Secular but Spiritual: Understanding Religious Nones

1
Secular but Spiritual Understanding Religious
Nones

• Patricia OConnell Killen
• Department of Religion
• Pacific Lutheran University
• Mark A. Shibley
• Department of Sociology and Anthropology
• Southern Oregon University

2
We will explore four themes

• Nationwide, the proportion of Americans who
  identify with a religious tradition is
  declining.
  
• There are regional differences in religious
  identity, particularly the proportion of Nones.
  
• Most Americans who dont identify religiously
  nonetheless cultivate spiritual lives.
  
• This secular spirituality is consequential for
  public life, sometimes in surprising ways.

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Theme 1 -- National Picture A Sharp Increase in
Religious Nones

• The proportion of Americans who reported no
  religious preference doubled from 7 to 14 percent
  in the 1990s.
  
• Both the General Social Survey (GSS) and the
  American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS)
  find this pattern.
  
• (Key reference Michael Hout and Claude S.
  Fischer. 2002. Why More Americans Have No
  Religious Preference Politics and Generations.
  American Sociological Review 67165-90.)

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Trend DataGeneral Social Survey, 1973-2000
(Hout and Fischer, 2002)
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Why are Nones increasing?

• Hout and Fischer test three hypotheses
• Secularization (progressive loss of belief)
• Demographic (generational shift away from
  religious tradition)
  
• Political (liberals are leaving church in
  reaction to Christian Right ascendance)

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A Fourth Hypothesis Traditional religious
institutions increasingly fail to help
individuals encounter the sacred and construct
meaningful lives.

• Hout and Fischer assume that political sentiment
  precedes religious conviction.
  
• This causal assumption led many scholars and
  journalists to view the growing popularity of
  evangelical Protestantism over the last quarter
  century as fueled by the cultural politics the
  Christian Right. In fact, evangelical
  Protestantism grew because evangelical
  congregations more effectively than other
  institutions met the social, psychological and
  spiritual needs of individuals, not because it
  was politically conservative.
• (Mark A. Shibley. 1996. Resurgent Evangelicalism
  in the U.S. Mapping Cultural Change Since 1970.
  Columbia, SC University of South Carolina
  Press.)
• People join religious communities for
  fundamentally religious reasons (i.e.,
  transcendence, meaning and belonging), and it
  follows that they do not join, or they leave,
  when those institutions are religiously
  ineffective.

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Theme 2Regional Variation Fewer people in the
West identify or belong

• IdentityNorthwesterners are twice as likely as
  people living in the Bible Belt to claim no
  religious preference. (ARIS)
  
• BelongingThe Pacific Northwest is the only
  region of the country where a majority of the
  population does not affiliate with a religious
  congregation. (NARA)
• About one-quarter of all Americans identify but
  do not affiliate with a religious tradition.
  More than one-third of all Northwesterners are in
  this gap group.
• Patricia OConnell Killen and Mark Silk. 2004.
  Religion and Public Life in the Pacific
  Northwest The None Zone. Walnut Creek, CA
  AltaMira Press.

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Regional Variation in Religious Identification

• Table 1 Percentage of the Population Claiming No
  Religious Preference
  
• in 2001, Rank Ordered by Region
• __________________________________________________
  _______________
  
• Rank Region of Population
• __________________________________________________
  ___________________
  
• 1 Pacific Northwest 25
• 2 Pacific Southwest 19
• 3 Rocky Mountain West 18
• 4 New England 15
• 5 Midwest 14
• 6 Mid-Atlantic 13
• 7 Southern Crossroads 12
• 8 South 11
• Nationwide 14
• __________________________________________________
  _______________
  
• Source Barry A. Kosmin, Egon Mayer and Ariela
  Keysar, American Religious Identification Survey
  (New York The Graduate Center of the City
  University of New York, 2001).

