Protestants in the USA have ceased to be the majority
For the first time in US history, Protestants no longer make up a majority of the country’s population. These are the findings of a study conducted by the American sociological service The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, which focuses on issues of religion and public life and published its report last Tuesday, reports Associated Press. The percentage of US adults who identify as Protestant has now reached an all‑time low of 48% — meaning it has fallen below 50% for the first time.
This decline, researchers note, was long expected, but it has come precisely at a politically significant moment: there are no Protestants currently on the US Supreme Court, and the Republican presidential candidate is also not a Protestant. As is well known, Mitt Romney is a committed Mormon.
Experts see one reason for this change in the recent growth of Americans who do not declare any religious affiliation. The study shows that about 20% of Americans now say this. Five years ago the number was 15%.
Scholars have long debated which category to assign to people who say they no longer belong to any religious group. This group might be described as secular. Yet there is a category of atheist respondents who do not believe in God, as well as a small number who pray daily or consider themselves “spiritual” but do not call themselves “religious.” Nevertheless, Pew Forum researchers found a “delicate” solution, concluding that most respondents who decline to state a religious affiliation can be spoken of as people who are constantly breaking ties with organized religion.
The trend identified by the researchers in the US suggests that a country always regarded as very religious may be following the path of Western Europe, where church attendance has dropped sharply. That is why Pope Benedict XVI, who sees the fight against secularism in the West as one of the main tasks of his pontificate, is convening Catholic bishops from around the world in Rome this week to discuss how to bring back lapsed parishioners, notes Associated Press.
Meanwhile, the emerging trend in the US may have serious political consequences. American voters who say they profess no religion overwhelmingly vote for Democrats. Pew Forum researchers found, for instance, that the number of nonreligious Americans who support women’s right to abortion and same‑sex marriage is growing at a much faster pace than the overall US population. This group of Americans is expanding the segment of the Democratic electorate, or at least those who lean toward it. Over the past five years their share has grown from 17% to 24%. The influx of religiously unaffiliated voters is becoming as important a factor for Democrats as the preference that evangelical believers give to Republicans, Pew Forum sociologists stated.
As Associated Press notes, experts have been trying for decades to find the reason for the steady growth in the number of those who do not identify with religion. The spread of secularism in Western Europe is often seen as a byproduct of growing wealth. Yet among industrialized countries the United States stood out, despite rising wealth, for its deep religiosity.
Now, researchers believe, the decline in religiosity in the US may reflect changes noted in how Americans describe their religious lives. In 2007, 60% of respondents said they rarely or never attend religious services yet still consider themselves part of a particular religious tradition. By 2012 that number had fallen to 50%, the Pew report states.
The Pew Forum study also revealed the fact that those who count themselves among “unaffiliated” Americans come from a fairly wide spectrum of social groups. They include both men and women, college graduates without a bachelor’s degree, people whose annual income is less than $30,000, and also those who earn $75,000 or more a year. Nevertheless, ethnically the largest leap in the “unaffiliated” category was among the white population. A fifth of white Americans now regard themselves as part of the nonreligious population.
The analysis conducted by the researchers was based on the results of several studies, including a survey carried out from June 28 to July 9, 2012, among 3,000 adult respondents.
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