One striking set of facts discussed in the forthcoming book American Grace is that the three largest groups with attitudes about religion in the U.S. are first, Catholics; second, those who are not religious (17%); and third, those who have left the Catholic Church (10%, the second and third groups overlap to some extent). The Catholic Church's preminent position in size has been maintained despite a large loss of members primarily because of the influx of Latinos (due to immigration and population growth). Latino(a) Catholics are understudied.
The second group is particularly attractive to young people. According to Putnam and Campbell, the attraction of young people to the second group is primarily a backlash against the religious right. The young associate religion with the political right. Although the religious right stopped growing many years ago, attention to the religious right did not; indeed, it pretty much started about the time the religious right stopped growing. The authors see the young as a fertile group that could be attracted to the religious left and discuss various efforts to attract that group including those by the emerging church movement.
Comments