The Rise of the Unaffiliated<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Dallas Morning News Religion Blog\u2019s question of the week addresses the rise of \u201cnone of the aboves\u201d \u2013 people who are religious (or \u201cspiritual but not\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/10\/the-rise-of-the-unaffiliated.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Rise of the Unaffiliated\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Dallas Morning News Religion Blog\u2019s question of the week addresses the rise of \u201cnone of the aboves\u201d \u2013 people who are religious (or \u201cspiritual but not\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/10\/the-rise-of-the-unaffiliated.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-10-01T10:55:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/10\/the-rise-of-the-unaffiliated.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/10\/the-rise-of-the-unaffiliated.html\",\"name\":\"The Rise of the Unaffiliated\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-10-01T10:55:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-10-01T10:55:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\"},\"description\":\"The Dallas Morning News Religion Blog\u2019s question of the week addresses the rise of \u201cnone of the aboves\u201d \u2013 people who are religious (or \u201cspiritual but not\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/10\/the-rise-of-the-unaffiliated.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/10\/the-rise-of-the-unaffiliated.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/10\/the-rise-of-the-unaffiliated.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Rise of the Unaffiliated\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"description\":\"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Beckett\"},\"description\":\"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. 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{"id":490,"date":"2009-10-01T10:55:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-01T10:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/10\/the-rise-of-the-unaffiliated\/"},"modified":"2009-10-01T10:55:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-01T10:55:00","slug":"the-rise-of-the-unaffiliated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/10\/the-rise-of-the-unaffiliated.html","title":{"rendered":"The Rise of the Unaffiliated"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The Dallas Morning News Religion Blog\u2019s question of the week<\/a> addresses the rise of \u201cnone of the aboves\u201d \u2013 people who are religious (or \u201cspiritual but not religious\u201d) but who don\u2019t identify with any religious organization, even while interest in religion is high and megachurches are doing well. It asks \u201cwhy are fewer Americans identifying with a religion, denomination or particular faith group?\u201d<\/p>\n

The responses from the panel of experts are interesting. I was late adding my comment, and many of the comments reflect a very simplistic view of religion (positive and negative). Here\u2019s my take on the subject:<\/p>\n

Fewer Americans are identifying with a religion because their perceived religious choices aren\u2019t relevant to their lives.<\/p>\n

Religions are human institutions that arise to meet human needs for meaning. At their best, they facilitate connections to God \/ Goddess \/ Ultimate Reality, other people and all living things. They comfort us in troubled times and challenge us to live the best lives we can.<\/p>\n

At their worst, they spout false certainties to preserve outdated traditions and archaic social customs that are no longer helpful. Katie Sherrod hits on this when she says \u201cAny religion that makes preservation of the institution a higher priority than meeting the needs of human beings is doomed to fail\u201d as does Larry Bethune when he says \u201cSome of the fault must be placed with the church: the tendency to place preserving institutions over serving people.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Cynthia Rigby points out the difficulty with unaffiliated spirituality: \u201cTo create one\u2019s own religious faith apart from accountability to, and conversation with, particular communities is to risk unregulated self-projection.\u201d It is a rare person who can live as a spiritual hermit \u2013 without a community it is far too easy to overlook important ideas and concepts, allow our lower instincts to overrule our higher values, and (speaking from personal experience) neglect helpful spiritual practices.<\/p>\n

For some of us, the answer is to reform and reinvent existing religious institutions: to make sure timeless truths and traditional teachings are presented in ways that are meaningful and helpful today.<\/p>\n

For others, the answer is to expand our search and find a religious community that meets our needs and doesn\u2019t ask us to believe what we can\u2019t honestly believe. Ric Dexter tells his story of finding Buddhism<\/a>, and one of the commenters mentions Unitarian Universalism. There are groups practicing virtually every form of spirituality known to humankind, and the internet makes finding them very easy \u2013 particularly in a large metro area like DFW.<\/p>\n

Humans are social animals \u2013 we need each other in religion and spirituality as much as we need each other in our everyday lives.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"