Survey: More Americans Dropping Dogma For Spirituality

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                                          Survey: More Americans dropping dogma for spirituality



              Of 35,000 Americans, nearly three in 10 profess no religious identity, but sometimes go to church,


                                          according to the Pew U.S. Religious Landscape Survey.






By Cathy Lynn Grossman,
USA TODAY
June 23, 2008

Religion in the USA has a new anthem.
 
No longer Give Me that Old Time Religion, now it's Don't Fence Me In.

Newly released data from a major survey finds that most U.S. adults range far from knowing or caring about the distinctive teachings of their professed faith.

They believe overwhelmingly (92%) in God and 58% say they pray at least once a day. But when it comes to specific religions — the teachings of the Southern Baptist Convention, the Roman Catholic Church or scores of other denominations — they're all over the map, finds the latest data from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.


INTERACTIVE GRAPHIC: See how other Americans' religious beliefs and practices match with yours


Pew's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey survey questioned 35,000 Americans, nearly three in 10 of whom profess no religious identity, but sometimes go to church. Most evangelicals, whose denominations teach that Jesus is the sole route to salvation, instead say people who have "led good lives" go to heaven. Only one in three Catholics say their church should preserve its traditional beliefs rather than change with the times or adopt modern practices.

Pew released demographic data in February from the survey, which was conducted in May through August 2007. This new installment focuses on the questions asked about Americans' religious beliefs and practices, spiritual experiences, and views on society and politics.

This analysis, based on a questionnaire that never mentions Jesus, portrays a nation of "free-flowing spirituality," says Pew Forum director Luis Lugo, who finds the declining adherence to dogma "stunning."

"You no longer have an alignment of affiliation, belief and behavior. Instead we find complexity, and diversity not only between religious communities but within them, as well. We find a high level of comfort with this diversity," says political scientist John Green, a senior fellow with the Pew Forum.

When Green and Lugo factor in Pew's February findings that 44% of adults say they've switched to another religion or none at all, Lugo says, "You have to wonder: How do you guarantee the integrity of a religious tradition when so many people are coming or going or following ideas that don't match up?"

You can't, says the Rev. Frank Page, of Taylors, S.C. He adds ruefully, "I'm a pastor in the real world. I see this every day."

Page is immediate past president of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant denomination. Its growth statistics, he says, "are pitiful."

Page says people don't know their faith because "Gospel, once clearly preached in virtually every Protestant church, is rarely heard in the 21st century. The number who teach a clear doctrinal Christianity are a minority today. How would people know it when they never hear about how to be saved?"

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Tradition and politics



Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, sees in the numbers that Catholics, like everyone else, are shaped by an individualistic culture. "People are trained to trust only their own spiritual exprience" rather than in the historic message of the church.

"Religion is about conversion, self-surrender as opposed to self-righteousness. That's hard in any culture but particularly in our own. With the emphasis so much on rights, it's easy to become self-righteous."

The survey "just proves Catholics are as confused as everybody else," says sociologist Mary Gautier of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, which conducts research for the U.S. Catholic bishops.

The long-standing alignment between a high level of religious commitment and a conservative political outlook is fraying, and that could make this year's presidential election even more unpredictable, Green says.

The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 0.6 percentage points for overall findings. The margin of error is larger for subgroups including evangelicals (26.3% of adults, who share strict ideas on salvation and common historic origins), mainline Protestants (18.1%, who share "a less exclusionary view of salvation and a strong emphasis on social reform,") and historically black churches (6.9%, whose traditions are "shaped by experiences of slavery and segregation)."

Some key findings:

•78% overall say there are "absolute standards of right and wrong," but only 29% rely on their religion to delineate these standards. The majority (52%) turn to "practical experience and common sense," with 9% relying on philosophy and reason, and 5% on scientific information.

•74% say "there is a heaven, where people who have led good lives are eternally rewarded," but far fewer (59%) say there's a "hell, where people who have led bad lives and die without being sorry are eternally punished." Only evangelicals and Muslims are as likely to believe almost to the same degree in both.

•70%, including a majority of all major Christian and non-Christian religious groups except Mormons, agree that "many religions can lead to eternal life."

•68% say "there's more than one true way to interpret the teachings of my religion."

