New Survey: Those With No Religion Fastest-Growing Group in US

On Monday, a new religious study was released that showed that 15% of the US population defines themselves as belonging to no religion. Here is an excerpt from the American Religious Identification Survey—conducted by the Program on Public Values at Trinity College.
"The percentage of Americans claiming no religion, which jumped from 8.2 in 1990 to 14.2 in 2001, has now increased to 15 percent. Given the estimated growth of the American adult population since the last census from 207 million to 228 million, that reflects an additional 4.7 million 'Nones.' Northern New England has now taken over from the Pacific Northwest as the least religious section of the country, with Vermont, at 34 percent 'Nones,' leading all other states by a full 9 points.

'Many people thought our 2001 finding was an anomaly,' [Ariela] Keysar said. We now know it wasn't. The 'Nones' are the only group to have grown in every state of the Union.'"


In addition, every single Christian group has decreased in terms of percentage of the US population--and most have declined in raw numbers as well. In regards to atheism, the study says:

"Only1.6 percent of Americans call themselves atheist or agnostic. But based on stated beliefs, 12 percent are atheist (no God) or agnostic (unsure), while 12 percent more are deistic (believe in a higher power but not a personal God). The number of outright atheists has nearly doubled since 2001, from 900 thousand to 1.6 million."

In sum, the findings show or lead to the conclusion that:
1) Religion and Christianity are on the decline in the US;
2) Protestantism is doing worse than Catholicism due to Catholic immigrants;
3) Mormonism is keeping up with population growth, and Islam and New Age/Wicca are exceeding it;
4) Atheism, while still a small percentage of the population, is on the rise; and
5) "Spirituality,"--or non-organized belief in God--is still vibrant in the US.

What implications does this have for the church in the US?
- Attractional methods alone will have decreasing effectiveness, though they will reach some.-
- Not only theologically, but pragmatically, we must make the structure of the church be missional in nature and make dramatic changes in how we allocate our resources. This might mean moving all "Bible studies" off site, in coffee shops, Starbucks, homes, schools, etc.to meet people where they are. With antagonism and apathy towards religion, fewer will show up because we have better programs. And those that do will already be Christians.
- We need to train our members in knowledge of other faiths and resurgent atheism and methods to reach these adherents.

We must make dramatic changes. Sadly, however, most churches will do almost nothing to respond to these cultural changes. Those that do respond will respond incrementally only. With a shrinking pool of Christians, there will be an increasing competition amongst churches for members. This will, ironically, put more pressure upon church leaders to shore up "programs" to attract church members to shore up the decreasing member base.

In the midst of all of this, it is unbelievable to me that our fellowship is consumed on all sides with "doctrinal issues"--meanwhile our nation is hopelessly lost. And the resistance to making practical, methodological changes, such as replacing Sunday night worship or Wed. night classes with outreach and service, moving "classes" off site, planting new churches, changing times, making budgets missional, etc., is quite simply, absurd.

What do you think of these findings? How should the church respond to the changing (a)religious landscape of the US so that we can reach people today?

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Comment by James Nored on March 12, 2009 at 1:11am
Stanley, thanks for the article link. It was very interesting. While I do think that "spirituality" will remain alive in the US, there likely will be a growing hostility towards Christianity and it will indeed viewed to be a cultural threat.
Comment by Marvin Diaz on March 11, 2009 at 2:20pm
Oh! Thank you guys for the support, it helps me alot :') I will keep giving some input whenever I can, I was at school during my break and I read your post James and I thought, oh I should contribute something, I just felt like it! Tara I liked what you said to me "tell him to buzz off, in Jesus' name". Gracias!
Comment by Jennie Johnson on March 10, 2009 at 4:50pm
I want to apologize to James Nored for not putting the correct name in the "how did I find out about this site." I said John Nord. Sorry James.
Comment by WesWoodell on March 10, 2009 at 1:44pm
Hey ... Alan Hirsch linked you on his blog: http://www.theforgottenways.org/blog/2009/03/11/those-with-no-religion-fastest-growing-group-in-us/#comment-11353
Comment by Bob Young on March 10, 2009 at 12:24pm
Good summary, James. I just finished a bulletin article in which I briefly surveyed both sets of results (Barna and Trinity). I especially liked your stuff from 'implications' downward. We MUST discuss these things, and some others things/activities/approaches/... that are definitely outside our comfort zones.
Comment by Tara on March 10, 2009 at 10:42am
Dear Marvin,
Take heart!
I think the devil is definitely trying to scare you too much. So just tell him to buzz off, in Jesus' name.

