The Transformation of Religion

This chapter examines religious disaffiliation as itself a potentially religious act. It argues that “nothing in particular,” a religious option commonly presented to respondents on social scientific surveys, often entails an affirmation of religious cosmopolitanism rather than simple secularization or the rejection of religion altogether. This kind of religious cosmopolitanism—this preference for religion “in general” rather than “in particular”—has a long history in the United States, which this chapter tracks across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It attends especially to liberal Protestantism and other forms of religious liberalism as the source of modern religious cosmopolitanism and argues that the development of religious cosmopolitanism made religious disaffiliation easier for many Americans and even necessary for some. Understanding the religious nature of some religious disaffiliation is essential to understanding the broader phenomenon of religious disaffiliation in the twenty-first century.

Religious Non-Affiliation

For the past century, the bulk of white evangelicalism has been tightly linked to very conservative politics. But in response to social and cultural changes in the 1960s and 1970s, conservative white evangelicalism organized itself into the Christian Right, in the process attaching itself to and making itself indispensable to the Republican Party. While the Christian Right has enjoyed significant political success, its fusion of evangelicalism/Christianity with right-wing politics—which includes white nationalism, hostility to immigrants, unfettered capitalism, and intense homophobia—has driven many Americans (particularly, young Americans) to disaffiliate from religion altogether. In fact, the quantitative and qualitative evidence make it clear that the Christian Right has been a (perhaps the) primary reason for the remarkable rise of the religious “nones” in the past three decades. More than this, the Christian Right is, in itself, a sign of secularization.

Understanding and Responding to Non-Affiliation

This chapter returns to the contents of the other chapters of the book and draws some tentative conclusions. At the outset, it presents some of the assumptions of the author as he approaches this topic, reviews briefly the literature on the now-outdated classic secularization thesis, and examines several historical factors that contribute to increasing non-affiliation for Catholics, including the impact and evaluations of the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) and the possibility that we are entering a second axial age. After describing several current ways in which church people are reaching out to the non-affiliated, the chapter concludes on a hopeful note.

Reports from Faith Community Leaders in the South

Cities in the Southeastern United States that are experiencing population growth offer a counter-narrative to media reports of religious disaffiliation. Against the backdrop of data sets and broad surveys, a glimpse into the challenges and successes of individual faith community leaders in a small but growing Southern city provides a more hopeful perspective. While some aspects of the disaffiliation story, particularly millennial disengagement, mirror national trends, in parts of the coastal Southeast, religious belief and practice are flourishing relative to the rest of the country. Combining extensive interviews of several local faith community leaders with the voices of millennials grappling with their faith, the author reflects upon cultural and parental factors in religious decline, identifies a few signs of hope, and suggests ways that existing communities of faith might draw in those of all ages who are spiritual seekers, through listening responsively, thinking creatively about ways to reach out, and offering radical hospitality.

Introduction

The chapter provides an overview of this book on religious non-affiliation in American society. It first offers some social science background on the non-affiliated in the United States, so that readers will have some general knowledge before they embark on the book. Then it provides a brief overview of each chapter, so that readers will be familiar with what is to come. The chapter’s author is an identity scholar, so there follows a discussion of how we might understand the changing nature of the religious identity in American society. The chapter ends on a personal note with the author’s own experience and a brief evaluation of religious non-affiliation.

Developmental Perspectives on Youth Religious Non-Affiliation

This chapter presents a developmental perspective on historical increases in youth non-affiliation. First, it describes changes that happen in religiousness across adolescence, focusing on quantitative and qualitative changes. In terms of quantitative changes, generally, religiousness declines across adolescence. In terms of qualitative changes, a sizable minority of youth leave religion during adolescence. Second, the chapter explains these changes, focusing on individual and contextual predictors of quantitative and qualitative changes. In terms of individual predictors, it focuses on gender, ethnicity, personality, behavior, and various dimensions of religiousness. In terms of contextual predictors, it focuses on the family, the religious community, and peers. Third, the chapter identifies ways parents and religious leaders might be able to optimize adolescent religious development. Its suggestions are grounded in self-determination theory, which articulates characteristics of developmental contexts that may help or hinder internalization of religiousness. Finally, the chapter connects individual religious development to historical trends.

Lapsed Catholics and Other Religious Non-Affiliates

Lapsed Catholics are sometimes referred to as one of the largest religious groups in America, and yet we know little about what beliefs and behaviors may be associated with this social category. Using data from the Pew Religious Landscape Survey, this chapter compares the religious beliefs, social attitudes, and voluntary behavior of lapsed Catholics and other religious non-affiliates (nones, atheists, and agnostics) alongside lapsed evangelicals and lapsed mainline Protestants. Generally speaking, lapsed Catholics fall somewhere in the middle between practicing Catholics and those with no religious affiliation, but they are notably more liberal in their attitudes toward abortion and same-sex marriage. This study affirms the importance of considering the heterogeneity within the category of “nonreligious” by considering the lingering attachments people may hold to religion outside of church attendance. The chapter concludes by considering whether the glass is half full or half empty for those interested in the future of American Catholicism.

The Many Meanings of Non-Affiliation

This chapter shows that non-affiliation means different things in different cultural contexts and among people with different social resources. Some religious traditions, such as Judaism, do not make affiliation central, so non-affiliation matters less. Similarly, many immigrants come from places where belonging and belief are not typical ways of being religious. Not all “nones” are alike. Nor are less well-off nones like the more privileged non-affiliates often imagined. Using the Faith Matters Survey, this chapter shows that less highly educated nones are more likely to hold religious folk beliefs and less likely to be politically liberal, for example. But most important is that the people who are at the bottom of the status hierarchy are—if they are also unaffiliated—more pessimistic, less trusting, less engaged in their communities, and less empowered. They may even be less healthy. The absence of religious ties exacerbates the effects of being on the social and economic margins.

Epilogue

The epilogue reviews a question that the editors of this book asked the contributors to consider: is the trend in religious non-affiliation in American society a signal of something positive, something negative, or a combination of both positive and negative news? The contributors’ views are briefly discussed, followed by the editors’ own response to this question. While the editors recognize the nuances associated with both affiliated and non-affiliated identities, the problems that afflict many religious organizations, and alternative solutions to non-affiliation such as religious cosmopolitanism or new forms of spiritual refuge, they think that what religious affiliation offers outweighs what undermines it.

Affiliates and Non-Affiliates in Later Life

The purpose of this study was to examine the types, meanings, and benefits of spiritual practices among older adults and to discuss their implications for well-being. In-depth interviews were conducted with 122 individuals, with an average age of 77. Of these, 102 were highly involved in churches or synagogues, and 20 were atheists, agnostics, secular humanists, or religiously indifferent. The chapter’s authors found a wide array of activities identified by respondents as spiritual practices, ranging from the anticipated (prayer, participating in corporate worship, reading) to the more novel (attending long-distance Bible study groups via Skype, watercolor painting). They also found an overlap between the religious and the nonreligious older adults in many spiritual practices. Most respondents reported that their spiritual practices had increased with age. Respondents perceived significant benefits from their spiritual practices. Too often, health practitioners have not been sensitive to the benefits of spiritual practices in the lives of older adults.