Many In U.S. Drop Their Childhood Religion
The U.S. religious marketplace is extremely volatile, with nearly half of American adults leaving the faith tradition of their upbringing to either switch allegiances or abandon religious affiliation altogether, a new survey finds.
The study released Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life is unusual for its sheer scope, relying on interviews with more than 35,000 adults to document a diverse and dynamic U.S. religious population.
The unprecedented survey of religion answers many concerns about a secular, morally void America. To the surprise of many experts, Americans are still deeply religious, with 84 percent of adults claiming a religious affiliation, CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews reports.
"In the developed world, this is really the most religious country," said Fr. Thomas Williams, CBS News faith & religion analyst.
While much of the study confirms earlier findings - mainline Protestant churches are in decline, non-denominational churches are gaining and the ranks of the unaffiliated are growing - it also provides a deeper look behind those trends, and of smaller religious groups.
"The American religious economy is like a marketplace - very dynamic, very competitive," said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum. "Everyone is losing, everyone is gaining. There are net winners and losers, but no one can stand still. Those groups that are losing significant numbers have to recoup them to stay vibrant."
The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey estimates the United States is 78 percent Christian and about to lose its status as a majority Protestant nation, at 51 percent and slipping.
More than one-quarter of American adults have left the faith of their childhood for another religion or no religion at all, the survey found. Factoring in moves from one stream or denomination of Protestantism to another, the number rises to 44 percent.
One in four adults ages 18 to 29 claim no affiliation with a religious institution.
"In the past, certain religions had a real holding power, where people from one generation to the next would stay," said Penn State University sociologist Roger Finke, who consulted in the survey planning. "Right now, there is a dropping confidence in organized religion, especially in the traditional religious forms."
Lugo said the 44 percent figure is "a very conservative estimate," and more research is planned to determine the causes.
"It does seem in keeping with the high tolerance among Americans for change," Lugo said. "People move a lot, people change jobs a lot. It's a very fluid society."
The religious demographic benefiting the most from this religious churn is those who claim no religious affiliation. People moving into that category outnumber those moving out of it by a three-to-one margin.
The Roman Catholic Church has lost more members than any faith tradition because of affiliation swapping, the survey found. While nearly one in three Americans were raised Catholic, fewer than one in four say they're Catholic today. That means roughly 10 percent of all Americans are ex-Catholics.
The share of the population that identifies as Catholic, however, has remained fairly stable in recent decades thanks to an influx of immigrant Catholics, mostly from Latin America. Nearly half of all Catholics under 30 are Hispanic, the survey found.
On the Protestant side, changes in affiliation are swelling the ranks of nondenominational churches, while Baptist and Methodist traditions are showing net losses.
Many Americans have vague denominational ties at best. People who call themselves "just a Protestant," in fact, account for nearly 10 percent of all Protestants.
Although evangelical churches strive to win new Christian believers from the "unchurched," the survey found most converts to evangelical churches were raised Protestant.
White evangelicals comprise about 22 percent of the population (pdf) - 57 percent are female, and 57 percent are over age 45, a CBS News poll last October showed. Fifty percent live in the South and 24 percent in the Midwest.
Hindus claimed the highest retention of childhood members, at 84 percent. The group with the worst retention is one of the fastest growing - Jehovah's Witnesses. Only 37 percent of those raised in the sect known for door-to-door proselytizing said they remain members.
Among other findings involving smaller religious groups, more than half of American Buddhists surveyed were white, and most Buddhists were converts.
More people in the survey pool identified themselves as Buddhist than Muslim, although both populations were small - less than 1 percent of the total population. By contrast, Jews accounted for 1.7 percent of the overall population.
The self-identified Buddhists - 0.7 percent of those surveyed - illustrate a core challenge to estimating religious affiliation: What does affiliation mean?
It's unclear whether people who called themselves Buddhists did so because they practice yoga or meditation, for instance, or claim affiliation with a Buddhist institution.
The report does not project membership figures for religious groups, in part because the survey is not as authoritative as a census and didn't count children, Lugo said. The U.S. Census does not ask questions on religion.
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The study released Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life is unusual for its sheer scope, relying on interviews with more than 35,000 adults to document a diverse and dynamic U.S. religious population.
The unprecedented survey of religion answers many concerns about a secular, morally void America. To the surprise of many experts, Americans are still deeply religious, with 84 percent of adults claiming a religious affiliation, CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews reports.
"In the developed world, this is really the most religious country," said Fr. Thomas Williams, CBS News faith & religion analyst.
While much of the study confirms earlier findings - mainline Protestant churches are in decline, non-denominational churches are gaining and the ranks of the unaffiliated are growing - it also provides a deeper look behind those trends, and of smaller religious groups.
