TruthBook Religious News Blog

By Tracie Powell, CQ Guest Columnist

President Obama raised a few eyebrows back home with his choice of words in Turkey, a Muslim nation, about religion.

“We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values,” the president said.

A few days before, a new report revealed that fewer Americans identify themselves as Christians. The American Religious Identification Survey said the proportion of Americans who claim to have no religion has increased to 15 percent today, from 8.2 percent in 1990.

Still, I’m not ready to write an obituary for Christian conservatism just yet.

One only has to look at the response, such as in this video from groups like the National Organization for Marriage after Iowa and Vermont legalized same sex marriage and the Washington, DC council voted to recognize the unions to see how they are now shaping their message.

No, Christianity isn’t dead nor dying, neither is the Christian Right for that matter. It’s just slowing, perhaps temporarily, being replaced by a softer brand of religious expression, says David Roozin, Director of the Hartford Seminary’s Institute for Religion Research.

More progressive Christian leaders are making service, not condemnation, more in vogue.

One example of that soft side in action: a group of Christian leaders plan to converge on Washington later this month to discuss ways to end poverty around the world in 10 years. Sounds pretty lofty, but it shows a shift in values and a shift in understanding about what makes a person moral and righteous.

This is just a part of this excellent, two-page article. Please click on "external source" to access the entire article.

Labels: American Religious Identification Survey, Christian right, President Obama, Tracie Powell

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Friday, March 20, 2009

Americans Reject Labels, Not Faith

Americans Reject Labels, Not Faith

A lengthy article, well-worth the read...click on "external source"

If the new American Religious Identification Survey study tells us anything at all, it is that the categories by which people measure and define their own faith are shifting, but that is hardly something new. The personalized, even idiosyncratic nature of faith in our culture has been a growing trend for a very long time.

The bottom line is that we have always been a culture that rejected the spiritual status quo. But we have not ever been, and are not now, a culture that rejects faith. We just want in on our own terms -- that is the American spiritual tradition. The American Religious Identity Survey actually confirms that. For people invested in status quo categories, whether out of academic or theological necessity, that may be upsetting, but it need not be for the rest of us.

The results of the American Religious Identity Survey suggest that we live in a time of incredible spiritual ferment, one in which personal freedom and individual dignity are celebrated more than ever. The last time I checked, those were pretty good values to celebrate. The survey also raises important questions about the state of faith in our nation, and failing to ask them would be as mistaken as the 'death of religion' conclusion to which others have jumped.

In light of this survey, we need to ask ourselves three basic questions. First, how do people, whatever faith they follow (including no faith at all) maintain their sense of obligation to the welfare of others when personal freedom defines their identity? Without that kind of commitment, forget religion, the whole world is in trouble. How do we assure that a celebration of personal freedom is not simply cover for a culture of narcissism and selfishness?

Second, how do those of us who still feel deeply rooted in a particular tradition take advantage of this moment not to make converts, or to beef up our numbers, but to serve all people (most of whom will never sit in our pews or pay our dues) who might benefit from some of the wisdom contained within the traditions we follow? How do we use this moment in American life to become increasingly sensitive to the difference between religion as we happen to understand it and faith/belief/spiritual connection which, if they are really real, must be bigger than our particular doctrine or tradition?

Finally, are those of us who still claim attachment to a religious community or institution going to ask ourselves the tough questions raised by this survey about the credibility which religion has lost in recent decades? With violence in the name of religion on the rise, extremists becoming increasingly powerful in every segment of religious life, and the ever-more polarizing language used by ideologues ranging from absolutist atheists to radical religionists, this is not someone else's problem. If the use of traditional religious labels is on the decline, those who remain comfortable with those labels must ask ourselves what we have done to "degrade our own brand" and even more importantly, what we must do to fix it.

Labels: American Religious Identification Survey, Americans, faith, spirituality

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Friday, November 09, 2007

Bi-religious couples overcome differences in opinion, open to making contrasts work

Tangled up in love

Published Thursday, November 8, 2007.

Amanda Wilcosky / Staff Writer

Approximately 28 million U.S. couples that are married or in domestic partnerships live in mixed-religion homes, according to the American Religious Identification Survey done in 2001 by The City University of New York. This is nearly a quarter of all marriages or domestic partnerships.

While many couples make their relationship work, maintaining a bi-religious relationship can be difficult.

According to a May 2006 study by Scott M. Myers published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, married partners that share the same religious background report greater marital quality than do bi-religious partners.

The ability of partners to triumph over religious differences can depend on their faiths.

Labels: Amanda Wilcosky, American Religious Identification Survey, bi-religious, faith, Journal of Marriage and Family, marriage, religion, US couples

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Saturday, March 31, 2007

More Americans exercise choice in religion

Posted: 3/30/07

By Andrea Useem
Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)— According to experts who study the phenomenon, spiritual seekers are exercising their freedom of choice more than ever before.

Sixteen percent of Americans have switched their religious identities at some point in their lives, according to the 2001 American Religious Identification Survey, one of the largest studies of its kind.

“People are making more choices in everything, from lifestyle to sexual identity. It’s not surprising if they are making more choices in religion,” said Peter Berger, professor of sociology and theology at Boston University.

In other words, the era when religion was determined solely by accident of birth is over, he said.

Barry Kosmin, co-author of the 2006 book Religion in a Free Market: Religious and Non-Religious Americans, which is based on the 2001 survey data, predicted more switching is to be expected.

“Family and ethnic loyalties—the old glue that maintained inter-generational religious identification—has weakened,” he said. In addition to moving more frequently, Americans also are more likely to be “searching” for religious truth, often outside their own traditions, wrote Kosmin, who directs the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.

The 2001 study showed clear winners and losers in the competition to attract and retain members: Twice as many Americans left Catholicism as joined the faith, while evangelical Christianity registered a net gain, with more than three times as many people joining than leaving.

The biggest change, however, was registered among Americans who said they had no religious identity at all, increasing from 8 percent of the U.S. population in 1990 to 14 percent in 2001.

While religious switching may bring satisfaction to individual seekers, the phenomenon can be unnerving for religious leaders, who are vying for “customers” ever more aware of new options, Kosmin said.

But success in attracting new members doesn’t necessarily translate into success at keeping them, reported Daniel Olson, a sociologist at Indiana University South Bend who studies religious competition.

The 2001 survey found, for example, that while the Mormons welcomed a relatively large number of converts, an equal number left the faith. Jehovah’s Witnesses and Buddhists displayed similarly high levels of turnover.

Surprisingly, smaller religious groups are better at recruiting new members, Olson said. Most switching happens through social relationships, like marriage and friendship, and members of a small religious group are more likely to have lots of relationships with nonmembers, whom they are able to pull into the faith.

Labels: American Religious Identification Survey, Andrea Useem, religion, religious identity, truthseeking