I just read a Washington Post article written in response to recent research in the field of religion (the largest survey of it's kind). Here are some of the interesting (and some scary) trends this article found. . .
- Far fewer people are willing to call themselves "Christian" than they were when the same survey was conducted 20 years ago. Today, only 76 percent of the population identify themselves as Christian, down from 86 percent in 1990.
- The number of people who identify themselves with the term "Non-Denominational" has jumped through the roof . . . 194,000 in 1990 and today, more than 8 million.
- The only group that grew in every U.S. state since the 2001 survey was people saying they had "no" religion; the survey says this group is now 15 percent of the population.
- Northern New England has surpassed the Pacific Northwest as the least religious section of the country.
I read a similar article in USAToday. It's strangely refreshing that people are more willing to say that they have "no" religion. Do you think it's because of the way that they phrased the question, or do you think people are becoming more real?
Posted by: R. Mason | March 12, 2009 at 05:21 AM
Yeah, I think that's a peice of it. People are probably more ready to admit what they really believe. I think there also may be a shift in cultural thinking today where people identify less with religious community or culture so that religion has been seperated to ONLY a set of beliefs. So where someone 20 years ago who would have called themselves Presbyterian because they were raised Presbyterian, and were baptized into a Presbyterian church whether or not they really practiced their faith or even believed in God, a person today is more likely to feel comfortable saying, regardless of religious background, "I have no religion." So yeah, you kinda wonder in God's economy how much has REALLY changed.
Posted by: David Herrick | March 12, 2009 at 06:27 AM