A USA Today story highlights the results from the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS). The study details the enormous shifts in religious practice in America over the last 18 years. The bottom line: all religious groups are sufffering from a growing rejection of organized religion.

So many Americans claim no religion at all (15%, up from 8% in 1990), that this category now outranks every other major U.S. religious group except Catholics and Baptists. In a nation that has long been mostly Christian, "the challenge to Christianity … does not come from other religions but from a rejection of all forms of organized religion," the report concludes.

The study also points to massive shifts in how people are approaching faith:

The percentage. of people who call themselves in some way Christian has dropped more than 11% in a generation. The faithful have scattered out of their traditional bases: The Bible Belt is less Baptist. The Rust Belt is less Catholic. And everywhere, more people are exploring spiritual frontiers — or falling off the faith map completely.

Be sure to visit the article and check out interactive charts. These allow you to view the findings by religious type, by state, and other criteria.

How do you interpret this report?

Photo Credit

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Name

Email

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment