Religion
Related: About this forumA History of the Unaffiliated: How the "Spiritual Not Religious" Gospel Has Spread
http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/politics/6547/a_history_of_the_unaffiliated%3A_how_the_%22spiritual_not_religious%22_gospel_has_spread/October 24, 2012A
By MATTHEW S. HEDSTROM
Bumper stickers, yoga pants...and lots of books
You can call them unaffiliated, as in a recent Pew poll, or nonesor even just not very religious. A brand new poll by the Public Religion Research Institute divides this group further (and somewhat counterintuitively) into unattached, atheists/agnostics, and seculars. But whatever you call them, this ever-growing cohort of unchurched Americans makes up, at 23 percent, the single largest segment of Barack Obamas religious coalition (compared to the 37 percent of white evangelicals who support Mitt Romney).
While we have yet to see a Seculars for Obama bumper sticker, the unaffliated are clearly having a moment. Media analysis, however, has not gone very deepthere is a story here that goes beyond names and numbers.
Recent sociological work from Courtney Bender, Christian Smith, and others does help us understand who the current crop of unaffiliated are and what they do and believe. Yet we have precious little historical understanding of this critical and growing demographic. What are their roots? What religious, cultural, economic, demographic, and political processes shaped their sensibilities, habits, and makeup?
In order to understand these still-believing nones, we need to understand that much of the religious dynamism in the United States happens outside the church walls, and has for some time now. The rise of the nones is but the latest phase in the long transformation of religion into what we now commonly call spirituality. In my class on Spirituality in America at the University of Virginia, we use Leigh Schmidts pathbreaking Restless Souls to trace this phenomenon over two centuries, from Ralph Waldo Emersons break with New England Unitarianism in the 1830s to the multibillion dollar spirituality industry of today.
more at link
hedgehog
(36,286 posts)with the Episcopalians, Lutherans or UCC. (Those are the denominations I'm familiar with ). I think many would be surprised at how closely their brand of "religion" accords with their "spirituality".
cbayer
(146,218 posts)and the UCC may see an uptick in membership over the coming years.
This tends to be a young group, and it will be interesting to see how they develop, particularly when they start to establish their own families.
msongs
(67,420 posts)cbayer
(146,218 posts)The data, however, shows that many still maintain spiritual and religious beliefs, including those relating to Jesus.
trotsky
(49,533 posts)Seriously.
hedgehog
(36,286 posts)but because they believe the Gospel and can't find a church community that preaches and practices it! I can only speak for my birth community, the Roman Catholic Church. Us older folk tend to close out minds to options, and I know many Roman Catholics who believe in Christ but no longer can tolerate the actions of Pope and bishops. Right now they are "nones". I also know several Catholics who have found a welcome home in the denominations I mentioned in the OP. For the record, I myself found that if I wanted to remain a Catholic, I had to become an Episcopalian!
trotsky
(49,533 posts)This is sadly a very common attitude of the religious toward the non-religious: "Aw, you've just had bad experiences and haven't found the right church yet!" I find such an assumption patronizing and insulting.
hedgehog
(36,286 posts)it was merged with another parish (i.e our Vatican II parish was suppressed in favor of a reform the reform group) under the leadership of a man who the more kindly referred to as a fool. Most descriptions were rather harsher. Our attempts to appeal this decision to the new bishop and to Rome were turned down. My estimate is that about half the people went to another RC parish, a small number went to the assigned parish, a few went to local Protestant congregations (including the Methodists - I forgot them in my OP! and a good third or more became "nones". They are nones not because they don't believe, but because they don't think there is a nearby church home that would speak to them. My OP was discussing those Nones who are in fact believers.
trotsky
(49,533 posts)I'm glad you've qualified it now. But even a none who is a believer (in what? A god? Jesus?) quite possibly won't find a church that fits them. It's hardly a given that there will be a church for them.
hedgehog
(36,286 posts)realize it's worth it to take a look. If the RC Church isn't what it was in 1950, 1970, 1990, etc, neither are many of the mainline Protestant denominations.