America Is Not as Religious as It Used to Be

For the first time in history Protestants are not a majority in the U.S.; one-third of young Americans do not identify themselves with any denomination.

The “indifferent” are the fastest growing religious group in America, reveals a survey published last week by the Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life.

Even five years ago Protestants constituted 15 percent of Americans; now they count for as much as 20 percent of the citizens. This group includes atheists and agnostics (meaning those who reject the possibility of proving or disproving the existence of God).

Over two-thirds of the “indifferent” generally believe in God and simultaneously do not identify with any particular religious group or Christian church. But as much as 88 percent of them do not seek to join a religious community at all. Most of the people claim that churches are too concentrated on mundane matters, like money or power.

The trend will hold since “nonbelievers” make up one-third of citizens below the age of 30. The process has had the greatest impact on Protestant churches, which were natural pillars of America in the past. Even 40 years ago, 62 percent of Americans were Protestants; now it is only 48 percent.

Unceasingly, Catholics constitute one-fourth of the population, which results from the wave of immigrants from the Catholic Latin America, including Mexico.

People do not hesitate to confess being a “nonbeliever.” It is not a stigma like it used to be in the past, according to John Green of the Pew Institute, who commented on the results.

Although the tolerance for them is growing, atheists would still have no chance at winning the presidential election. In a survey conducted by Gallup over the summer, 90 percent of the respondents stated that they would vote for a Jew, 80 percent for a Mormon (like the current Republican candidate, Mitt Romney), 68 percent for a gay or lesbian, 58 percent for a Muslim, and only 54 percent would choose an atheist.

America is still far from the secularization that occurred in Western Europe. Religion remains an important element of life in even its most subtle aspects. Only yesterday I proposed that I would give 25 cents to an African-American woman who was in front of me in a queue (in order to make it easy for her to get change). In an instant, I was surrounded by a crowd of her friends who assured me they were members of this-and-that church, which meets at this-and-that hours, and they invited me heartily.

It is hard to escape the impression that churches in America exceed their European counterparts in resembling true religious communities. The sermons delivered in the Catholic church on 15th Street in Washington, D.C. are at a remarkably high level, both in form and content. They are not doleful monologues, but a talk including the whole church.

The worshipers — predominantly black, as this ethnic group dominates the center of the American capital city — answer questions posed by the priest, clap their hands and laugh. The mass is accompanied by playing of a jazz pianist sitting near the pulpit. Almost everyone takes the Holy Communion.

It would be too early, then, to announce a downfall of religion in America, yet the recent survey is undoubtedly an alarm bell for the Republican Party. The “nonbelievers,” as well as Latinos, tend to vote for the Democrats. Some say that GOP will have to change its profile a little bit in order not to be marginalized in the next decade or two.