Ashleigh Britt | Vanderbilt University (original) (raw)

Papers by Ashleigh Britt

Tracking trends in religion is done most easily and objectively by census and survey research tha... more Tracking trends in religion is done most easily and objectively by census and survey research that yields quantitative data. The most pronounced current trend in North America is the rise of the "nones," which includes both those who adamantly reject religion and those who are only indifferent to religion, claiming no religious preference, affiliation, or identity. In the US, the nones rose from 16% of the population in 2007 to 23% in 2015, and are now more numerous than Catholics and mainline Protestants, second only to evangelicals (Pew). In Canada, the nones rose from 4% in 1971 to 26% in 2015 (Angus Reid). Beyond people simply self-identifying as religious or not lie questions about their strength of identity and commitment. Among the faithful, strength of commitment is commonly measured behaviorally (versus valuatively) by frequency of attendance at services, though "religious decline" is evident even in the measurement itself-"regular attendance" has traditionally been defined as weekly, but is increasingly defined as monthly. The gap between the larger percent who identify as Christian and the smaller percent who also maintain practices of church attendance and membership has long been explained by labels such as "private theists" or "cultural Christians," with the assumption that religion is less important to them in their everyday lives. For example, Smith and Denton's term of "moralistic therapeutic deism" described a theologically vacuous and self-serving faith that hardly fits conventional concepts of religiosity. However, those in the gap between the churched and the unchurched deserve more nuanced qualitative scrutiny free from the implicitly negative characterization typically rendered by the churched. Not all outside the Christian church and other world religions are without strong religious faith, nor are they necessarily among the 37% of US adults whom the Barna group says currently qualify as "post-Christian." Some, say Packard and Hope, are persons of deep Christian faith who have reluctantly despaired of the church and become dechurched. They are not religious "nones;" they are religious "dones," those simply done with church, but not their faith. Packard and Hope coin the term "church refugees" to describe those "who've been forced from their homes-where they'd prefer to stay-for fear of persecution…. (who) tell stories of frustration, humiliation, judgment, embarrassment, and fear that caused them to leave…. (who) worked diligently for reform within the church but felt the church was exclusively focused on its own survival and resistant to change…. They're people who've made Church Refugees | 43

Tracking trends in religion is done most easily and objectively by census and survey research tha... more Tracking trends in religion is done most easily and objectively by census and survey research that yields quantitative data. The most pronounced current trend in North America is the rise of the "nones," which includes both those who adamantly reject religion and those who are only indifferent to religion, claiming no religious preference, affiliation, or identity. In the US, the nones rose from 16% of the population in 2007 to 23% in 2015, and are now more numerous than Catholics and mainline Protestants, second only to evangelicals (Pew). In Canada, the nones rose from 4% in 1971 to 26% in 2015 (Angus Reid). Beyond people simply self-identifying as religious or not lie questions about their strength of identity and commitment. Among the faithful, strength of commitment is commonly measured behaviorally (versus valuatively) by frequency of attendance at services, though "religious decline" is evident even in the measurement itself-"regular attendance" has traditionally been defined as weekly, but is increasingly defined as monthly. The gap between the larger percent who identify as Christian and the smaller percent who also maintain practices of church attendance and membership has long been explained by labels such as "private theists" or "cultural Christians," with the assumption that religion is less important to them in their everyday lives. For example, Smith and Denton's term of "moralistic therapeutic deism" described a theologically vacuous and self-serving faith that hardly fits conventional concepts of religiosity. However, those in the gap between the churched and the unchurched deserve more nuanced qualitative scrutiny free from the implicitly negative characterization typically rendered by the churched. Not all outside the Christian church and other world religions are without strong religious faith, nor are they necessarily among the 37% of US adults whom the Barna group says currently qualify as "post-Christian." Some, say Packard and Hope, are persons of deep Christian faith who have reluctantly despaired of the church and become dechurched. They are not religious "nones;" they are religious "dones," those simply done with church, but not their faith. Packard and Hope coin the term "church refugees" to describe those "who've been forced from their homes-where they'd prefer to stay-for fear of persecution…. (who) tell stories of frustration, humiliation, judgment, embarrassment, and fear that caused them to leave…. (who) worked diligently for reform within the church but felt the church was exclusively focused on its own survival and resistant to change…. They're people who've made Church Refugees | 43