Less Nuns, More Nones
Less Nuns, More Nones As the Wall Street Journal reported recently, Americans continue to leave religion behind in large numbers. According to Pew Research , the percentage of American Christians has fallen about 12 percent over the last ten years, from 75 percent in 2011 to around 63 percent today. The number who pray every day is even lower, at 45 percent. The demographic rising in its place are the so-called “nones,” those who identify religiously as “nothing in particular.” This group grew to about 20 percent of the US population in 2021, up from 16 percent in 2017. The surprising thing here isn’t that Americans are leaving organized religion behind. That’s been happening at about the same rate for a while now (In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace) . However, it is newsworthy that this trend continued unabated in the face of a global pandemic. Historically, catastrophic events that bring uncertain...