There is lots of hand wringing going on over the rise of the numbers of people in America who claim no religious affiliation. Tagged with the title “The Nones”, they tend to be younger which leads people to project the death of religion in the future. Among evangelicals it is easy to find people who fall in lockstep with the tales of woe. Far from being something that concerns me, I look at the rise of the Nones as a huge opportunity. The reason for that view is that people are less inclined to thoughtlessly align themselves to a religious group. That can only be good for Christianity which requires a dedication of one’s whole self and not just lip service.
Marcia Pally is a friend and fellow writer who focuses on issues of religion in culture and teaches at both NYU and Fordham. I had the privilege of being interviewed by her as she did research for her book The New Evangelicals: Expanding the Vision for the Common Good. In this blog post she does a wonderful job of pointing out what is really going on with religious affiliation in America.
The implications of what Marcia says are numerous for people who want to provocatively follow Christ. Perhaps on the top of the list is that people are looking for a faith experience that has power to it, real answers, and gives them purpose and meaning. Ideally that is what the life of every Christ-follower should look like.
Here is the link to Marcia’s blog post. Enjoy!
