Rise of the Nones
Nones- American’s who profess no religious affiliation- now make up 15 percent of the population. Given their rapid growth, their numbers might soon surpass the nation’s largest denominations. but get this: Twenty-four percent [of Nones] say they believe in ‘a higher power but no personal God,’ the belief that used to be called Deism. they don’t believe in Scripture, or cotton to organized religion. But in the privacy of their home, they think that the distant, aloof God occasionally checks in to listen to their prayers. – Beliefnet founder Steve Waldman, quoted in the Wall Street Journal
This is… shocking. According to USA today, the Nones now take up more of the population than Catholics and Baptists. ‘Baptist’ is very broad, however, and encompasses several different denominations.
It seems the people of the United States have decided to join the movements against Christianity. Why would they choose to believe in an impersonal, uncaring god, when they have the choice of a loving God, who cares for them and wants the best for them? It doesn’t seem to me to be too large of a step from ‘a higher power’ to God. The good news is that people who do believe in a ‘higher power’ will (most likely) more easily turned to Christ than one who does not believe in any sort of God. But the main point seems to me to be this blurb near the bottom of the USA Today piece.
The percentage of those who choose a generic label, calling themselves simply Christian, Protestant, non-denominational, evangelical or “born again,” was 14.2%, about the same as in 1990.
This is very interesting to me- not the content, but it’s placement. It takes digging to find this. In addition, the title of the articles is “Nones now 15% of population.” Simply reading that, along with the opening paints a very different picture of the religious affiliations of our country today. When you read into it though, you see a new portrait- one of a constant group of faithful Christians who call themselves just that, while the different denominations have slowly decreased. I find it interesting that this facet was placed farther down the page- almost as if showing the steady faithfulness of the church would somehow discredit the rest of the article or it’s message. Of course, I could be mistaken. Maybe it was placed their purely arbitrarily. Who knows.
Tags: Decline, News, Society, Subliminal design
Thursday, October 8th, 2009 at 3:06 pm • Uncategorized • RSS 2.0 feed • leave a response or trackback