•54% say being devoutly religious isn't a challenge in modern society. Another 42% say they "often feel that my values are threatened by Hollywood and the entertainment industry." • 45% of adults say they seldom or never read their religion's holy texts. This includes 49% of members of mainline Protestant churches, 57% of Catholics and 70% of Jews. Among groups that emphasize reading scripture, the numbers are sharply higher. Those who read scripture at least weekly include: evangelicals (60%); historically black churches (60%); Mormons (76%); Jehovah's Witnesses (83%); and Muslims (43%)

•44% want to preserve their religion's traditional beliefs and practices. But most Catholics (67%), Jews (65%), mainline Christians (56%) and Muslims (51%) say their religion should either "adjust to new circumstances" or "adopt modern beliefs and practices."

•50% say "homosexuality is a way of life that should be accepted by society," but the most consistently traditional religious groups say society should discourage it — 76% of Jehovah's Witnesses, 68% of Mormons, 61% of Muslims and 64% of evangelicals.

•14% overall, including 28% of evangelicals, say religion is the "main influence in their political thinking."

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A 'spiritual salad bar'



"Americans believe in everything. It's a spiritual salad bar," says Rice University sociologist Michael Lindsay.

Rather than religious leaders setting the cultural agenda, today, it's Oprah Winfrey, he says.

"After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the national memorial service was at Washington's National Cathedral, conducted by Episcopal clergy. After the 9/11 attack, Oprah organized the official memorial service at Yankee Stadium, and while clergy participated, she was the master of ceremonies.

"The impact of Oprah is seen throughout this survey. She uses the language of Bible and Christian traditions and yet includes other traditions to create a hodgepodge personalized faith. Exclusivism (the idea that one religion has the absolute and exclusive truth) has gotten a bad name in America today," says Lindsay, author of a book on the rise of evangelical social and political clout.

He also noted the political ramifications of findings that "half of evangelicals and half of Catholics say they really don't think about politics all that much."

By measures of "religiosity" — people who attend church at least weekly, pray at least daily and have an absolute belief in a personal God — the survey finds overall that Democrats and Republicans hit the same levels.

The difference is in their behavior, however, says Green. "Those who lean Republican and attend church are likely to vote at a high rate while religious Democrats don't turn out to vote at the same levels."

If the candidacy of Barack Obama, the first black major-party nominee for the presidency, brings religious Democrats to the polls, that could all change, Green says.

Lugo predicts "rip-roaring debates" over whether evangelicalism, which has been a driver in the American religious and political marketplace for a decade now, has peaked in its spiritual, social and political clout as its distinctive teachings lose ground.

Neither are people likely to return to the denominational fold, says political science professor Alan Wolfe, director of the Boise Center for American and Public Life at Boston University.

"Overall people say they are religious, but they have no command of theology, doctrine or history so it's an empty religiosity. They don't call themselves spiritual, however, because that word has New Age baggage," says Wolfe, who finds "a very forgiving quality" to this non-sectarian, no-mention-of-sin view.

"Americans are deeply suspicious of institutional religion," says Green. Some see "religion as about money, rules and power and that is not a positive connotation for everyone."

Adults under 30 are further from strict religious adherence than their parents and even though other studies show they cycle back to religion at key moments such as marriage or rearing children, those spirals are smaller and smaller, says Tom Smith, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Society. It is part of the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center, which has measured religion and society for decades through the General Social Survey.

"We may see that unlike the past, people are not going to return to the church they left or to any one at all," says Green.

Indeed, Pew found fewer people starting out in any church.

Among couples (married or living together) with children, 63% say they read the Bible or pray with their children and 60% say they send them for religious education.

But those numbers drop significantly for religiously mixed couples with children — 37% of those surveyed. In mixed marriages, only 48% say they pray or read Scripture with their children and 44% say they send their children for religious education, says Greg Smith, a Pew research fellow.

"Every religious group has a major challenge on its hands from all directions," Lugo says. "It is extremely difficult to maintain the integrity of the tradition and the strength of a community, given all these findings."

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                                           New findings about U.S. religious life






By Jane Lampman
Tue Jun 24, 2008
 
Religion is a vital force in the private and public lives of most Americans and helps mold the country's social and political attitudes, says the latest report from the US Religious Landscape Survey.
 