And maybe the Holy Spirit prompted you to voice your fears in your PS, so that I could say this to you: Reading your post I never, for one second, thought that it wasn't written by a native English speaker, until you said so in your PS. I think you had or one two little typos, but they were small and EXACTLY the same type of typos a native-born speaker would make. I make those same ones all the time, and I'm a 38 year old, American-born, former English teacher. (and was an English major in college)

I think you're doing great! And I definitely understood what you were trying to explain.
Comment by James Nored on March 10, 2009 at 10:15am
Marvin, I am so glad that you shared these thoughts! Please, please continue to do so. We need your input, participation, and leadership to reach today's generation with the message of Jesus Christ. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would convict people of sin. Our task is to seek, serve, and share the good news of Jesus Christ. Ours is a positive message of hope, forgiveness, and reconcilliation.

Keep on preaching it, Marvin!
Comment by Lynn S. Nored on March 10, 2009 at 9:48am
There is a companion survey by the Barna Group that reinforces the above. It shows that only 9% of adults in the U.S. have a biblical world-view. (see article reprinted below) For far too long the Restoration Movement has focused on what divides instead of what unifies ( see Eph 4) which was one of the original purposes of the Restoration Movement. That coupled with a lack of understanding of the impact on our history and culture has ingrained practices that have no biblical imperative. For example the form that has developed for "bible class" is wholely culturally derived and has not biblical basis for it's specific method of implementation. And, it has done so by neglectling what truly forms a "disciple"--which is a bilblical imperative ( see http://www.missionaloutreachnetwork.com/group/whydowedochurchthewaywedochurch/forum/topics/why-do-we-do-spiritual)


Barna Survey is at: http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/12-faithspirituality/252-barna-survey-examines-changes-in-worldview-among-christians-over-the-past-13-years
Comment by Marvin Diaz on March 10, 2009 at 9:48am
Brother Sixto talked about this situation yesterday at a Bible Study Class we had. It was interesting to me to hear that, I always thought America was one country that had high percentage of Christianity, surprisingly to me it is not, but this is not the right question to address here. If my memory wasn't as bad as it is sometimes, I would remember what Brother Sixto said about it, he gave a response to it of why this is happening. But my personal opinion believes that we now more than before have got to go out and save those lost souls, those who are thirsty of God. People are willing do make the change but they don't know how to achieve that closeness to God and while they are trying it most of them can't find the right way to do it so they just simply stop. As well as those who won't even take a step up and do it but are willing to change, at least there’s something there. That is why we as ambassadors of Christ should and are working to save these 'poor in spirit', I've seen some churches that when they get big and bigger, it seems like they just want to save themselves and stopped going out preaching to the lost ones. Last month, I had the opportunity to attend to the Youth Conference at Sky Ranch in Mineola, TX. They had a speaker who came to us preaching that those who do not follow God's words will burn in hell, I will just speak my mind, I did not want to hear what he was saying after he started with it because to me that sounded unfair or maybe he was over stating it with his own prospective speaking what God intended to say. I am currently working to get my family to come to God, to have mercy for those who do not know him and I'm 100% sure I'm not the only one doing this in here, maybe of you are doing the same because this is what God wants us to do it. He wants us to go preach and save as many as we can, not to condemn and just live for ourselves. That's the key of how our nation should grow spiritually, we need to pray and fast because this is the only way to win this kind of enemy.



PS: After I finished this writing I found myself doubting about if I should post this or not. I don’t know, maybe I’m afraid of what people may think of what I said or if they even going to understand what I’m trying to explain. English is not my fist language but I will let that stop me from what I’m determined to do. I think is the devil who is does not want me to participate. All I know when I saw this article is that I knew I had to put my input in this delicate situation, God wants me to serve him good in any way I can possible do. Thank you James for bring it this one up!
Comment by James Nored on March 10, 2009 at 1:53am
Here is CNN's news story on this study.

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