{"id":1480,"date":"2013-04-10T18:33:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-10T18:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/04\/religion-has-nothing-to-fear-from-the-nones.html"},"modified":"2013-04-10T18:33:00","modified_gmt":"2013-04-10T18:33:00","slug":"religion-has-nothing-to-fear-from-the-nones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/04\/religion-has-nothing-to-fear-from-the-nones.html","title":{"rendered":"Religion Has Nothing to Fear From the ‘Nones’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

Hardly a month goes by when we don\u2019t read about the decline or collapse of organized religion in America. But religion \u2014 including the organized sort \u2014 remains vital and vibrant, defying the predictions of doom that appear with numbing regularity.<\/span><\/div>\n
The latest round of these discussions follows the publication of two studies showing that 20 percent of Americans claim no religious affiliation when asked to state their religious preference. The number of \u201cnones\u201d has doubled in the last two decades.<\/span><\/div>\n
Writing in\u00a0The Huffington Post<\/em>\u00a0on March 20, Professor Gary Laderman of Emory University argues that religion in America will never be the same. He suggests that the dramatic increase of \u201cnones\u201d reflects profound changes in American society. Americans, he says, have embraced individualism and consumerism and apply this ethic to their spiritual choices; they are greatly influenced by popular culture and increasingly look to film, television and the Internet as a source of spiritual authority; and they define religion very broadly, seeing many venues other than established places of worship as arenas for sacred activities.<\/span><\/div>\n
Laderman\u2019s conclusion is that we are now experiencing \u201cthe end of religion as we know it.\u201d He urges us to \u201cforget churches, forget priests and pastors; forget the Bible; forget organized religion generally.\u201d The future lies in a \u201cbrave new world\u201d of spiritual possibilities that will be increasingly unhinged from traditional religious authorities.<\/span><\/div>\n
It is a thoughtful article, but I am not convinced. In fact, while the short-term disruption in religious patterns is undeniable, the factors that Laderman points to are more likely to push Americans into the arms of organized religion than they are to distance them from traditional institutions.<\/span><\/div>\n
Read the rest here<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hardly a month goes by when we don\u2019t read about the decline or collapse of organized religion in America. But religion \u2014 including the organized sort \u2014 remains vital and vibrant, defying the predictions of doom that appear with numbing regularity. The latest round of these discussions follows the publication of two studies showing that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nReligion Has Nothing to Fear From the 'Nones'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hardly a month goes by when we don't read about the decline or collapse of organized religion in America. 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