"The American religious economy is like a marketplace - very dynamic, very competitive," said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum. "Everyone is losing, everyone is gaining. There are net winners and losers, but no one can stand still. Those groups that are losing significant numbers have to recoup them to stay vibrant."
The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey estimates the United States is 78 percent Christian and about to lose its status as a majority Protestant nation, at 51 percent and slipping.
More than one-quarter of American adults have left the faith of their childhood for another religion or no religion at all, the survey found. Factoring in moves from one stream or denomination of Protestantism to another, the number rises to 44 percent.
One in four adults ages 18 to 29 claim no affiliation with a religious institution.
"In the past, certain religions had a real holding power, where people from one generation to the next would stay," said Penn State University sociologist Roger Finke, who consulted in the survey planning. "Right now, there is a dropping confidence in organized religion, especially in the traditional religious forms."
Lugo said the 44 percent figure is "a very conservative estimate," and more research is planned to determine the causes.
"It does seem in keeping with the high tolerance among Americans for change," Lugo said. "People move a lot, people change jobs a lot. It's a very fluid society."
The religious demographic benefiting the most from this religious churn is those who claim no religious affiliation. People moving into that category outnumber those moving out of it by a three-to-one margin.
The majority of the unaffiliated - 12 percent of the overall population - describe their religion as "nothing in particular," and about half of those say faith is at least somewhat important to them. Atheists or agnostics account for 4 percent of the total population.
The Roman Catholic Church has lost more members than any faith tradition because of affiliation swapping, the survey found. While nearly one in three Americans were raised Catholic, fewer than one in four say they're Catholic today. That means roughly 10 percent of all Americans are ex-Catholics.
The share of the population that identifies as Catholic, however, has remained fairly stable in recent decades thanks to an influx of immigrant Catholics, mostly from Latin America. Nearly half of all Catholics under 30 are Hispanic, the survey found.
On the Protestant side, changes in affiliation are swelling the ranks of nondenominational churches, while Baptist and Methodist traditions are showing net losses.
Many Americans have vague denominational ties at best. People who call themselves "just a Protestant," in fact, account for nearly 10 percent of all Protestants.
Although evangelical churches strive to win new Christian believers from the "unchurched," the survey found most converts to evangelical churches were raised Protestant.
White evangelicals comprise about 22 percent of the population (pdf) - 57 percent are female, and 57 percent are over age 45, a CBS News poll last October showed. Fifty percent live in the South and 24 percent in the Midwest.
Hindus claimed the highest retention of childhood members, at 84 percent. The group with the worst retention is one of the fastest growing - Jehovah's Witnesses. Only 37 percent of those raised in the sect known for door-to-door proselytizing said they remain members.
Among other findings involving smaller religious groups, more than half of American Buddhists surveyed were white, and most Buddhists were converts.
More people in the survey pool identified themselves as Buddhist than Muslim, although both populations were small - less than 1 percent of the total population. By contrast, Jews accounted for 1.7 percent of the overall population.
The self-identified Buddhists - 0.7 percent of those surveyed - illustrate a core challenge to estimating religious affiliation: What does affiliation mean?
It's unclear whether people who called themselves Buddhists did so because they practice yoga or meditation, for instance, or claim affiliation with a Buddhist institution.
The report does not project membership figures for religious groups, in part because the survey is not as authoritative as a census and didn't count children, Lugo said. The U.S. Census does not ask questions on religion.
Popular on CBSNews.com
- Port Authority releases photo of One WTC workers at dizzying heights
- Bridge collapse blamed on tractor-trailer 286 Comments
- Washington state bridge collapses 20 Photos
- Best U.S. beaches 2013 10 Photos
- Frantic 911 calls reveal chaos in Okla., following tornado
- No fatalities in I-5 bridge collapse in NW Wash. 141 Comments
- Clean-up efforts underway in Okla. 29 Photos
- Baby gray foxes arrive at Ind. wolf park Play Video
Do your resarch before condemning
It shouldn''t be a surprise, then, that a recent anti-g@y-marriage rally in Poland was led by an organization that apparently has strong anti-Semitic ties. It also shouldn''t be a surprise that WorldNet Daily reported favorably on the rally without a hint of criticism of the main group''s anti-Semitism.
Anti-Semitism in Europe was, in it''s modern secular guise, hatred-by-proxy. The Jews were simply made to be the scapegoats for the fears and problems of members of the extreme right. Even something like the ''Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion'' which appears to complain about what the Jews are doing is in fact a litany of what people feared most about the modern world.
