America Is Becoming Less Christian, Less

Religious
American Religious Identification Survey Finds Major Denominations Losing
Members
By Dan Harris
March 9, 2009

America is still a predominantly Christian Dramatic Shift in Way Americans

nation, but it’s becoming both less Christian
and less religious, according to the results of
the new American Religious Identification
Survey.
According to the poll, which came out today,
the percentage of Americans who define
themselves as Christian has dropped from
86% in 1990 to 76% in 2008.
In one of the most dramatic shifts, 15% of
Americans now say they have no religion – a
figure that’s almost doubled in 18 years.
Americans with no religious preference are
now larger than all other major religious
groups except Catholics and Baptists.
“What seems to be happening is there is a
decline in what we might call traditional brand
loyalty to the old denominations, specific
churches,” said Barry Kosmin, a principle
investigator for the American Religious
Identification Survey.
In the last 18 years, despite population
growth and immigration, almost all religious
denominations have lost ground. Mainline
Protestants are down the most. Methodists,
for example, have gone from 8 to 5%.
Baptists are down from 19.3 to 15.8. And Jews
are down from 1.8 to 1.2%.
Meanwhile, the number of atheists, while still
small, has nearly doubled from 900,000 to 1.6
million. Kosmin says that people may feel
more comfortable admitting their lack of faith
at a time when atheist books, like Christopher
Hitchens’ “God Is Not Great: How Religion
Poisons Everything” and movies are getting a
lot of attention. Comedian Bill Maher took aim
at religion in his documentary film
“Religulous,” saying that he preaches “the
gospel of ‘I Don’t Know.’”
But researchers point out that just because
people are dropping out of organized religion,
that doesn’t mean they’re abandoning faith.
In an informal poll on Twitter today, we heard
similar sentiments.
“I no longer attend church, but still pray to
Jesus,” said Sean Whitney.
Worship
“I dropped out of the Catholic faith years ago.
However, it doesn’t mean I have stopped
believing in God,” said Carmen Rivera.
The study finds that more people are
exploring spiritual frontiers. Some 2.8 million
Americans now say they identify with new
religious movements like Wicca, paganism or
spiritualists. Catholic strongholds in New
England and the Midwest have faded as
people have moved toward the Sunbelt.
“We are becoming a nation of spiritually
anchored people who are not traditionally
religious,” said Serene Jones, president of the
Union Theological Seminary in the City of New
York.
While Americans may be leaving established
denominations, the one major growth area in
American Christianity is among evangelicals.
Megachurches are booming, rising from 5 to
11.8% of the population.
And with the economy in free fall, many
megachurches say they’re seeing increased
attendance. They’re praying that perhaps
hard times will draw Americans back to their
faith.
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