What Americans Believe Today
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has released a detailed new survey this month. If you want to read the report visit www.pewresearch.org/pubs/743/united-states-religion. Here are some interesting notes that you might find fascinating:
*Men are more likely to claim no religious affiliation. One in five men have no formal religious affiliation (compare this to 13% women).
*16.1% of the country states they are unaffilated to any religious tradition (Christian, Hindu, etc). This is growing! It is growing fast. Previous polls showed about 12 percent. Of this number 1.6% are athiest and 2.4% are agnostic. This means 12.1% might believe in God but aren’t interested in organized religion. Of that 12.1% we find that 5.8% (half) do find some type of religion important but they don’t go.
*1 in 4 Americans ages 18-29 do not have a religious affiliation.
*Catholics are seeing a greater net loss due to religiosu affiliation changes and if it weren’t for immigration it would be worse.
*The oldest members belong to Mainline Protestant and Jewish groups. Half of Jewish and Mainline Protestants are over age 50.
*Of all ethinic groups African Americans are more likely to report a formal religious affiliation. Even those who don’t belong there are more African Americans who still find religion/faith important to their lives (3 in 4).
*A growing number of people who say they were not affiliated as children are becoming affiliated as adults (4% of overall population claim this).
*However the people becoming unaffiliated from being affilated vs those who are affiliated who become unaffiliated is 3 to 1. That means more people are leaving then we are reaching. This group is younger as well.
*6 in 10 Americans over 70 are Protestant. 4 in 10 among 18-29.
What does this tell us?
The church is struggling to reach men and young people. Churches that are mainly “white” will continue to struggle. Women will provide more and more leadership in the church. The church is getting older and as the older generation passes away great challenges will exist. How will some churches continue? I’ve read studies that say half our churches may not survive in the decades to come.
Is it over?
No. There are churches that are reaching the very groups this study says are not being reached. There are churches that young people and men are going too. There are churches that are reaching the ‘unaffiliated.’ The majority are not but there are those that are. And if you read Philip Jenkins book “The Next Christendom” you will find that Christianity may be struggling in the United States (as this study shows) but it is growing in third world lands (South America and Africa for example). Churches in other lands are growing. Europe and England have seen great decline and the church is far worse there than in the United States.
And so the Spirit of God moves. If a church refuses to ‘get with it’ God will move where churches are open to the work of God. In this country there are churches that are doing great work. We can learn from those as well as from our brothers and sisters in other lands. We also need to focus our efforts on reaching men and the young adult crowd.
So is this report a wake up call? Of course! There is work to be done and we need to do it. But we must remember that God is great and through Christ we can do all things.
Blessings,
Derik
The survey question that Pew have so far released data for was: “Q.16 What is your present religion, if any? Are you Protestant, Roman Catholic, Mormon, Orthodox such as Greek or Russian Orthodox, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, agnostic, something else, or nothing in particular?”
It’s a question about how we label ourselves.
(This was interesting to me because it made me realize that if I had been asked that question during the first 40 years of my life I would probably have automatically answered Church of England – which would have been wildly misleading.)
More detailed survey information will be released in a couple of months – “We will extensively probe such topics as belief in God and the afterlife, attitudes toward the authority of sacred writings, frequency of worship attendance and prayer, views on abortion, attitudes about the proper role of government and opinions on foreign affairs.”
> 16.1% of the country states they are unaffilated to any religious tradition … Of this number 1.6% are athiest and 2.4% are agnostic. This means 12.1% do believe in God but aren’t interested in organized religion.
No, it doesn’t mean 12.1% believe in God but aren’t interested in organized religion! It means 12.1% answered “nothing in particular” when asked “What is your present religion, if any?”
I’ve seen survey results showing 40% of respondents claimed not to believe in God (Norway) but only 10% of them identified themselves as “atheists” – I guess “agnostic” is another word for not believing in God
> We also need to focus our efforts on reaching men and the young adult crowd.
Maybe you’ve seen it already, there’s a lot of detailed research in “unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity … and Why It Matters” David Kinnaman 2007.
mea culpa – you carefully wrote “This means 12.1% might believe in God…” and I carelessly didn’t notice the “might”.
I’m feeling mischievous so I’ll also note that some of those reporting a religious affiliation might not believe in God.