June 3, 2002
'Unchurched believers' on the rise
___BERKELEY, Calif. (RNS)--The proportion of Americans who say they have no religious preference doubled in the 1990s, but most of them maintained their belief in God while avoiding organized religion, two sociologists have found.
___The percentage of adults who preferred no religion in 1991 was 7 percent, and that figure doubled to 14 percent in 1998, said Michael Hout and Claude Fischer, professors of sociology at the University of California at Berkeley in an article published in the April 2002 edition of the American Sociological Review.
___"The key fact ... about people who express no religious preference is that most are believers of some sort, and many are quite conventional," the authors wrote. "Relatively few are secular, agnostic or atheist; most actually pray. Their most distinguishing feature is their avoidance of churches."
___These "unchurched believers" often described themselves as spiritual rather than religious.
___"Their quarrel was not with God but with people running organized religion," the authors said. "They expressed little or no confidence in religious leaders and churches, and many saw them as the source of conflict and intolerance."
___The scholars interpret data on religious preference as showing that the emergence of the Religious Right prompted some religious people to become less apathetic about politics but also caused some Americans who were moderate and liberal politically to move away from religion.
___The continuation of these trends in religious preference is open to question, the authors said.
___"Historical events, such as the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and new cultural movements may reverse these trends. On the other hand, if the identification of religious affiliation with political conservatism strengthens, then liberals' alienation from organized religion may become, as it has in many other nations, fully institutionalized."
___The research, which interprets data principally from the General Social Survey, is part of the "USA: A Century of Difference" project funded by the Russell Sage Foundation.
Get printer-friendly version of this story
Send this story to a friend
News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!/ Signup for FirstLook