Secular and Liminal: Discovering Heterogeneity Among Religious Nones

Chaeyoon Lim,Robert D Putnam,Carol Ann Macgregor

doi:10.1111/j.1468-5906.2010.01533.x

Abstract

This study examines the stability of religious preference among people who claim no religious preference in national surveys (i.e., religious nones). Using data from the Faith Matters Study, General Social Survey, and American National Election Study, we show that about 30 percent of religious nones in the first wave of the survey claim an affiliation with a religious group a year later. The percentage of religious nones remained stable in the two waves because a similar number of respondents moved in the opposite direction. Using various measures of religiosity, we show that most of these unstable nones report no significant change in religious belief or practice. We call them liminal nones as they stand halfway in and halfway out of a religious identity. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings on the controversies surrounding the rise of religious nones in recent years.

Highlights

A long line of studies on religious switching and apostasy have shown that religious identity, for many people, is not a stable ascriptive characteristic
In this study, we have tried to advance our understanding of religious nones, the fastest growing religious category in America, by examining the stability of their religious identity with new panel data
Many studies have observed that the number of nones in national surveys has increased rapidly, but disagreed on why they claim the ‘no religion’ preference and what their increasing number means for religion in America

Summary

Introduction

A long line of studies on religious switching and apostasy have shown that religious identity, for many people, is not a stable ascriptive characteristic. The Gallup indicates that the percentage of nones grew in 1970s and 1980s, but remained relatively flat in 1990s, whereas the GSS shows little change until the rapid rise in 1990s These discrepancies between the surveys imply that for many respondents, the choice between ‘no religion’ and conventional religious groups may not be clear-cut, and they may have some sense of attachment to a religious tradition. The 2007 survey directly asked respondents whether they experienced any change in religious belief or behavior in the past year and in the past five years We use these questions along with other measures of religiosity to examine whether inconsistent reports of preference reflect actual changes in religious preferences. If we can replicate the key findings with the ANES data, it would indicate that the findings on the stability of religious preference are robust to a specific procedure to measure religious affiliation

Results

Discussion

Findings

32 Figure 1 Percentage of religious nones in four national surveys