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Regional Variation in Religious Affiliation

• Table 2 Religiously Unaffiliated as a Percentage
  of the Total Population in 2000, Rank-ordered by
  Region
  
• __________________________________________________
  __________________
  
• Rank Region Unaffiliated as of Population
• _________________________________________________
  ________________
  
• 1 Pacific Northwest 63
• 2 Rocky Mountain West 48
• 3 Pacific Southwest 47
• 4 Midwest 41
• 5 South 41
• 6 New England 39
• 7 Mid-Atlantic 34
• 8 Southern Crossroads 33
• Nationwide 41
• __________________________________________________
  __________________
  
• Source Dale E. Jones et al., Religious
  Congregations and Membership in the United States
  2000 An Enumeration by Region, State and County
  Based on Data Reported by 149 Religious Bodies
  (Nashville, TN Glenmary Research Center, 2002).
  North American Religion Atlas, The Polis Center,
  (August 19, 2003).

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Why are there more Nones in the West than in
other regions?

• Most people do not participate in religious
  institutions and never have.
  
• Successive waves of immigrants and economic
  fortunes shape the religious story.
  
• There is no dominant religious reference group as
  conventionally understood.
  
• Idiosyncratic backwater or bellwether region?

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Theme 3Secular but SpiritualMany Nones
Cultivate Spiritual Lives

• While Nones are on the rise, there is no
  corresponding drop in the percent of the
  population believing in God or afterlife.
  
• (Hout and Fischer 2002)
• According to ARIS data, Nones are spiritually
  open even if they dont identify with a religious
  tradition.
  
• We identified three specific clusters of secular
  spirituality in the Pacific Northwest.

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Nones are Spiritually Open

• Table 3 Percentage of Nones Nationwide with
  Spiritual Inclinations
  
• Secularism Item Percent
• __________________________________________________
  __________________________
  
• Do you agree or disagree that God exists?
• Percent answering agree somewhat or agree
  strongly 66
  
• Do you agree or disagree that God helps me?
• Percent answering agree somewhat or agree
  strongly 53
  
• When it comes to your outlook, do you regard
  yourself as.?
  
• Percent answering somewhat religious or
  religious 36
  
• __________________________________________________
  _______________
  
• Source Barry A. Kosmin, Egon Mayer and Ariela
  Keysar, American Religious Identification Survey
  (New York The Graduate Center of the City
  University of New York, 2001). Produced for the
  Religion by Region Project.

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Clusters of Secular Spirituality in the
Pacific Northwest

• In the None Zone, many people cultivate
  spiritual lives outside official religious
  institutions.
  
• - New spirituality
• - Apocalyptic, anti-government millennialism
• - Nature religion
• Over time, this unconventional spiritual
  activity takes on institutional form it is far
  more than the private explorations of individual
  seekers.

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A side note What do we mean by the terms
religion and spirituality?

• Religion is a cultural system (shared beliefs and
  practices) that makes human life meaningful by
  facilitating transcendent experience (encounters
  with the sacred) and binding individuals to one
  another.
• Popular distinction between religion and
  spirituality is problematic.
  
• Official vs. non-official religion. The degree
  to which religious beliefs and practices are
  institutionalized and regulated by dominant
  groups.
• This look at secular spirituality is really an
  exploration of non-official (folk) religion.
  

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New Spirituality(Metaphysics, Paganism,
Channeling, Spirituality literature)

• Exemplary groups, events and leaders
• Eckhart Toll, The Power of Now A Guide to
  Spiritual Enlightenment, Vancouver, B.C.
  
• Aquarian Tabernacle Church in Everett, WA
• J.Z. Knight channels the 35,000 year old spirit
  warrior Ramtha, Yelm, WA
  
• Annual Northwest Fall Equinox Festival in the
  woods outside Portland, OR
  
• Living Enrichment Center, Wilsonville, OR
• Women in Conscious Creative Action (WICCA) in
  Eugene, OR
  
• Neale Donald Walcsh, Conversations with God,
  Ashland, OR
  
• The Harmonic Convergence, Mt. Shasta, CA

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New Spirituality, cont.(Metaphysics, Paganism,
Channeling, Spirituality literature)

• Beliefs and practices regarding the sacred
• To nurture religious experience, practice is
  valued over doctrine.
  
• Underlying the hodge-podge of spiritual practices
  is a coherent worldview the self is sacred,
  Everyone is God. Everyone.
  
