If World War II-era warbler Kate Smith sang today, her anthem could be Gods Bless America. That's one of the key findings in newly released research that reveals America's drift from clearly defined religious denominations to faiths cut to fit personal preferences.
The folks who make up God as they go are side-by-side with self-proclaimed believers who claim the Christian label but shed their ties to traditional beliefs and practices. Religion statistics expert George Barna says, with a wry hint of exaggeration, America is headed for "310 million people with 310 million religions."
"We are a designer society. We want everything customized to our personal needs - our clothing, our food, our education," he says. Now it's our religion.
The consequence, Barna says, is that, for every subgroup of religion, race, gender, age and region of the country, the important markers of religious connection are fracturing. When he measures people by their belief in seven essential doctrines, defined by the National Association of Evangelicals' Statement of Faith, only 7% of those surveyed qualified.
Barna laments, "People say, 'I believe in God. I believe the Bible is a good book. And then I believe whatever I want.'"
LifeWay Research reinforces those findings: A new survey of 900 U.S. Protestant pastors finds 62% predict the importance of being identified with a denomination will diminish over the next 10 years.
Bellah sees two sides to the one-person-one-religion trend. On the positive: It's harder to hold on to prejudices against groups - by religion or race or gender or sexuality - if everyone wants to be seen individually. "The bad news is you lose the capacity to make connections. Everyone is pretty much on their own," he says. And all this rampant individualism also fosters "hostility toward organized groups - government, industry, even organized religion."
