What the 'nones' tell us about religion

This week, I talked with John Stonestreet of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview about a recent study that tracked the rise of the so-called “nones”—Americans who identify with no religion. Their number has risen 40 percent, overtaking Catholics from the time the Pew Research Center conducted its last survey of religion.

The number of evangelical Protestants declined a little more than 3 percent. Mainline Protestants continued their plunge with a nearly 20 percent decline. But Stonestreet said the numbers don’t necessarily mean a mass exodus from those groups. Instead, people are being more honest about what they believe.

“What’s happening is that the secularism that has invaded the American conscience for quite some time is now showing up in the polls,” Stonestreet said, adding, “What we’ve conflated as Christianity for a long time is being clarified.”

Stonestreet attributed the change in the numbers to both the secularization of America and the way some churches have made accommodations for cultural beliefs.

“If your religion doesn’t teach you to do anything different than the culture, then there’s no reason to go to church on Sunday morning,” Stonestreet said. “Why believe the same thing, not be challenged to believe anything different, and still have to sit through a boring sermon once a week?”

The church must better engage and educate young believers to remain a part of their lives in an increasingly secular society.

“If the next generation is not directly confronted with understanding the different worldviews that are out there and really grounding their beliefs … they’re not going to be able to make it out of this culture with their faith,” Stonestreet said.

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