If you’re dismayed that one in five Americans (20 percent) are “nones” — people who claim no particular religious identity — brace yourself.
How does 38 percent sound?
That’s what religion researcher David Kinnaman calculates when he adds “the unchurched, the never-churched and the skeptics” to the nones.
He calls his new category “churchless,” the same title Kinnaman has given his new book. By his count, roughly four in 10 people living in the continental United States are actually “post-Christian” and “essentially secular in belief and practice.”
If asked, the “churchless” would likely check the “Christian” box on a survey, even though they may not have darkened the door of a church in years.
Kinnaman, president of the California-based Barna Group, slides them into this new category based on 15 measures of identity, belief and practice in more than 23,000 interviews in 20 surveys.
The research looked at church worship attendance and participation, views about the Bible, God and Jesus, and more to see whether folks were actually tied to Christian life in a meaningful way or tied more by habit or personal history.
Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research, once called nominals — people attached by name only — “survey Christians.” They don’t want to cut ties with their parents or go all the way to atheism, Stetzer said, “so they just say ‘Christian’ since it is the default category from their heritage.”
I think these findings probably reflect what most of us see in our own lives.
I have met numerous self described Christians who have not attended church services for years, or who only show up for holiday celebrations like Christmas or Easter.
Many of those people also have a perfunctory understanding of the Bible, and embrace few, if any, of the doctrines of Christianity.
I personally believe that a number of these people are actually agnostic of atheist but lack the courage to come out of the closet if you will and risk attracting the wrath or disappointed of family and friends.
That is why it is so important in my opinion to remove the stigma attached to atheism so that people will feel more comfortable in allowing people to accept them for who they truly are.
Heathen scum who hate Jesus. (Sorry couldn't resist.)
This doesn't surprise me at all; I always thought the number of "religious" seemed much too high. I know of few people in my own life that attend church regularly -- the few who do kind of really stand out.
ReplyDeleteReligion doesn't really answer the questions that most people have about how to lead a meaningful and happy life. It seems less and less relevant today.
Sure, there's a category that many who are Jewish subscribe to, other than the orthodox, conservative. reformed label. They cal lit culturally Jewish. The don't want ham, because their mothers never served it, and they light a menorah at the holidays, or have a Hannukkah bush instead of a Christmas tree,
ReplyDeleteSo too there is a group that should be called culturally Christian/ Catholic. They often go to fish fries on Friday, sing Hark the Herald at Christmas. But that's about it.
I definitely fit into the culturally Christian category and have a couple of Jewish friends who used to send out generic holiday cards in December and love bacon cheeseburgers.
DeleteIt's far more habit and family tradition than faith that inspires our holiday activities.
9:34: "It's far more habit and family tradition than faith that inspires our holiday activities."
DeleteSo true!
I love Christmas and Easter, love the decorations and the music.
DeleteIt's the social aspect of the official church I can't stand.
Sorry, but the shaking hands and greeting total strangers is just so forced and artificial. I don't believe for a minute anyone cares. And for me the church is just looking for a way to use you until they suck you dry. You can sing? Oh, join the choir. You're a teacher? We'd love you to teach Sunday School. You cook? Fabulous. We have a potluck dinner coming up. You drive? You sew? The list goes on and on. If you're retired they'd have you working a 40 hour week and spending all of your discretionary income subsidizing them.
The good works? I don't consider going to other countries or even other parts of our city and trying to convince people to leave the faith they were raised in for "ours" to be a good work. I absolutely hate missionary work.
So I really have no use for formal church services.
I can buy CDs and sing all the Christmas songs at home.
The church is just as commercial as businesses. They have taken faith out of all holidays in order to make money.
That includes Christmas, Easter, the eve of All Saint's Day. They are now moving into Hannukah, Diwali and other lucrative markets now that the Big Christian Three are thoroughly saturated.
St. Valentine's was pretty minor until the capitalists got ahold of that. St. Patrick's too.
I wonder what will be next?
mlaiuppa -
DeleteWhen I was a kid, the large Catholic church my family belonged to did a big fundraiser to buy a new organ. The old one was perfectly functional, but they wanted one that was bigger and better. I couldn't understand why that money wasn't being used for more 'Christian' purposes like, oh I don't know, feeding the hungry perhaps.
Years ago, my mother belonged to a small church in NH which was also doing a year-long fundraising effort. The women worked all year to create crafts for a big sale. This was in an area and during a time when there were a lot of people in the community struggling to keep their homes and feed their children. What did they do with the almost $10,000 they raised? Paved the parking lot. Apparently, paving over a perfectly functional gravel parking lot was more important than helping out people in the community.
The church is a business, you say? Oh, YES!
And actually, Gryph, most don't have a problem with Jesus as a historical figure. Sounds like a Mahatma Gandhi of his day. it's his modern day busybody authoritarian followers we take issue with.
ReplyDeleteAgree with you. All of my friends and family are smart, funny, tolerant atheists who find lots of wisdom in teachings of all religions, just don't embrace the sources as deities.
DeleteThat's very much what I have evolved to in my life. I was raised Catholic but left the church as soon as my mother stopped insisting that I go to church.
DeleteI no longer believe that Jesus was the son of God, and don't even know if he actually existed, nor do I care. I do, however, value the teachings attributed to him, and feel that the world would be a better place if we followed those teachings.
I, like Sam, I think there is also great value in the teachings of other religions. In fact, although I haven't studied other religions in depth, it seems to me that the most important belief in most religions is that we should love one another.
Don't forget those who stay linked to a church 'for their children'. I know some people here in MS who stay on church rolls so their children won't suffer any social stigma from their peers.
ReplyDeleteIt's also used for business and political networking.
DeleteMissionaries have converts in other countries whose sole belief is based on food from the food pantry.
"The number of secular people in America may be much larger than previously believed."
ReplyDeleteThank God for that! :-D
Actually, many of us heathen scum love Jesus and follow his teachings of compassion. No, we don't believe he is the son of God. Maybe he never existed, but the teachings attributed to him are worth trying to follow. So hating Jesus isn't a prereq for being atheist.
ReplyDeleteIf I'd read this comment before posting mine above, it might have saved me some typing!
DeleteMy grandfather was an Episcopalian Bishop. (And yes, he knew I was/am an atheist!) He called the people who went to church only on the major holidays like Christmas "Hardy Annuals"!
ReplyDeleteI remember an episode of The Factor where O'reilly was stunned when his atheist guest explained that atheists are persecuted in the USA. Oh, no, it's Christians who are persecuted, O'reilly explained. The fact that Christians actually believe they're persecuted in this country says an awful lot about their ability to discern reality.
ReplyDeleteO'Reilly doesn't actually believe that shit.
DeleteIt's just a lucrative act that he puts on.
(Like Sarah's constant references to religion, God, and Christianity.)
That's me.
ReplyDeleteBrought up Lutheran.
But I haven't attended church in decades.
The last few times I've gone has been with my Mother and the dogs to attend the Blessings of the Animals for St. Francis. Not really a church service and it's held outside. I guess the dogs are more religious than we are now.
"Churchless" doesn't make sense. It sounds like someone lost theirs and is looking for another to go to. Time to whip out the thesaurus and brainstorm for a new word for "Godless" or "Secular".
ReplyDeleteAs an atheist, I don't want to get lumped in with Sarah Palin in any respect.