Americans everywhere are giving up on their faith. At least in the religious aspect. Now that is not to say they are giving up “faith” itself, just their affiliation with a particular faith, it seems. A new study released by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life conducted interviews with over 35,000 people, and indicates that more than one-quarter of American adults have left the faith of their childhood for another religion or no religion at all. If you factor in moves from one denomination of Protestantism to another, the number rises to 44%. One in four adults admits to not being affiliated with any religious institution at all. That’s 25% of young Americans who claim no religious persuasion whatsoever!
Much of the study confirms earlier findings — mainline Protestant churches are in decline, non-denominational churches are gaining, and the ranks of the unaffiliated are growing. ”In the past, certain religions had a real holding power, where people from one generation to the next would stay,” said Penn State University sociologist Roger Finke, who consulted in the survey planning. “Right now, there is a dropping confidence in organized religion, especially in the traditional religious forms.” The Gorilla sat down to think about this one for a while and then decided to conduct his own mini-interviews to find out why people are leaving organized religious affiliations or switching faiths altogether. Here’s what he found; one person interviewed said that her parents were simply too religious and didn’t give her a choice of what to believe so she became sort of “anti-religion.” Another person had the exact same response, stressing the point that the “overly religious” attitudes and values of their parents pushed them too far the other way, causing them to not want to affiliate with any religions. A third person the Gorilla spoke with said that he just simply lost his faith (no pun intended) in the Catholic Church because of all of the misconduct among many priests in the church-including his own. There were various other factors which contributed to these peoples’ lack of religious affiliation, but these were among some of the main contributors.
So does this mean that Americans have in essence given up on God? The answer is a very definite “no” from all of the people the Gorilla interviewed. In fact all of those people adamantly stressed that they had very strong faith in God. It was nothing personal against God per se, their “beef” or dissatisfaction was just with organized religion- not God. They just weren’t getting what they needed from a church or synagogue. The Gorilla personally knows several individuals of the Jewish faith, who say that they “don’t practice” actively because they derive little or no “spirituality” from the faith. (The Gorilla found that many Jews study the Kabala or Buddhism for more spirituality aspect.) So whatever the reason people aren’t staying with a particular religion, the fact is, they just aren’t! Here’s some interesting facts; Hindus claimed the highest retention of childhood members, at 84%! The group with the worst retention is one of the fastest growing — Jehovah’s Witnesses. Only 37% of those raised in the sect known for door-to-door proselytizing said they remain members.