Gallup’s editor-in-chief Frank Newport
has been attracting widespread attention over the past few months
surrounding his intriguing assessment of the state of faith in America —
and his predictions that a religiously-fruitful time may be ahead.
Part of the intrigue surrounding
Newport’s research comes from his assertion that religion in the U.S. is
actually much healthier than many critics allege. In an interview with
TheBlaze, he spoke about Gallup’s intensive research, as presented in
his new book, “God Is Alive and Well.”
Considering the rise of the “nones” — a
group of religiously-unaffiliated Americans, when asked if religion in
America is dying, Newport had an intriguing answer. He argues that faith
in the U.S., rather than sputtering out, is actually evolving.
“Faith and religion is very much alive
and well — a key point is, it’s changing,” the researcher told TheBlaze.
“The way people manifest their religiosity has changed over time.
That’s not unusual.”
Rather than seeing religion as on the
cusp of disappearing, Newport — based on Gallup’s research into matters
of faith and religion — argues that many Americans are transitioning
into an “unbranded religion.” This essentially means that, increasingly,
individuals classify themselves as unaligned with a denomination, yet
they are still very much Christian (the majority faith culture here in
the U.S.).
Even though, numerically speaking, the
proportion of “nones” has grown, the researcher claims that much of the
hoopla over the increase may be misplaced. The numbers of unaffiliated
may, in fact, be growing as a result of a change in reporting styles.
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