Religious “nones”—those who answer “none of the above” on religious identification surveys—are the fastest-growing cohort of young adults in the United States, Western Europe and parts of Latin America. They are also among the most stigmatized groups in religiously conservative parts of the developing world. Yet many of them are deeply committed to values like tolerance, service and economic justice that are vital to healthy, stable societies.
Their sheer numbers in the West have already begun to reshape conversations about ethics and belief. And the deep penetration of social media in the global South, particularly among Millennials, will likely mean that individualism—the touchstone of both globalization and religious disaffiliation—will shape religious culture even in parts of the world where affiliation trends remains high.
Photo Credit: Sarah Gould
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- CRCC in the NewsDeseret News: Flory on Declining Church AttendanceToday, nearly 1/4 of Americans do not affiliate with a faith group, and church leaders across the country are growing concerned on how to combat declining church attendance rates. Deseret News interviewed CRCC’s Senior Director …Topics: Christians and Christianity, Religious "Nones", Religious Affiliation
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- CommentaryLA-Times Op-Ed: The Leaner, and Arguably Meaner, Evangelical ChurchThis Op-Ed originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times on May 31, 2018. Franklin Graham, the evangelical preacher and son of Billy Graham, is in the midst of a 10-city tour of …Topics: Christians and Christianity, Evangelicals and Evangelicalism, Government and Religion, Political Attitudes and Values, Religious "Nones"
- VideoReimagining Religion Conference: The Future of Religion in Los Angeles
- ArticleAyahuasca-naut: A Zen Student’s Experiment with Shamanic MedicineThis piece originally appeared in Boom California. A hallucinogenic brew called ayahuasca is having a heyday in the United States. Rolling Stone, Fusion, VICE and other trend-spotting news outlets have posted stories about spiritual adventurers tripping …Topics: Creativity and Innovation, Place and Religion, Religious "Nones", Religious Affiliation, Southern California
- VideoSunday Assembly: Atheists Find Community at Godless Church
- CRCC in the NewsBYU Radio: Richard Flory on Religious “Nones”An increasing number of Americans do not affiliate with any particular religion. BYU Radio’s Matt Townsend Show recently interviewed CRCC senior director of research and evaluation Richard Flory, about the increase of religious “nones” in …Topics: Creativity and Innovation, Political Attitudes and Values, Population Trends, Religious "Nones", Religious Affiliation
- VideoSpiritual Healing Networks in Long Beach
- CommentaryThe Changing Nature of America’s Irreligious ExplainedThis article was originally published on The Conversation. A recent survey of the religious profile of the 115th Congress revealed that despite the increase in the number of Americans who claim no …Topics: Creativity and Innovation, Millennials, Political Attitudes and Values, Religious "Nones", Religious Affiliation, Social Services, Voting and Elections
- CommentaryFive Trends to Watch in Religion in 2017: Culture Wars, Compounds & the Next Reformation2016 was a year that no one could predict. Last year, we laid out several religion trends worth noting. To see how our forecasts matched with reality, give them a review. The unpredictable nature …Topics: Christians and Christianity, Creativity and Innovation, Evangelicals and Evangelicalism, Gender and Sexuality, Government and Religion, Political Attitudes and Values, Religious "Nones"
- CommentaryA New Post-Election Religious AlignmentThis post originally appeared at On Faith. After a long election season in which it seemed that religion, for once, wasn’t the big story, we found out that eight out of 10 …Topics: Creativity and Innovation, Interfaith/Multifaith Movements, Political Attitudes and Values, Religious "Nones", Social Services, Voting and Elections
“While spirituality without religion appears to be a new phenomenon today, the historical emergence of contemporary Eastern spirituality movements like Vipassana in the 1970s suggests that the groundwork for this type of spirituality was laid by counter-culture segments of earlier generations.”
—Nalika Gajaweera
“A Meditation on the Nones”
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