May 7 Insight: What is the fastest growing religious group in the U.S.? (You might be Surprised!)

What is the fastest growing religious group in the U.S.? (You might be Surprised!)

(The 3-Minute Weekly Insight from Spirituality U.)

What is the fastest growing group? The Pentecostals? No. The Southern Baptists? No, (but good guess). Actually the fastest growing religious group is the “Nones;” (not “Nuns” but “Nones,”people who are not affiliated with any religion.

A Pew Research report issued in the fall of 2012 showed that in the previous five years the ranks of the religiously unaffiliated had grown from 15% of the US population to just under 20%.  That increase reflects the dramatic speeding up of a trend that began in the 1970’s when church membership peaked and the number of people who don’t have a formal religion began to rise.

The 46 million Nones now include 13 million self-described atheists and agnostics and 33 million people who have no formal religion at all. And the rise in the Nones has been accompanied by a drop in membership at most mainstream Christian denominations. In the 70’s and 80’s more than 60% of Americans reported that they were Protestants. The Protestant share of the population began sinking in the 1990’s. By 2000 that number had sunk to 54%, and today—for the first time ever—less than half of the US population is Protestant. Membership in the Roman Catholic Church has held steady, perhaps because of the immigration of large numbers of Catholics from Latin America.

But the drop in memberships and affiliation isn’t limited to Christians. Most major religions in the US are experiencing similar downward trends.

Why are people leaving religion? According to the Pew report the unaffiliated aren’t searching for a religion that would be right for them. “Overwhelmingly, they think that religious organizations are too concerned with money and power, too focused on rules and too involved in politics.”

Two aspects of the Nones are particularly interesting: their racial makeup, and the age of the unaffiliated population.

The drop in membership and affiliation is not happening in religions associated with people of color, particularly African Americans and Hispanics. Their participation in religion has held steady.

Regarding age, the Pew report states that the rise of the Nones is driven largely by what it refers to as “generational replacement, the gradual supplanting of older generations by newer ones.” One-third of adults under the age of 30 have no religious affiliation, compared to just nine percent of those over 65.

Still, for supporters of religious membership, there is good news to accompany the bad.  Many of the unaffiliated still see themselves as religious or spiritual in some way. Two-thirds believe in God; more than half feel a deep connection with the earth and nature; twenty percent even say they pray every day. Not surprisingly, one third of the Nones describe themselves as spiritual but not religious.  Moreover, the number of people who say that religion is a very important part of their lives has remained unchanged at 58%! And, oddly, even though they are moving away from organized religion, the majority of Nones believe that churches and other religious organizations strengthen community bonds and help the poor.

For more information about "The Nones" visit:

http://www.pewforum.org/2012/10/09/nones-on-the-rise/

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