Some Americans Are Increasingly Ambivalent About Religion

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elwood-d-watson/some-americans-are-increasingly-ambivalent-about-religion_b_4483750.html

Elwood D. Watson
Professor of history, African-American studies and gender studies, East Tennessee State University

Posted: 12/20/2013 11:04 pm

This is the time of year when many Americans deeply immerse themselves in the holiday spirit. Gift giving, receiving gifts, hymn singing, celebrating, helping those less fortunate (although some of us do this year round), drinking egg nog, eating all types of delicious food, attending movies, etc. -- the list goes on and on. That being said, while many of us do get into the Christmas spirit, it seems that for a growing number of Americans, there is a gradual erosion of commitment to religious observance.

According to a 2013 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, the houses of worship are seeing more and more empty pews. A study that was released by the center on July 2 conducted a poll of 4,000 adults between March 21 and April 8 of this year, using English and Spanish. While the poll is by no means totally scientific, the responses of its participants probably does mirror that of many Americans. The findings reveal that 20 percent of Americans do not identify with any religion. Moreover, one third of Americans stated that they did not consider themselves religious. While I cannot say that I was totally shocked by the findings, the fact is that I was indeed surprised by many of the poll's other findings:

· 55% of Americans feel that having a society that is less religious made no difference

· 24% saw such a less religious trend as good

· 19% saw such a trend as negative

It is important to note that the groups were broken down by race, religious affiliation and age. White evangelical Protestants (78%), black Protestants (64%) and white non-Hispanic Catholics (56%) were more inclined to see American society becoming less committed to religion as a negative thing. Other interesting findings were:

· 48% of Hispanic Catholics believe that such a trend does not matter

· 45% of White Protestants believe that such a trend is problematic

· 24% say that is actually a good thing that Americans are less religious

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