Religion in a ‘different strokes for different folks’ world

The latest Pew survey of religious sentiments shows that Americans are tolerant and confused. 

Social scientists have been described as often having a magnificent grasp of the obvious. The recently released Pew Forum’s US Religious Landscape Survey falls squarely in that category. Not that the large survey of some 35,000 souls doesn’t contain some nuggets. It just has about it an aura of “been there-done that.”

The study confirms again that the United States deserves to be called a ‘religious nation” with 71 percent absolutely certain about the existence of God, 56 percent reporting that their church is a very important part of their lives, and 39 percent attending religious services at least once a week. Only 16 percent of US adults report that they are “unaffiliated” with a particular church, but a solid 92 percent claim to believe in God. While surprising and unsettling to university professors and media mucky-mucks, the study confirms what most Americans experience as they go about their daily lives.

The Pew Forum’s write-up of its study, while chronicling the breadth of religion in America, makes much of our religious diversity, from the ever-shrinking Protestant majority [now 51 percent] to less than single percentage numbers of Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists. The authors suggest that this diversity of religious affiliations has led to the widespread conviction that there are many religious roads to God’s house.

This American tolerance for their neighbor’s creed has long been a goal of our political leaders. Cognizant of the religious wars that from Luther’s time through the 19th century poisoned life in Europe, religious tolerance has been a national priority and one that apparently has been achieved. The American elementary and secondary public schools, which today educate 88 per cent of the nation’s children, have historically been used to promote this religious tolerance. Indeed, in recent decades the public schools have shifted that emphasis from tolerance of different religions to make a religion of tolerance.

Of course, this emphasis on religious tolerance makes life in the democratic public square appear to run smoothly with few angry public arguments over predestination and transubstantiation. Asserting the superiority of one’s religion is considered bad form. It is so much more comfortable to blandly assume the theological position of “different strokes for different folks” and “if it works for you…”

But America’s embrace of religious diversity and its enshrining of the virtue of tolerance has its downside. “If God doesn’t care which road we take to Him and if He is tolerant about all these conflicting religions and their claims, why should I take them so seriously. Isn’t it small-minded and intolerant of me to think, let alone assert in public that my religion is the true one?” This tolerant approach to one’s core beliefs has not been lost on American youth. Three years ago, sociologist Christian Smith and his colleague released the results of a large survey of some 3,300 teenagers entitled the National Study of Youth and Religion.

Like the Pew Forum’s report, this, too, confirmed the nearly ubiquitous American belief in God, this time among 13 to 17-year-olds. Rather than rebelling from the faith of their fathers and mothers, it also revealed strong adherence to the family’s religion. On the other hand, and particularly worrisome, the research revealed that American teenagers have quite a low understanding of their religion and had much trouble articulating the major beliefs and tenets of the faith to which they claim allegiance.

Summing up their primary findings, the researchers described the religious views of American teens to be “moralistic, therapeutic deism”. “Moralistic” in that most teenagers had a sense of right and wrong; “therapeutic” in the Dr Phil sense that following the Ten Commandments is “good for you” and helps you succeed in life’s endeavours; and “deism” in the sense that God is a distant, impersonal force. The researchers characterized the faith that young people have inherited from their parents as the ideal religion for “our culturally post-Christian, individualistic, mass-consumer, capitalist society”. One wonders, however, whether this type of religion would hold up under the strains of a stressful marriage, a deep economic depression or a severe religious persecution.

Another Pew finding, particularly among Protestants and Catholics (who make up three-fourths of the sample) is how a particular religious label today covers a range of personal practices and attitudes. Where we once simply had Coke, now we have choice: among them Diet Coke, Diet with Lime, Zero Coke and Classic Coke. Similarly, we can decide within our religion where on the spectrum of doctrinal issues, church involvements and practices we feel “most comfortable” and settle in there. Not surprisingly, religiously conservative people attend church more frequently, pray more and attach greater importance to their religion. Thus, we have Evangelical Protestants and Protestant groups passionate in their defense of the gay lifestyle, and Latin Mass Catholics and "Catholics For a Free Choice" of abortion. All very American!

As the Pew study makes clear, however, one’s religious selection on the liberal to conservative spectrum correlates quite closely with one’s politics. It confirms the growing conviction that a person’s religious views are the key indicator of what kind of a government one desires. Religious conservatives tend to vote for Republicans and religious liberals vote for Democrats.

Diversity. Tolerance. Choice. It would appear that, at least in religion, the American project has succeeded. One wonders, however, whether this is what Christ and the Apostles had in mind.

Kevin Ryan founded the Center for the Advancement of Ethics and Character at Boston University, where he is professor emeritus. He has written and edited 20 books. He has appeared recently on CBS's "This Morning", ABC's "Good Morning America", "The O’Reilly Factor", CNN and the Public Broadcasting System speaking on character education. He can be reached at kryan@bu.edu