America’s religious decline has been overstated.

Over the past decade, the secular media has told us incessantly that American Christianity is in its death throes. The number one news story on religion in recent years has been the rise of the “Nones,” or people who say they have no religion.

So, is faith about to expire in America? 

Is it finally the end for American faith? No. If you dig a little deeper and take a closer look, you’ll see why it’s not.

Be informed, not misled.

More people tell pollsters today that they have no religion. The total number of Nones, agnostics, and atheists rose from about 16% to 28% of respondents between 2007 and 2023, according to Pew Research. ( link 1 )

Today, about 28% of U.S. adults are religiously unaffiliated, describing themselves as atheists, agnostics, or “nothing in particular” when asked about their religion.

They say, "At Pew Research Center, we get lots of questions about this group, often called the “nones.” What do “nones” believe? Are they opposed to religion? What are their views about science? Is their growth good or bad for society, and why?"

Pew survey data shows:

• Most “nones” believe in God or another higher power. But very few go to religious services regularly.
• Most say religion does some harm, but many also think it does some good. They are not uniformly anti-religious.
• Most “nones” reject the idea that science can explain everything. But they express more positive views of science than religiously affiliated Americans do.

Surveys have consistently shown that many Americans view religion’s declining influence in society as a bad thing. “Nones” tend to vote less often, do less volunteer work in their communities, and follow public affairs at lower rates than religiously affiliated people do.

But the latest data shows that on a variety of measures, lower rates of civic engagement are concentrated among “nones” whose religion is “nothing in particular.” Atheists and agnostics tend to participate in civic life at rates matching or exceeding religiously affiliated people.

The Christian Post reported yesterday, quoting a Pew report, "A generation ago, cultural Christianity had a stronger hold in America. People then were likelier to say they were Christians, even if they never went to church. Today such people often just concede that they don’t have any formal religion."

The growing number of Nones has made America less superficially Christian. But from the Church’s perspective, this presents an opportunity. If a None visits your Church, they will not be confused about whether they’re a real Christian, unlike many nominal Christians in the Bible Belt.

Most polls do not ask follow-up questions about a person’s religious identity. When they do ask Nones about their specific beliefs, however, we see that they overwhelmingly believe in God (or a “higher power”), and they think people have souls. 

The good news.

Via Pew:

"After many years of steady decline, the share of Americans who identify as Christians shows signs of leveling off – at least temporarily – at slightly above six-in-ten, according to a massive new Pew Research Center survey of 36,908 U.S. adults."

The Religious Landscape Study (RLS) is the largest single survey the Center conducts, aiming to provide authoritative figures on the size of U.S. religious groups because the U.S. census does not collect that information.

We have conducted three of these landscape surveys over the past 17 years, with more than 35,000 randomly sampled respondents each time. That’s enough to paint a statistical portrait of religion not only nationally, but also in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as in 34 large metro areas.

But for the last five years, between 2019 and 2024, the Christian share of the adult population has been relatively stable, hovering between 60% and 64%. The 62% figure in the new Religious Landscape Study is smack in the middle of that recent range.

The largest subgroups of Christians in the United States are Protestants – now 40% of U.S. adults – and Catholics, now 19%. People who identify with all other Christian groups (including the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jehovah’s Witnesses and many others) total about 3% of U.S. adults.

Both Protestant and Catholic numbers are down significantly since 2007, though the Protestant share of the population has remained fairly level since 2019 and the Catholic share has been stable since 2014, with only small fluctuations in our annual surveys.

Meanwhile, the share of Americans who identify with a religion other than Christianity has been trending upward, though it is still in single digits.

Only about 7% of U.S. adults now identify with a religion other than Christianity.

Today, 1.7% of U.S. adults say they are Jewish when asked about their religion, while 1.2% of respondents in the new survey are Muslim, 1.1% are Buddhist, and 0.9% are Hindu.

Religiously unaffiliated adults – those who identify as atheists, agnostics or as “nothing in particular” when asked about their religion – account for 29% of the population in the new RLS. The size of the religiously unaffiliated population, which we sometimes call religious “nones,” has plateaued in recent years after a long period of sustained growth.

Moreover, the survey shows that large majorities of Americans have a spiritual or supernatural outlook on the world.

• 86% believe people have a soul or spirit in addition to their physical body.
• 83% believe in God or a universal spirit.
• 79% believe there is something spiritual beyond the natural world, even if we can’t see it.
• 70% believe in an afterlife (heaven, hell, or both).

Conclusion of journalists who wrote about the survey.

Obviously,  sensational reports about the Nones are overblown. Meanwhile, there are tens of millions of Bible-believing Christians who are simply absent from the coverage of Christianity’s alleged demise. American religion is changing, for sure. But don’t buy the headlines about its massive decline.

Predictions about the death of religion are as old as America itself. Don’t take the latest doom-and-gloom reports at face value. Look more closely, and you will find that American Christianity is surprising, dynamic, and always underestimated.

Takeaway.

Founding Father John Adams said in his 1798 address to the Massachusetts militia: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

His perspective on "religious people" meant "Christian people."

Leftist writers and teachers try to make the case that Adams did not believe that America was founded on Christian principles, based on his signing of the Treaty of Tripoli in 1797.

That's misleading. Very misleading.

John Adams wrote in an 1813 letter to Thomas Jefferson that the founders achieved American independence on the basis of the general principles of Christianity. "The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God."

Be Informed. Be Discerning, Be Vigilant. Be Faithful. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.