Religious ‘nones’

We tend to mush our syn- onyms in these polarized, sound-bite times, but as the nation turns toward its uniquely American holiday, we’re reminded of a shining example of the distinguishing difference between church and religion.

The U.S. Thanksgiving observance is steeped in religion, but the furthest thing from a church holiday. This distinction aids in understanding a seeming contradiction: the dual democratic criticality of constitutionally separating “church and state,” but societally and philosophically embracing the union of “religion and self-government.”

And just as families are getting head counts and making grocery lists for their traditional feasts, the Pew Research Center has dished up the latest data report from its Religion & Public Life division.

Previously, Pew has undertaken mammoth Religious Landscape Studies, with full studies completed in 2007 and 2014 based on 35,000 interviews each. The latest survey was not as comprehensive in terms of questions or interviews, but did maintain basic inquiries that enable the demonstration of continuing trends away from religious affiliation and church attendance.

Pew’s database of information on the subject is immense: 168,890 Americans have been interviewed in 88 surveys conducted between 2009 and 2019. The most recent report’s tracking lines continue a worrisome trend.

The percentage of people today who describe themselves as either atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular”—researchers have termed them as “nones”—has grown from 17 percent in 2009 to 26 percent.

The religious fall-off has come mostly at the expense of Christians. In 2009, 77 percent of Americans identified as Christians; now only 65 percent do.

Part of the decline is also, literally, a dying out of the faithful: Among respondents born between 1928-1945 (the Silent Generation), 84 percent are still Christian and half go to church every Sunday. Contrast that with millennials (born 1981-1996): less than half identify as Christian and two out of three fall into the Easter-ThanksgivingChristmas churchgoing crowd, if they go at all.

Indeed, the charts for most of the main core questions align abruptly along generational lines.

The percentages of “nones” without religious affiliation grows steadily as respondent ages decline: Silent Generation—10 percent; baby boomers—17 percent; Gen X—25 percent; millennials—a whopping 40 percent. Respondents identifying as Christians follow a reverse path; from the high with Silents at 84 percent, the percentages for boomers, Gen Xers and millennials are 76, 67 and 49 respectively.

Church attendance follows suit: From older to younger generations, weekly worship is practiced by 50, 35, 32 and 22 percent. Overall, the “never attend” church percentage went from 11 percent in 2009 to 17 percent in 2019—a half-again increase.

Tabulating data from earlier General Social Surveys, Pew reports the Christian percentage numbers to be between 87 and 90 percent between the early 1970s and early 1990s. As Christian numbers started falling in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the “nones” began growing at a much faster pace than other religions. The percentage of Americans who claim a religion other than Christianity has remained static for 50 years at about 5 percent.

The Pew report also points out that religious “nones” make up one-third of Democrats (double the percentage of Republicans). But there’s a large divide among Democrat demographics. The percentage of “nones” among white Democrats is twice that of black Democrats. And while only 29 percent of white Democrats attend church monthly or more, a healthy 61 percent of black Democrats do so (which is a higher percentage than the percentage of white Republicans).

That the reduction of Christian respondents appears to reflect a decline in religious belief in general is alarming, or should be, for any lover of the American brand of liberty and democracy.

French observer Alexis de Tocqueville devoted a lot of ink to the rite and role of religion in the America he traveled and chronicled in the 1830s. Familiar with European theocracies and their corruption, he praised the founders for their wisdom in banning state-established churches.

But more importantly, he credited our flourishing democracy to the nearly universal religiousness of American citizens all across the land.

At that time, on every Sunday, “the commercial and industrial life of the nation seems suspended,” he wrote, “all noise ceases” and a “deep repose, or rather a sort of solemn meditation, follows.”

This mass population habit of “stealing away” from worldly worries every seventh day to refresh the pure, immortal and eternal soul within was as important for the state as it was for the individual, de Tocqueville insisted. It preserved a balance between affection for material things, which drove economic progress, with a reverence for “a sentiment of greatness, and a love of immaterial pleasures.”

Obviously, there’s no going back to blue laws and silent Sundays, but that’s not required to reverse a disturbing irreligious surge. It’s a matter of self-preservation. A related Pew study demonstrates the looming danger of not doing so.

The social fabric is strengthened through community involvement. And guess which group is least likely to participate in local clubs and charitable organizations? Young “nones.”

Self-government faces many threats, but none bigger than selfcenteredness.