The Rise of the Nones

Have you seen this? (Probably.) According to the latest Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life study, there is a growing number of "nones". That's their term. According to the study, some 20% of Americans have no religious affiliation. (See? "Nones.")

Of course, you need to be careful there. Of the unaffiliated, less than 30% are atheist or agnostic. The rest are ... spiritual but not religious. (Reminds me of Steve Taylor's It's a Personal Thing, a song premised on a politician giving speeches as he runs for office -- kind of appropriate these days:

It's a personal thing, and I find it odd
That you'd question my believing in a personal God.
I'm devout, I'm sincere, ask my mother if you doubt it.
I'm religious, but I'd rather not get radical about it.
The old-time believers had timidity and grace
But this new generation doesn't know its place.
You're entitled to believe, but the latest Gallup Poll
Says you mustn't interfere -- that's the government's role.)

Of the unaffiliated who were not atheist or agnostic, 41% saw religion as somewhat to very important and 62% identified themselves as either religious or spiritual. (How is it possible that 8% of those affiliated with Christianity considered religion unimportant and considered themselves neither religious nor spiritual? Very strange.)

Looking at the "religious" versus the "spiritual", nearly 40% of Protestants classified themselves as spiritual, not religious. Some 32% of the "spiritual, not religious" crowd were of the "nones" group -- no affiliation -- while a full two-thirds were religiously affiliated. Slightly less than half of those who said they were neither spiritual nor religious were affiliated with a religious group.

What do we learn from this? Well, of course, you could assume that religion in general and Christianity in particular is on the decline. Perhaps. You might infer that the (literally) ungodly number of Christians who classify themselves as neither religious nor spiritual indicate hypocrisy in Christendom. Maybe. But what I see is a growing number of Americans who do not think about what they believe. They are happy to hold a "Christian but not spiritual" position (utter nonsense) and find some sort of dichotomy between "religious" and "spiritual" as if being spiritual is good and being religious is bad. There is a growing number of self-identified Christians who do not know what "Christian" means. There is a larger and larger gap appearing between genuine Christian and ... tares.

I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. We've had it tough for a long time trying to answer critics of "Christianity" because they're looking at so-called "Christians" doing things in direct violation to Christ. The farther these embarrassing counterfeits get from rationality and coherence, the easier it is to both tell others, "You can clearly see what they believe doesn't fall within the concept of Christianity" and to tell them, "What you believe isn't Christianity; you need a Savior." Not all bad. But sometimes it's painful to watch.