White Christian America is dying

[rug]

(Mike Cherim for The Washington Post)

By John Sides
August 15 at 5:00 AM

Robert P. Jones is the founding CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). His new book, “The End of White Christian America,” has been called “quite possibly the most illuminating text for this election year.” He kindly answered some questions about the book via email. Below is a lightly edited version.

Let’s start with a graph from the book. I think this won’t strike many readers as surprising, but tell us what you see and how you interpret it.

The chart below reveals just how quickly the proportions of white, non-Hispanic Christians have declined across generations.



Like an archaeological excavation, the chart sorts Americans by religious affiliation and race, stratified by age. It shows the decline of white Christians among each successive generation.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/08/15/white-christian-america-is-dying/

https://www.amazon.com/End-White-Christian-America/dp/1501122290/

[DetlefK]

1. I once saw a similar poll:

What's interesting: The fraction of the religious people is shrinking at the expense of the non-religious people. BUT the fraction of atheists stays basically the same.
-> These people don't turn against religion. They lose interest in all things religion.

[rug]

2. Did you mean the affiliated are shrinking to the gain of the unaffiliated?

That's the conclusion of the author.

The rising number of religiously unaffiliated Americans has more to do with people being less likely to claim a formal connection with organized religion than it does with widespread doubts about the existence of God. While there has been an uptick in the number of Americans who identify as atheist or agnostic, this has not been the main driver of growth of the religiously unaffiliated.

As the number of religiously unaffiliated Americans has increased, so has the internal diversity of this group. PRRI’s 2014 American Values Atlas identifies three distinct subgroups among the unaffiliated: about half (52 percent) who describe themselves as secular or not religious, about one-quarter (24 percent) who describe themselves as religious (“unattached believers”) and about one-quarter (24 percent) who identify as agnostic or atheist. This is an evolving and complex group.

Many unaffiliated Americans, for example, still believe in God, even as they are happily unconnected to any church and show little interest in seeking out institutionalized religion. PRRI actually has a survey in the field right now to get a better portrait of this important group and should have updated numbers by the end of the month. Stay tuned.

It seems to have less to do with the growth of atheism per se than it does with the failings of organized religion in its present form.

[DetlefK]

4. I don't really remember.

I think, the poll was religious vs non-religious vs atheist. I can't really recall any more details.

[TonyPDX]

3. Since we've screwed things up so royally, this news brings hope.

[CrispyQ]

5. I guess I've already read my allotment of articles on WaPo.

I got a notice yesterday on NYT that I only have 5 viewings left for the month. When did news sites start doing this?

[kestrel91316]

6. Delete your cookies and they can't tell that you've read any articles yet.

I delete cookies every few days so I don't get blocked by stupid news paywalls.

[CrispyQ]

7. Thanks!

[rug]

8. It's a pain in the ass.

When I get that message I have to switch between my home computer and my office computer.