Church-Shopping: Why Do Americans Change Faiths?

Ek lees onlangs ‘n baie interessante atrikel van Amy Sullivan in Time Magazine.(Lees by  http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1894361,00.html (28 April 2009). Die artikel se titel is

Church-Shopping: Why Do Americans Change Faiths?

Amy Sullivan gaan haal die storie by ‘n Time uitgawe 43 jaar gelede wat oor die tema: Is God Dead? geskryf het. Anders as die voorspellings van daardie tyd dat godsdiens sou uitsterf, blyk die teendeel die geval te wees.  Gebaseer op navorsing van The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (lees die volledige verslag by http://pewresearch.org/pubs/743/united-states-religion) blyk dit dat mense wel van kerk verander, soms die kerk heeltemal verlaat, maar nie ophou glo nie.

Sy grond haar atrikel op ‘n omvangryke ondersoek, die sg  Landscape Survey, wat The Pew Forum in 2008 bekend gemaak het tov godsdienstige affiliasie in die samelewing in die VSA.  Die Pew Forum het ondersoek gedoen onder 35 000 Amerikaners 18 jaar en ouer. Lees die volledige verslag by

Die belangrikste gevolgtrekkings van die “Landscape Survey” is oa:

1. More than one-quarter of American adults (28%) have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion — or no religion at all. If change in affiliation from one type of Protestantism to another is included, roughly 44% of adults have either switched religious affiliation, moved from being unaffiliated with any religion to being affiliated with a particular faith, or dropped any connection to a specific religious tradition altogether.
2. The survey finds that the number of people who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith today (16.1%) is more than double the number who say they were not affiliated with any particular religion as children. Among Americans ages 18-29, one-in-four say they are not currently affiliated with any particular religion.
3. The Landscape Survey confirms that the United States is on the verge of becoming a minority Protestant country; the number of Americans who report that they are members of Protestant denominations now stands at barely 51%. Moreover, the Protestant population is characterized by significant internal diversity and fragmentation, encompassing hundreds of different denominations loosely grouped around three fairly distinct religious traditions — evangelical Protestant churches (26.3% of the overall adult population), mainline Protestant churches (18.1%) and historically black Protestant churches (6.9%).
4. Like the other major groups, people who are unaffiliated with any particular religion (16.1%) also exhibit remarkable internal diversity. Although one-quarter of this group consists of those who describe themselves as either atheist or agnostic (1.6% and 2.4% of the adult population overall, respectively), the majority of the unaffiliated population (12.1% of the adult population overall) is made up of people who simply describe their religion as “nothing in particular.” This group, in turn, is fairly evenly divided between the “secular unaffiliated,” that is, those who say that religion is not important in their lives (6.3% of the adult population), and the “religious unaffiliated,” that is, those who say that religion is either somewhat important or very important in their lives (5.8% of the overall adult population).
5. In addition to detailing the current religious makeup of the U.S. and describing the dynamic changes in religious affiliation, the findings from the Landscape Survey also provide important clues about the future direction of religious affiliation in the U.S. By detailing the age distribution of different religious groups, for instance, the survey findings show that more than six-in-ten Americans age 70 and older (62%) are Protestant but that this number is only about four-in-ten (43%) among Americans ages 18-29. Conversely, young adults ages 18-29 are much more likely than those age 70 and older to say that they are not affiliated with any particular religion (25% vs. 8%). If these generational patterns persist, recent declines in the number of Protestants and growth in the size of the unaffiliated population may continue.
6. Finally, the Landscape Survey documents how immigration is adding even more diversity to the American religious quilt. For example, Muslims, roughly two-thirds of whom are immigrants, now account for roughly 0.6% of the U.S. adult population; and Hindus, more than eight-in-ten of whom are foreign born, now account for approximately 0.4% of the population.

Ander hoogtepunte van die Pew verslag is:

• Men are significantly more likely than women to claim no religious affiliation. Nearly one-in-five men say they have no formal religious affiliation, compared with roughly 13% of women.
• Among people who are married, nearly four-in-ten (37%) are married to a spouse with a different religious affiliation. (This figure includes Protestants who are married to another Protestant from a different denominational family, such as a Baptist who is married to a Methodist.) Hindus and Mormons are the most likely to be married (78% and 71%, respectively) and to be married to someone of the same religion (90% and 83%, respectively).
• Mormons and Muslims are the groups with the largest families; more than one-in-five Mormon adults and 15% of Muslim adults in the U.S. have three or more children living at home.
• The Midwest most closely resembles the religious makeup of the overall population. The South, by a wide margin, has the heaviest concentration of members of evangelical Protestant churches. The Northeast has the greatest concentration of Catholics, and the West has the largest proportion of unaffiliated people, including the largest proportion of atheists and agnostics.
• Of all the major racial and ethnic groups in the United States, black Americans are the most likely to report a formal religious affiliation. Even among those blacks who are unaffiliated, three-in-four belong to the “religious unaffiliated” category (that is, they say that religion is either somewhat or very important in their lives), compared with slightly more than one-third of the unaffiliated population overall.
• Nearly half of Hindus in the U.S., one-third of Jews and a quarter of Buddhists have obtained post-graduate education, compared with only about one-in-ten of the adult population overall. Hindus and Jews are also much more
  likely than other groups to report high income levels.
• People not affiliated with any particular religion stand out for their relative youth compared with other religious traditions. Among the unaffiliated, 31% are under age 30 and 71% are under age 50. Comparable numbers for the overall adult population are 20% and 59%, respectively.
• By contrast, members of mainline Protestant churches and Jews are older, on average, than members of other groups. Roughly half of Jews and members of mainline churches are age 50 and older, compared with approximately four-in-ten American adults overall.
• In sharp contrast to Islam and Hinduism, Buddhism in the U.S. is primarily made up of native-born adherents, whites and converts. Only one-in-three American Buddhists describe their race as Asian, while nearly three-in-four Buddhists say they are converts to Buddhism.
• Jehovah’s Witnesses have the lowest retention rate of any religious tradition. Only 37% of all those who say they were raised as Jehovah’s Witnesses still identify themselves as Jehovah’s Witnesses.
• Members of Baptist churches account for one-third of all Protestants and close to one-fifth of the total U.S. adult population. Baptists also account for nearly two-thirds of members of historically black Protestant churches.
  

Sullivan sluit haar artikel as volg af: “… a stubborn, insistent strain of religiosity continues to infuse Americans — even those who claim they’ve left organized religion behind.” 

Laat ‘n mens wonder wat die situasie in ons konteks is? My aanvoeling is dat daar ook by ons tekens is van “a stubborn…strain of religiosity” en dat gemeentes versigtig moet wees om sommermeer te praat van die “ongelowigheid” van mense as hulle nie inskakel by ons bedieninge nie. Dit is  hoog tyd dat ons soos die Time moet erken dat sekularisasie toe nie so ‘n inpak gemaak het as wat voorspel is nie.  Aan die ander kant help hierdie studie ons om bewus te word van die vloeibaarheid, diversiteit en kompleksiteit van die patrone van godsdienstige affiliasie.

Ons sal die taak moet opneem om data soos hierdie teologies te bespreek!