The Exodus From Religion Accelerates

In addition to the Republican Party's opposition to methods of fighting Covid - which is literally disproportionately killing members of the GOP base, the other Republican agenda item that makes no long term sense from a political perspective is the embrance of far right "Christians" who are best defined by their hatred of others even as the number of "Nones" - the number of those with no religion (now at 29% of the population) surges in America. Even more confounding as to what Republicans are doing is the fact that the modern day Pharisee behavior and hate-filled and unwelcoming behavior of the "Christians" embraced by the GOP is cited as one of the leading causes for individuals walking away from religion.  As a former Republican I remain baffled by today's GOP's lack of a long term survival plan save for perhaps killing democracy itself so that the support of a majority of Americans no longer matters.  A piece at ABC News looks at the acceleration of the numbers of Americans who are washing their hands of religion entirely or at least organized religion.  (Within this larger background it is also telling that studies have found that (i) atheists have a higher level of what's ethical than conservative Christians and (ii) children raised in conservative Christian homes are the more likely to be cruel to others)  Here are story highlights: 

Nathalie Charles, even in her mid-teens, felt unwelcome in her Baptist congregation, with its conservative views on immigration, gender and sexuality. So she left.

“I just don’t feel like that gelled with my view of what God is and what God can be,” said Charles, an 18-year-old of Haitian descent who identifies as queer and is now a freshman at Princeton University. “It wasn’t a very loving or nurturing environment for someone’s faith.”

After leaving her New Jersey church three years ago, she identified as atheist, then agnostic, before embracing a spiritual but not religious life.

The path taken by Charles places her among the religiously unaffiliated -- the fastest-growing group in surveys asking Americans about their religious identity. They describe themselves as atheists, agnostics or “nothing in particular.”

According to a survey released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center, this group — commonly known as the “nones” — now constitutes 29% of American adults. That’s up from 23% in 2016 and 19% in 2011.

“If the unaffiliated were a religion, they’d be the largest religious group in the United States,” said Elizabeth Drescher, an adjunct professor at Santa Clara University who wrote a book about the spiritual lives of the nones.

The religiously unaffiliated were once concentrated in urban, coastal areas, but now live across the U.S., representing a diversity of ages, ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds, Drescher said.

The growth of the nones in the U.S. has come largely at the expense of the Protestant population in the U.S., according to the new Pew survey. It said 40% of U.S. adults are Protestants now, down from 50% a decade ago.

Among the former Protestants is Shianda Simmons, 36, of Lakeland, Florida, who began identifying as an atheist in 2013.

She grew up as a Baptist and attended church regularly; she says she left mainly because of the church’s unequal treatment of women.

Another advocate for the nones is Kevin Bolling, who grew up in a military family and served as a Roman Catholic altar boy. In college, he began to question the church’s role, and grew dismayed about its position on sexuality after he came out as gay.

He’s now executive director of the Secular Student Alliance, which has more than 200 branches in colleges and schools nationwide. The chapters, he said, serve as havens for secular students or those questioning their faith.

“I think this generation can be the first generation to be majority non-religious versus majority religious,” he said.

Being Catholic also was a big part of Ashley Taylor’s upbringing -- she became an altar server at 9. Now 30, she identifies as religiously unaffiliated.

“It just means finding meaning and maybe even spirituality without practicing a religion …. pulling from whatever makes sense to me or whatever fits with my values,” she said.

Growing up near Boston, Marston attended a Congregational church with his family – he remembers Bible study, church-sponsored dances, the itchiness of his flannel trousers while attending Sunday services.

Through high school and college, he “drifted away” from Christian beliefs and in his 30s began a serious, long-lasting journey into spirituality while in rehab to curb his alcoholism.

“Spirituality is a soul-based journey into the heart, surrendering one’s ego will to a higher will.” he said. “We’re looking for our own answers, beyond the programming we received growing up.”

Given the wars and bloodshed religion has spawned over the centuries - and continues to generate - I see the decline of religion as a net positive.