I wonder if these christian activists realize that if a "lifestyle" excludes civil rights, then their own religious liberties are in danger. Then again, maybe only others'' religious liberties are in danger. Andrew Sullivan notices the strong similarity between anti-g@y rhetoric and anti-Semitic rhetoric:
They are now using arguments about g@ys - that they are diseased, and spread literal and figurative poison throughout society - that were once echoed almost exactly by the most vicious anti-Semites against Jews...
''''Lifestyle'''' is a buzzword in conservative christian circles. It''s a signal of the belief, and the policy position, that homosevuality is not an innate condition but a hedonistic way of living, one devoted to partying, drugs and wanton *** that ends, often, in illness and early death. In 2004 the Family Research Council put out a book called ''''Getting It Straight: What the Research Shows About homosevuality,'''' which purports to explode the myth that homosevuality is natural or genetic and puts forth an alternative theory that it springs from childhood abuse or other developmental factors. Chapter 4, ''''Is homosevuality a Health Risk?'''' lines up studies and statistics to link homosevuality with cancer, alcoholism, mental illness, suicide and reduced life span, in addition to H.I.V./AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. The activists opposing g@y marriage echo these points. ''''My concern is the health issue,'''' said Evalena Gray, an activist in southern Maryland. ''''I want to get these people away from AIDS, out of that unhealthy lifestyle.''''
The christian Right vilifies homosevuality to an exceptional degree. It''s not imply that christians disagree with certain aspects of g@y rights or regard homosevuality as a sin - that wouldn''t explain why the invest homosevuality and g@y rights with the responsibility for all that is wrong with America.
Russell Shorto writes:
During last year''s election campaign, at the same time that he was calling for a federal constitutional amendment to outlaw g@y marriage, President Bush was giving a moderate sheen to the position of the conservative christians with whom he is closely allied. As he said in his final debate with John Kerry, responding to a question about homosevuality:
I do know that we have a choice to make in America and that is to treat people with tolerance and respect and dignity. It''s important that we do that. And I also know in a free society, consenting adults can live the way they want to live. And that''s to be honored.
Eventually the Allies grew wise to the Catholic duplicity and stopped relying on the word of priests about whether someone had been a Nazi. That is the legacy of the catholic Church from Nazi Germany: not resistance, but cooperation; not the defense of principle but the defense of social power.
Because the catholic leadership did not consistently oppose the Nazi policies, it was relatively easy for the Nazis to co-opt the Catholic churches in their effort to round up and exterminate the Jews. A large number of Jews converted to christianity in order to avoid persecution and the only way the Nazis found them out was because of the help of catholic authorities:
After April 7, 1933, civil servants in Germany were required to prove that they were not Jews. Because births had been registered by the state only since 1874, the church was called upon to provide many records. The Catholic church cooperated right up to the end of the war. Likewise, after the 1935 N|remberg laws that forbade marriage between Aryans and non-Aryans, most Catholic priests did not perform such ceremonies, even though the number of Jewish conversions to Catholicism was accelerating because of the persecution.
Yes, right up until the end of the war, catholic clergy were actively assisting the Nazi program of racial purification. They provided detailed records of who converted and who didn''t, who married and Jew and who didn''t. When two people wanted to marry, Catholic priests enforced Nazi race laws against Aryans being allowed to marry non-Aryans. The Nazis'' agenda of racial discrimination and purification would not have worked without the active, willing, and eager cooperation of christian churches.
Archbishop Konrad Grvber of Freiburg was known as the %u201CBrown Bishop%u201D because he was such an enthusiastic supporter of the Nazis. In 1933, he became a %u201Csponsoring member%u201D of the SS. After the war, however, he claimed to have been such an opponent of the Nazis that they had planned to crucify him on the door for the Freiburg Cathedral.
Bishop Wilhlem Berning of Osnabr|ck sat with the Deutsche Christen Reichsbishop in the Prussian State Council from 1933 to 1945, a clear signal of support for the Nazi regime.
Cardinal Bertram also had some affinity for the Nazis. In 1933, for example, he refused to intervene on behalf of Jewish merchants who were the targets of Nazi boycotts, saying that they were a group %u201Cwhich has no very close bond with the church.%u201D
Bishop Buchberger of Regensburg called Nazi racism directed at Jews %u201Cjustified self-defense%u201D in the face of %u201Coverly powerful Jewish capital.%u201D
Bishop Hilfrich of Limburg said that they true Christian religion %u201Cmade its way not from the Jews but in spite of them.%u201D
Posted by sigotratando at 08:05 PM : Feb 28, 2008
You of course are asking me if I "hate" those who hate God and or christians