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Greg Smith of Pew Research and the principle researcher on the massive report released today on America’s Changing Religious Landscape said his number one takeaway from his research is the “pace of continued growth of religiously unaffiliated. The so-called ‘nones’ have been growing for some time but it’s up 7 percent in seven years.” The report reveals that a full 23 percent of the 35,000 Americans surveyed are either atheist, agnostic or simply non-religious. The report also reveals a sharp decline in the share of adults who identify as expressly Christian.
The shifts are in evidence across all regions of the U.S., all socio-economic groups, all age spans, all educational levels, all marital statuses, all races. The largest losses came for mainline Protestants, which lost 5-million adherents in the seven years between 2014 survey and a similar survey conducted in 2007. The second loss leader in 2014 is Roman Catholicism with 3-million fewer adherents.
The factors behind the trends include what Smith called “generational replacement.” That means that fewer young people are adopting the religion of their parents. He said that “nearly one in five adults raised in a faith is now unaffiliated.” That means that Christians in the U.S. have done a very poor job sharing the faith with their own children. Our kids have been evangelized, but not by us.
We will have to wait to learn exactly how beliefs and practices have changed as Americans have migrated away from religious expression and organized Christianity in particular. A second report exploring the beliefs and practices, social and political attitudes of the 35,000 Americans surveyed is expected later this year.
As a teaser, Alan Cooperman, Director of Religion Research for Pew encouraged those unpacking the 250 page report for the media to “look for big causes, not little ones.” About the correlation between the 2007 and the 2014 reports, he acknowledged, “I think what you’re seeing here is reflective of accompanying changes in people’s religious beliefs and practices. As religiously unaffiliated share grows, they also become more secular.”
Dr. John Green, director of the Ray C. Bliss Instituted of Applied Politics and chair of the Political Science department at the University of Akron concurred. “The changes we’re seeing in identity are bound up in changing religious beliefs and practices.” He sees the shifts as one part “religious dispersion,” one part “religious diversity,” and one part “religious dynamism.”
The report reveals what Green sees as a “new collage of faith in the United States.” Green observes the inherent stress and fragility of such a religious collage where blurred lines and overlapping boundaries can fray. He notes that “the more faiths one has the wider possibility for cooperation and the more occasions for conflict.”
When asked to reflect on the intersection of the findings of the report and the current debates about religious liberty, Green said that “religious freedom has always been a marker of American culture. What is liberty and what is license is a continual conversation.” Based on the diversification of religious affiliation evidenced in the report and “the growth of a secular subculture in America,” Green says we can expect a “period of years in which the question of religious liberty” is debated. “Because of the increasing religious diversity, there are and there will be disagreements about values,” adding that “in the past these have provoked intense conflict.”
Presbyterians
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Digging down into the weeds of the survey results you can explore the particular shifts among a wide range of groups. Presbyterians appear in two varieties, “mainline” (which correlates to the Presbyterian Church USA) and “evangelical” (which includes the Presbyterian Church in America).
The median age for all Presbyterians rose in the seven years between the 2007 and 2014 reports.
A full 35 percent of mainline Presbyterians are now over 65 years of age. Particularly paltry is the 8 percent of PCUSA adherents between 18-29 years of age. The median age in the PCUSA rose to from 53 to 59.
The PCUSA improved its racial diversity from 91 percent majority white to 88 percent. While evangelical Presbyterians improved racial diversity from 88 percent majority white to 81 percent.
The PCUSA continues to attract highly educated adherents with just 3 percent of those surveyed failing to finish high school. In terms of the highest degree earned, 24 percent of PCUSA adherents have finished college and 23 percent have post-graduate degrees. Only the United Church of Christ (23 percent) and the Episcopal Church (27 percent) have a more highly educated constituency.
And when it comes to family income, only the Episcopalians outpace the PCUSA Presbyterians. 32 percent of PCUSA adherents have a family income over $100,000, up 4 percent from 2007.
Related article: Nominals to Nones: 3 Key Takeaways From Pew’s Religious Landscape Survey by Ed Stetzer
11 Comments. Leave new
You reported the shifts in the PCUSA, but what were the shifts for the evangelical Presbyterian denominations?
This report states the median age in the PCUSA rose to 59. However, the PCUSA self reported in 2011 the median age of its members had risen to 62. Which is correct?
http://www.pcusa.org/media/uploads/research/pdfs/presbyterian_panel_survey_fall_2011_religious_and_demographic_profile_of_presbyterians.pdf
You can review the full report and what it says about other denominations at this link: http://www.pewforum.org/files/2015/05/RLS-05-08-full-report.pdf
Uh maybe the people who were 59 got older in three years. Ya think?
Marvin was only pointing out that the PCUSA reporting said that the median age in 2011 was 62, but this does not comport with the new Pew report’s findings that the median age in 2007 was 53 and in 2014 was 59.
Median age in 2011 was 61. Median age in 2014 was 59. I’m not buying that the denomination is getting younger. I’d say it’s more likely the median age could now be 69 and not 59.
Our local bodies of Christ have a big job to. 1. Teach the good news of the Gospel to all. 2. Go out and share the Good news of the Gospel with all. 3. Invite everyone to come to your church on Sunday 4. Make all who come to your church glad that they came..
Pew Report relies on a sample of people who self identify as PCUSA in the survey. The PCUSA annual statistical report relies on information supplied by Clerks of Session and presbyteries in the reporting to the denomination. Pew did not survey the denomination. They did a random sample of 35000 Americans. Those who self identified as PCUSA had a median age of 59.
Pew only asks for two different Presbyterian affiliations: PCUSA or PCA. So I would not look for “evangelical” Presbyterian to mean the same thing in the Pew report as it might mean to insiders like us.
The New York Times and others have used the Pew Research survey to argue that Christianity is declining in America. Certainly, the mainline denominations are declining, apparently because they have abandoned Christian principles and adopted the secular culture.
I worshipped at a very active, healthy, non-denominational church this morning. Its members would not have been counted by Pew. There are thousands of other non-denomational churches whose members apparently are not being counted in the Pew statistics.
So, I strongly doubt the claims that are being made by Pew and others.
It’s no surprise that Christianity is losing ground in America. What is surprising is the high amount of people who still believe in Christianity which, more than anything, reflects our failing educational systems’ effort, or lack thereof, to teach critical thinking skills. Yet, change is slow and it’s good to know we are moving in the right direction. Critical thinking skills reveal the “truths” of Christianity to be no more than falsehoods and superstitious beliefs.