Last month, a book by Ryan Burge was released. It is entitled, The Nones: Where They Came From, Who They Are, And Where They Are Going.
Burge bases his book on the results of the General Social Survey. In 1972, just five percent of Americans claimed no religion. In 2018, that number rose to 23.7%, making the Nones as numerous as both evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics. If the trend continues, the Nones will be the largest religious group in the next decade.
Burge, a political science professor and an American Baptist pastor, analyzes the trend and provides some interesting new insights.
In the past, authors have attributed the rise of the Nones to Americans becoming more socially isolated or distrust of institutions. While these may be contributing factors, they are not the main culprits. Nor is the increase in unmarried adults, which explains only about 3% of American’s religious disaffiliation.
According to Ann A. Michal of the Lewis Center, in a review of Burge’s book, “Understanding the Nones,” Burge defines one of the main contributors to the growth in the Nones is the exodus of liberals from the church. “Burge reports that, in 1978, half of all white weekly churchgoers identified as Democrats. Today, just one quarter do. In 2018, almost 46.6% of liberals and 30.5% of those who lean liberal were disaffiliated, compared to only 9.8% of conservatives and 13% of those who lean conservative.. Burge says that, ‘liberals have always been more likely to be unaffiliated, but the disparity has never been so large.’”
Burge also notes that the Nones have become more diverse. Those with higher levels of education are only slightly more likely to have no religious affiliation than less-educated Americans. Men continue to leave religion at a higher rate than women, but that gap is narrowing. In 1980, only 5% of Black Americans were Nones; by 2018, that percentage swelled to 20.8%.
Burge also hypothesizes that “It is possible, and probably even likely, that many millions of people were just not being honest with survey administrators decades ago, and now we are seeing a more accurate picture of American religion.” In other words, Nones may feel more comfortable stating that they have no religious affiliation than they would have been in previous years, as the stigma of being a None is no longer in play.
Is there any room for hope in the survey results?
There are two reasons to have hope: the first is that the fastest growing group of Nones is those who describe their religious affiliation as “nothing in particular”. This group appears to be more “receptive to faith” than Atheists or Agnostics, according to Michel. The second is that even though 25% of Americans do not profess a religious faith, almost all still express some type of belief in God.
In Matthew 9:37, Jesus told his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” (NIV).
This would seem to be true in our time as much as it was then.