and non-fiction to young adults who are Nones.
Commercial and sports groups from resurgent young adult bowling leagues to rugby teams may start events earlier on Sunday mornings and other changes might take place.
The Nones votes may get more attention in next month’s presidential election if the Democrats can figure out how to reach out to them, said John Green, director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron. Of course, the non-affiliated by definition are not an organized bloc. They may be hard to reach, he said.
This summer’s Pew Forum’s poll found that six out of 10 religiously unaffiliated registered voters consider themselves Democrats or said they lean toward that party. The unaffiliated are twice as likely to describe themselves as political liberals as they are to call themselves conservatives. In the wider U.S. population the political leanings are in reverse with 39 percent saying that they are conservative and 21 percent saying they are liberal, a Pew survey taken last January found.
More than seven out of 10 of the unaffiliated Americans support legal abortion and same-sex marriage; however, they are not unified on other issues like whether the nation needs more or less government. They are less likely to think a presidential candidate’s religious belief is important than the general population. Most of the atheists among them find it uncomfortable that candidates talk about religion, said Cary Funk, a senior researcher on the Pew study, said.
Where did they come from?
Most of the unaffiliated grew up in households that were affiliated with congregations. Some just became old enough to be polled as adults. Many are 18- to 22-year-old Americans who five years ago were not polled. Their younger brothers and sisters are expected to increase this segment in the future. Many of these unaffiliated Americans are “generational replacements” for the “Greatest Generation” (born 1913 to 1927), the “Silent Generation” and War Babies (born from 1928-1945).
Campus ministry teams at the Episcopal Church’s Rockwell House and Bethel Lutheran Church, both in University City; Grace Methodist and Memorial Presbyterian Church, both along Skinker Boulevard in the city, and Second Baptist in Grand Center have faced this trend’s challenges for more than a decade as they open their doors to potential Protestant college students at St. Louis area universities.
In recent years, several scholars have said that young adults have turned away from organized religion because they see it as tightly embracing conservative politics, especially the so-called Religious Right led by the Rev. Jerry Falwell and others. In their 2010 book “American Grace How Religion Divides and Unites Us” Robert Putnam of Harvard University and David Campbell of Notre Dame found that many young Americans saw religion as “judgmental, homophobic, hypocritical and too political.” The Pew researchers say their survey has data consistent with the two scholars’ ideas about young adults attitudes.
This big drop in affiliation cannot be reduced to just age, however. Baby Boomers (born from 1946 to 1964) also have a drop in affiliation, and “Generation X” members (born from 1965 to 1980) dropped affiliation from 18 percent unaffiliated five years ago, to 21 percent this summer.
Seven out of 10 of the unaffiliated said churches and other religious institutions are too concerned with money and power compared to five out of 10 of the Amercan public in general who hold that idea. And 67 percent of the unaffiliated say that religious bodies are too involved in politics compared with 46 percent of the American public who have that opinion.
“Black Protestant and Catholic numbers are steady,“ Pew’s Smith said. The Catholic numbers remained steady, in part, because the infusion of young Hispanics.
Denominational membership identity dips dramatically among Mainline White Protestant denominations. White Protestant numbers have been in decline for years, Pew, Gallop and other major pollsters have reported. In the 1970s about six in 10 Americans identified themselves as Protestants. That number dropped to 54 percent of Americans by 2000. This summer Pew found 51 percent of respondents called themselves White Protestants.
People going into the voting booths next month will face for the first time in the nation’s history a U.S. presidential ticket – the top two names of the Republican ticket – with no Protestant. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints and vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan is a Catholic.
Still American remains a religious country, Green said. This summer 58 percent of Americans polled by Pew said that religion is important in their lives, and there is no change in the number of American who say prayer is important.
In contrast, studies show that in Spain, 22 percent say religion is important in their lives, in Germany, 21 percent, in Britain, 17 percent, and in France, 13 percent.