Comment: Is US religious fervor cooling?

From Religious Intelligence:

Friday, 29th May 2009. 5:02pm

By: Paul Richardson.

Just as a new book with title God Is Back is published signs are appearing that religious fervor is beginning to cool in, of all places, the US. Bad luck for the authors, two journalists on The Economist.

Comment: Is US religious fervor cooling?

At Easter Newsweek carried an article by editor, Jon Meacham, proclaiming the decline of Christian America. According to Meacham the number of self-identified Christians has fallen by 10 points in the past decade, from 86 to 76 per cent while the number saying they are affiliated to no faith stands at 12 per cent.

Meacham cautioned that rumours of the death of Christian America are much exaggerated, Pentecostalism continues to grown and Hispanic immigration is boosting the Catholic Church. America, he claimed, “remains vibrantly religious – far more so, for instance, than Europe.”

Other commentators have been quick to point out that the American Catholic Church is in less good health than overall membership figures suggest. If it were not for immigration Catholics would be facing a problem of significant decline. Currently the number of people leaving the church is exceeding those joining by almost four to one. About half those leaving join a Protestant denomination, the rest are unaffiliated to any faith group.

Robert Putnam, author of the famous study Bowling Alone, argues that it is the politicisation of religion by the Religious Right that has caused many young people to turn against religion itself, taking the approach ‘If this is religion, I’m not interested’. American evangelicals are now paying a price for identifying their cause too closely with George Bush and the Republican Party. They are losing the battle over gay rights as more states legislate for same-sex marriage and turning off the younger generation in the process. Between 30 to 35 per cent of Americans in their 20s now say they have no religious affiliation.

What seems to be happening is that the extremes are getting noisier and those in the middle are opting out of religious practice altogether. Evangelical activism is matched by a growth in atheist organisations, strengthened by an influx of people who blame the Religious Right for the election of George W Bush.

In the Catholic Church there is increasing anger among moderates at the hard line on abortion taken by many bishops and the church is badly divided between those who think those Catholic politicians who do not toe the line should be refused communion and those who think it is wrong the make this one issue the litmus test of orthodoxy. President Obama’s invitation to Notre Dame unleashed a civil war in the American Catholic Church.

But the situation is not quite as straightforward as it seems. Although support for gay rights is growing, attitudes to abortion are more complicated. The number telling pollsters they take a liberal line on abortion has gone down from 52 per cent four years ago to 47 per cent today. Support from stem cell research has fallen to less than 50 per cent for the first time since 2004. Obama is trying to take a moderate line on both issues, saying that he is ‘pro-choices’ , not merely ‘pro-choice’, and setting up a task group to look at ways of reducing abortion.

As far as religious belief in concerned, the indications are that many of those who are not affiliated to churches are not so much atheists as members of a group sometimes dubbed ‘golden rule Christians’. They believe in God in a rather vague way and support the Christian ethic of ‘love your neighbour’. Sociologist Christian Smith talks about ‘Moralist Therapeutic Deism’. This is a creed that teaches God wants people to be nice to each other and to be happy but that he does not really need to be involved in our lives unless we have a problem. When we die we go to heaven.

Many people in Britain share this position. They call themselves Christians and appear ready to turn out to church in increasing numbers at Christmas and Easter (when attendance figures are rising) but show no inclination to get involved in church life at other times of year. In Britain this pattern is due not so much to dislike of church involvement in politics as to apathy, the presence of such rival attractions as sport and entertainment, and a general drift away from voluntary organisations.

It is not easy to see how mainstream churches can best respond to this situation. Somehow we have to make a case for commitment without tarring ourselves with the extremist brush. In a pluralist society, people are looking for ways to gain a sense of identity so they will be attracted by churches that have a clear brand. At the same time they are wary of anything that smacks of bigotry and intolerance.

What churches should not assume is that we can continue with a situation where people believe without belonging. Without members who belong to them, churches will die. Without the support of a fellowship of believers, individuals will find that their faith first becomes nebulous and then dies completely. America has some way to go before it reaches our situation, but in Britain the churches cannot afford to be complacent.