WASHINGTON — A new survey shows that more Americans than ever are religiously unaffiliated, and as a group they are not seeking religion.
Just under 20% of U.S. adults are now unaffiliated, an increase from 15% in 2007, says a new survey from the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life. Among those aged 18-29, 32% have no religious affiliation.
The research center nicknamed this population “nones.”
Although the Catholic population remains statistically unchanged at 22%, a 1% decrease from 2007, Pew credits this steadiness in part to immigration from Latin America.
The decline is mainly among both evangelical and mainline white Protestants. For the first time in U.S. history, its Protestant population has dropped below 50%.
Pew included in the “nones” atheists and agnostics, who respectively make up about 2.4% and 3.3% of the population.
About 74% of “nones” were raised with a religious affiliation. Most religiously unaffiliated Americans said they are not looking for a religion that would be right for them, while only 10% said they are.
“In terms of their religious beliefs and practices, the unaffiliated are a diverse group and far from uniformly secular,” the research center said.
Thirty percent said their belief in God or a universal spirit is “absolutely certain,” while 38% said they are less certain. Only 27% said they do not believe. Twenty-one percent said they pray daily, and another 20% said they pray weekly or monthly.
Eighteen percent think of themselves as religious persons, while 37% say they are spiritual but not religious. Forty-nine percent of “nones” said they seldom or never attend religious services, an increase of 11% from 2007.
Analysis also found that those polled are no more inclined towards New Age beliefs than the general public.
The survey shows a decline in religious affiliation among both college graduates and those without college degrees.
Pew said that generational replacement is an important factor in the increase in the religiously unaffiliated. Only 5% of the World War II generation is unaffiliated, while 9% of the "Silent Generation" is. However, baby boomers and members of "Generation X" have become less likely to affiliate with a religion.
The “nones” have mixed views of religion. Around 70% of respondents said churches and religious organizations are too concerned with money and power, too involved with politics and focus too much on rules. Only half said that churches protect and strengthen morality.
However, over 75% said churches bring people together, strengthen the community and play an important role in helping the poor and the needy.
The “nones” tend to take positions in favor of abortion and “gay marriage," with 72% saying abortion should be legal in all or most cases and 73% favoring redefining marriage.
They are predominantly Democrat, with 75% favoring President Obama in 2008. The religiously unaffiliated make up 24% of Democratic or Democratic-leaning registered voters, more than any Christian subgroup in the party.
The rise of “nones” in U.S. society may have consequences for the November election.
In March, Mark Gray, director of Catholic polls for Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, suggested that President Obama’s re-election strategy may be willing to sacrifice winning the majority of Catholic voters in order to strengthen support among non-Christian and non-religious voters.
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A disturbing trend, but not surprising. There are both personal and societal factors to this non-religious trend, such as divorce, poor catechism, societal demonization of organized religion, a 24/7 society, and general laziness. It’s so easy to fall into the “I don’t need formal religion” mentality. It’s so easy on a Sunday morning to skip mass because you’re tired, or just want to lie about the house. It’s so easy not observe the Sabbath, and to go about the day working and shopping, as if it’s just another day of the week. It takes discipline to be active in church, but with discipline comes freedom. I used to be that lazy person who just didn’t make the time for God or Catholicism in my life, but once I started returning to mass, my outlook on life improved. My family observes the Sabbath now, and I actually have more time now on Sundays, because I know it’s a day of rest, and I have the other six days to work. Children learn by what their parents do, or don’t do. If you build a solid foundation, even if your children leave the faith, they will usually return eventually. The real problem for the younger “nones” is that they probably have no religious foundation to return to. The weakening of the family is a direct correlation to the weakening of organized religion.
I live in Italy and the situation here is serious enough. But what is more disturbing to me is the amount of pseudo-catholics. I mean folks calling themselves Catholics but in fact nearly unaware of the Magisterium Ecclesiae, nourishing their own views and following their own paths when it comes up to fundamental values. There is a lot of work to be done.
I think deviant religious leaders have smeared Christianity so bad that people have begun to think all religious leaders are in it for either power, sex or money, our clergy included. The “nones” aren’t reading conversion stories in the news; they are reading stories like this: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/10/10/4897259/oregon-priest-a-friend-of-sacramento.html (just published today).
Hence I must confess friends I find it hard to get excited about this Catholic boss summit. I find it strange that many of the men who have stunted the church’s growth due to their incredibly thin leadership skills have gathered to figure up how to reinvigorate it. If they couldn’t grow the tree to begin with its unlikely they’re going to figure out how to resurrect it.
Take it from me, I am a young 23 Year Old Catholic Revert who was once an esteemed enemy of The Catholic Church. You want to know what factors made me so? Poor Catechist - Lack of Organized, Concise, and Positive Response to The Cultural Propaganda Set Out Against It - The Prevailing American Attitude of Consumerist Materialism, Philosophical Relativism, The Rise of New Age-ism and Terrible Public Education System - The American Conception of God as a kind of Calvinist-Deism - Need I mention the loud [and arrogant] voices of Anti-Religious Authors and Media Heads?
These are the factors that chased me away from the True Religion, and which chase all people of my generation away. Now that Protestantism is on the decline in America, and people realize that Protestantism leads more so to Atheism anyway, perhaps it sets the Stage for the Traditional and Authentic Catholicism [and not the so-called “Catholicism” that I was born and raised under] to finally make head way in this country, may we see these statistics as a sign of God’s Grace working in a mysterious way to our benefit for the future. Pray for Reversions and Conversions into the Authentic Faith.
As I wrote before, I’m commenting from a southern European point of view – where Calvinism never significantly rooted in a society historically imbued by Catholicism - but my own history is very similar to yours, and not only mine. I think that the media have been be critical in this process. Anti-catholic cultural propaganda, as you mentioned, was methodically promoted in many forms, from the most subliminal to the most outrageous. This has become more visible to me – or maybe I’ve grown older and now I have eyes to see it at work –and in the last ten years it has reached a level never seen before, more and more addressed to younger generations.
Church’s responsibilities? Yes. I hear younger priests complaining about this point, the incapability of the Hierarchies to see and address the problem since it’s very beginning. But we should not forget the here in Europe this is the outcome of a long term process, dating at least from the French revolution, that weakened the Church. Aggressive government’s policies (not only cultural), aimed to annihilate Catholic Church’s vital spaces, were supported by the media in the way you correctly summarized. The target was people’s consciences, literally brainwashed with campaigns aimed to represent the clergy as corrupted and falsifying the message of Jesus Christ. To divide the Church from its herd – what in the north of Europe was already produced by the Lutheran schism – had to be achieved also in still standing Catholics communities.
So what you in the US are experiencing, is nothing but a consequence of what was made here at the core of the true Christianity.
How the Pope JPII said, the Church is not afraid of knowledge, it is afraid of half-knowledge. I think a cultural counteraction is what is needed. We all can realize it. Helping people to lift the curtain of the inducted irrational distrust towards the Church as a body and consequently letting them consider the possibility to hear its message without prejudice. How can someone hearing Christ’s message with a totally free and open mind not fall in love with it?
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