Religion Shift in America
Yesterday, The Pew Forum published the findings from their U.S. Religious Landscape Survey. After interviewing over 35,000 Americans ages 18+, researchers discovered that a startling 28% of American adults have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion - or no religion at all. Key findings from the study include:
U.S. Religious Traditions
- Christian = 78.4%
>> Protestant = 51.3%
>> Catholic = 23.9%
>> Mormon = 1.7%
>> Jehovah’s Witness = 0.7% - Other Religions = 4.7%
>> Jewish = 1.7%
>> Buddhist = 0.7%
>> Muslim = 0.6%
>> Hindu = 0.4%
- Unaffiliated = 16.1%
>> Atheist = 1.6%
>> Agnostic = 2.4%
Growth Rates
factors adults entering and leaving each group
- +700%= Agnostic
- +220% = Atheist
- +75.0% = Buddhist
- +33.3% = Muslim
- +16.7% = Jehovah’s Witness
- 0.0% = Hindu
- -4.8% = Protestant
- -5.6% = Mormon
- -10.5% = Jewish
- -23.9% = Catholic
Interesting Trends
- Men are significantly more likely than women to claim no religious affiliation. Nearly one-in-five men say they have no formal religious affiliation, compared with roughly 13% of women.
- Among people who are married, nearly four-in-ten (37%) are married to a spouse with a different religious affiliation. (This figure includes Protestants who are married to another Protestant from a different denominational family, such as a Baptist who is married to a Methodist.) Hindus and Mormons are the most likely to be married (78% and 71%, respectively) and to be married to someone of the same religion (90% and 83%, respectively).
- Jehovah’s Witnesses have the lowest retention rate of any religious tradition. Only 37% of all those who say they were raised as Jehovah’s Witnesses still identify themselves as Jehovah’s Witnesses. [Note: They still have an overall +16.7% growth rate because of new converts.]
It is sobering to see Protestantism dwindling at a rate of -4.8% while Agnostics, Atheists, Buddhists, and Muslims grow at incredibly strong rates. I cannot help but introspect what role I might play in the blame. Have I been maximizing my ministry potential? Is there anything more I can be doing to make a greater difference for God’s kingdom? These are questions that I believe we all must ask. When faced with such grim statistics, I believe it is our responsibility to reevaluate our lives, our actions, and our ministries.
It reminds me of the parable of the lost sheep (Matthew 18:12-14 Amplified):
What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray and gets lost, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountain and go in search of the one that is lost? And if it should be that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not get lost. Just so it is not the will of My Father Who is in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost and perish.
For Discussion:
- What do you think are the causes of America’s religion shift?
- What do you think is the church’s responsibility about it?
Matt Farina Said,
February 26, 2008 @ 12:08 pm
This is a truly sobering post to read.
I have a bunch of non-Christian friends that I talk about faith with. Two things I recently talked about with them come to my mind when I read this.
The first was a friend who just started going to church with his wife. He is a non-Christian and is going because his wife was raised in the church and insisted when they had their first child. He was struck that so many people who claim to know Jesus don’t give to the church. He said if someone knew that the God of the bible were real he couldn’t see they couldn’t give to the church. The lifestyle of the Christians he sees makes him question what they have to say.
The second is from a friend who is trying to find the truth in life. He reads books, he talks with others about it, and he is trying to intelligently work through honest faith questions. But, he finds it hard to find answers from the Christian perspective that he can understand with his background. So many of his questions aren’t being talked about by Christians. And, the material he finds seems to be in Christian speak.
I, also, wonder how the amount of naturalism being taught in our schools plays into this. Most of the people I have talked to about naturalism didn’t know what it was or that they were being taught it in an indirect manner.
Linda Bailey Said,
February 26, 2008 @ 10:14 pm
Although I live in Australia I would assume our statistics would be very similar.
I have a number of friends who have a faith but do not engage with any church activity. While this is detrimental to their spiritual development I have to ask myself (as a minister) the question: ‘What inhibits people to engage with church?’
On one hand I think that most church activity is so removed from their everyday life, that they often feel like they don’t belong and don’t fit in. They feel that they would have to change too much to ‘toe the line’ to live a “good Christian life”.
On the other hand I think that church culture should be different to the normal expectations of our everyday existence. Church should nurture love, grace and acceptance in opposition to the often experienced depression, busyness and criticism of our everyday. I guess the reality is though, that often the criticism, busyness and depression filters into our churches and we don’t display the love, grace and acceptance that Christ demands.
It is a fine line to tread as we balance being relevant to our society while still holding true to the controversial life of Christ. I know there is not an easy answer but we definitely need to be open to expanding our understanding of God so we can help connect all people to Him.
Shelley Said,
February 27, 2008 @ 2:27 pm
What this signifies to me is how lukewarm we have become about our faith in America.
What would be interesting further still would be to see what percentage of these “believers” are practitioners, which would dwindle the numbers even more severely.
The church needs to take ownership of the promises of the Bible. Too many people show up to church without getting involved, but just to get their fix. We need to cultivate spiritually mature Christians, who can feed themselves and then go out and feed others.
We need to let Christians know that if they take ownership of this, we CAN change the world. We truly need to follow Christ in our lives, not just show up once a week.
Victor Said,
March 3, 2008 @ 4:17 pm
On the specific discussion points:
1. Americans seem to have a fetish for rabid consumerism and freedom. Consumerism leads for church-hopping, freedom to church-dropping.
Church-hopper: Is this the right service for me? I don’t like the music/pastor/building/coffee. I need to find the perfect fit. Because church is about me, right?
The blame is shared by churches who respond to and cultivate consumerism. I don’t mean “churches with contemporary worship.” I mean “churches not preaching the gospel.” Because when you get down to it, the true gospel of grace is pretty offensive (”so you mean my good deeds don’t count towards salvation?”) and the enemy of good PR is anything “offensive.” So once you get the gospel out of the picture, it’s fairly easy to craft a service that “speaks to you” and all of your ostensibly Godly desires.
Church-dropper: If a church is teaching the binding chains of moralism, who would want to hear it? Especially from hypocrites (not excluding myself here). And If you really want to be moral, convert to Islam, they’re pretty strict. The common man needs to hear of the freedom he gains in Christ. The world tells us freedom is gained through wealth, power, etc. What does the freedom of Christ mean? Are we preaching rules, are we echoing the world’s desire for wealth and power, or are we sharing Christ?
2. The church’s responsibility is to repair the world. That doesn’t mean picking sides on wedge issues. That means rehabilitating the homeless, relieving the suffering of the broken, taking care of the earth, and spreading the gospel. Non-believers are definitely involved in the first three. But press them for an ultimate reason for their actions and they’re stumped. If there is no God and Jesus did not die in our place to pay for our sin in full, then there is no ultimate reason to help anyone with anything ever. People yearn for meaning and change in this world. Some want to help. They don’t want “afterlife” insurance. They want to see God’s work done, they just don’t know it yet.
If we treat the Gospel as simply “entry-level” christianity, we’ll only have “entry-level” christians. The gospel’s implications are so much deeper than we perceive (it’s in every book of the Bible if you look for it). But that’s what the world needs to see.