Question: Why don’t young Chinese Americans go to church? Lying at the intersection of America’s most nonreligious ethnic group and America’s most nonreligious age demographic, young adult Chinese Americans (aged 25-40) are one of the most secular groups in the United States. That is, they are the most likely to be unaffiliated with any institutionalized religion.…
Question: I hear a lot about people being “spiritual, but not religious.” What does that mean? “I’m spiritual, but I’m not religious” is a common refrain in contemporary conversations. Many people seem eager to claim a connection with something they can call “spiritual,” but wary of the beliefs, traditions, and communities they think of as…
Rabbi Eric Yoffie published a commentary on Huffington Post outlining what he sees as an over-exaggeration of the impact of the rising number of people — particularly young people — who report having no religious affiliation. Rabbi Yaffie explains that many American congregations remain strong. He writes, Also, American congregations are remarkably strong. (Robert Putnam and…
The Huffington Post posted an article outlining the complications historically Spanish-speaking congregations have in adapting to new English-speaking generations. For many of these second- and third-generation immigrants, their religious lives were tied to their second language, which caused some difficulties. Vanessa Pardo, a 20-year-old from South Florida, reports, It was never a faith of my…
From 2014-2017, the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture (CRCC) undertook a three-year project that was focused on questions related to whether, and how, competition and various elements of geographic place may lead to creative innovation and religious change within congregations and other religious organizations. The project also includes a comparative component with Seoul,…