• Read from Heelas (1996) and Walsch on New Age and
  New Spirituality
  
• This worldview is dualistic and millennial, as
  are the views of many religious movement in times
  of rapid social change.
  
• Questions To what extent is New Spirituality
  becoming more than an individual quest for
  self-authentication? As this form of
  non-official religion becomes more communal, more
  church-like, what will be the consequence for
  public life?

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Nature Religion(Secular Environmental Movement,
Regional Literature, Native American Traditions,
neo-Paganism)

• Exemplary groups, movements, events and leaders
• Artic National Wildlife Refuge, Oil Field or
  Sanctuary?
  
• Simple Living The Newsletter of Voluntary
  Simplicity, Seattle, WA
  
• Catholic Bishops pastoral letter on the Columbia
  River
  
• Ted Strong, Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish
  Commission
  
• Peter Illyn, Green Cross (born-again
  tree-hugger)
  
• Native Forest Council, Eugene, OR (secular but
  spiritual)
  
• Regional writers W.Stafford B.Lopez G.Snyder
  T.Tempest Williams U.LeGuin S.Tisdale
  
• David James Duncan (quintessential Northwest
  nature writer prophet)
  
• Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument

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Nature Religion, Cont.(Secular Environmental
Movement, Regional Literature, Native American
Traditions, neo-Paganism)

• Beliefs and practices regarding the sacred
• In the secular environmental movement, nature is
  sacred. Read Stop the Chainsaw Massacre, NFC
  
• Simple Living movement is the ritualization of
  daily life.
  
• Underlying worldview tends toward dualism and
  millennialism and is reflected (and created) in
  regional literature. Read Duncan.
  
• Questions To what extent is nature religion
  becoming institutionalized (official as well as
  non-official religion)? How does this folk
  religion shape public debate over natural
  resource management?

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Theme 4--Spiritual Politics How secular
spirituality matters in public life

• Nones are less likely than PCJ to vote, but if
  they vote, they are more likely to be liberal.
  
• Two examples of secular spirituality in politics
  and public life
  
• New spirituality and progressive politics
• Nature religion and conflict over natural
  resource management

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Nones for Nader Religion in the 2000
Presidential Election

• Table 4 Voting Behavior in the 2000 Presidential
  Election, by Religious Group
  
• __________________________________________________
  _________________
  
• Protestant Catholic Jewish None
• ________________________________________________
  ____
  
• Voted 70 69 82 58
• Didnt Vote 25 27 5 38
• Ineligible 2 4 13 5
• Bush 57 54 22 30
• Gore 41 44 72 57
• Nader 1 1 6 12
• Other 1 1 0 2
• __________________________________________________
  _________________
  
• General Social Survey, 2002. National Opinion
  Research Center. University of Chicago.

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New Spirituality andProgressive National Politics

• Anti-establishment religion correlates positively
  with anti-establishment politics.
  
• The case of Neale Donald Walschturning personal
  transformation into political renewal.
  
• Re-igniting the Spirit of America Summit on
  Values, Spirituality and Politics (2000)
  
• The New Revelations (2002)
• Humanitys Team (2003)
• Tomorrows God (2004)
• Secular Left is much smaller and less well
  organized than the Christian Right.
  

22
Nature religion and Environmental Politics in
Gods Country

• Conflict over how to manage the natural
  environment is a struggle over core values and
  what is sacred to people in the region.
  
• The prophetic voice (Duncan)
• The sacred in the secular (NFC)
• No Compromise in Defense of Mother Earth
• The Sacred Tree (Chant Thomas)
• Nature religion as civil religion in the State of
  Jefferson
  
• Nature religion plays a role in legislative
  politics and, through the courts, government
  administration of natural resources.
  

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Concluding thoughts on religious Nones and
public life

• Broadening the focus
• Extravasation of the sacred.
• What is sacred in the lives of ordinary people?
  
  
• The secular but spiritual
• tends toward a dualistic and millennial
  worldview.
  
• has organizational structures that are flat,
  networked, and more provisional.
  
• Why it matters
• The moral and spiritual convictions of Nones
  are expressed in public life, and they help shape
  policy.