Religious freedom has given that vitality free rein. And for most, convictions are matters of personal choice and not necessarily from the tradition in which one was raised. The pathbreaking survey of a representative sample of 35,000 adults has revealed an unprecedented shifting of people among religious affiliations in recent decades. It also shows a remarkable diversity of beliefs and practices – within as well as across faiths.

"While there are important differences between religious traditions, affiliation, belief, and practice do not line up the way theologians might want them to line up," says John Green, senior fellow at Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, which carried out the survey.

Indeed, in a step that may unsettle orthodox believers but bodes well for American pluralism, large majorities in nearly every tradition reject religious exclusivity and say that "many religions can lead to eternal life." Only 16 percent of Roman Catholics and 36 percent of Evangelicals, for example, say that "my religion is the one true faith" leading to salvation. Similarly, more than two-thirds of adults with a religious affiliation believe there's more than one true way to interpret the teachings of their own faith.

"Americans recognize that we do live in a much more complicated landscape than we used to," says Alan Wolfe, director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College.

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The survey has been released in two stages. The first report, in February, documented the extraordinary switching among denominations, faiths, and a growing "unaffiliated" category. It also showed that Protestantism is close to losing its majority status in the United States. The second report, released Monday, details the beliefs and practices of people of all traditions – including world faiths and the unaffiliated – and analyzes their impact on social and political views.

"The unaffiliated have a diversity of belief that no one knew existed," says Mark Gray of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University in Washington. For instance, 35 percent of them pray at least weekly, including 10 percent of atheists and 18 percent of agnostics.

On some basics, the American faithful are much alike. Ninety-two percent believe in God, including 70 percent of those not connected with any religion. Three-quarters believe in life after death, and 79 percent believe in miracles.

Prayer is a widespread practice, in which 75 percent engage at least weekly and 58 percent daily. Thirty-four percent say they have experienced or witnessed a divine healing of an illness or injury.

Yet divergent perspectives coexist within many traditions. In regard to the conception of God, 60 percent of Americans believe in a personal God, while 25 percent believe in an impersonal force or universal spirit. Eastern Orthodox Christians split 49 to 34 percent on this question, while Muslims divide evenly, 41 to 42 percent. Among Jews, 25 percent believe in a personal God and 50 percent in an impersonal force.

An aspect of practice that often spurs critiques about the depth of American faith relates to sacred texts. While believers hold their scriptures in high esteem – 63 percent call them the word of God – nearly half (45 percent) say they seldom or never read them outside of worship services. That rises to 57 percent for Catholics and 70 percent for Jews. Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons are the most avid scripture readers, followed by black Protestants and Evangelicals.

"Since our major religions are religions of the book, that's notable," says Professor Wolfe. "The religious revival in America isn't what you could call the old-time religion that has serious theological content or biblical knowledge."

Views differ also on whether the texts should be taken literally. Sixty percent of Evangelicals take the Bible as the literal word of God, while 23 percent of mainline Christians and 22 percent of Catholics do. Fifty percent of Muslims take the Koran literally. On the other hand, 67 percent of Buddhists, 53 percent of Jews, and 47 percent of Hindus say their scriptures are written by men, not God.

While Americans take their religion seriously (more than half say it is very important in their lives), it's not the first place they say they go when making moral choices or deciding on political views.

The survey finds that significant majorities in every tradition and among the unaffiliated agree that there are "absolute standards of right and wrong." When asked where they look for guidance, 52 percent say they count on practical experience and common sense, 29 percent cite religious teachings, and 9 percent point to reason or philosophy.

Similarly, relatively few say they look to religion as the primary source of their views on social and political issues. The survey found links, however, suggesting that religion may play more of a role, perhaps indirectly, than many recognize.

This is most visible with regard to political ideology, where those who are very active religiously tend to be more politically conservative than other Americans. Religion plays an obvious role on social issues such as abortion and homosexuality, yet it also shapes worldviews that affect attitudes on many issues.

The survey found widespread agreement across religious communities on the need for "more government support for the needy, even if it means going into debt."

Environmental protection also gains widespread backing. Majorities in most groups also said good diplomacy rather than military strength was "the best way to ensure peace."


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