“The unaffiliated” are the fast-growing religious group

August 15th, 2010 by Brooke Warner

In today’s Opinion section in The Oregonian, William Lobdell cites the trend of opting out of organized religion.

According to a 2008 study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, he states, “the unaffiliated category of faith is the fastest-growing “religion” in America.

This is hardly surprising news. The most spiritual people I know generally don’t go to church on Sundays. Organized religion, in its rigidity, has failed a lot of people. Lobdell notes that “pollsters have reported repeatedly that they can find little measurable difference between the moral behavior of churchgoers and the rest of American society.”

Many of us who’ve left church or organized religion behind are still craving community, faith, and spirituality—and thus the “unaffiliated” may indeed be the “spiritual.” If you look at The Pew Forum’s key findings, unaffiliated is categorized as either “agnostic,” “atheist,” or “nothing in particular.” “New Age” is categorized under “Other Faiths.” I would love to see what the numbers would look like if “Spiritual” were an option. Just saying, it’s the wave of the future.

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