{"id":17,"date":"2008-02-27T11:13:00","date_gmt":"2008-02-27T11:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/intentchopra\/2008\/02\/meet-the-unaffiliated-by-gotha-1.html"},"modified":"2008-02-27T11:13:00","modified_gmt":"2008-02-27T11:13:00","slug":"meet-the-unaffiliated-by-gotha-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/2008\/02\/meet-the-unaffiliated-by-gotha-1.html","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Unaffiliated (by Gotham Chopra)"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Monday the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released a study<\/a>
\nin which they chronicled the state of faith and organized religion in
\nAmerica. The news is not good if you are a God lover, worst of all of
\nyou are a Jesus lover. Cutting to the chase, the sharpest drop in
\nmembers amongst organized faiths is amongst Catholics. That is to say
\nthat amongst those polled, the largest number of people who said
\nthey had chosen to abandon the faith they had grown up with was
\nCatholics. The largest growth was amongst those who now claimed to be
\n“Unaffiliated.” The study went out of its way to assure readers that
\n“unaffiliated” does not indicate agnostics or atheists, just those
\nwho, ya’know, believed in God and all but just not when it was
\norganized” (I’m paraphrasing).<\/p>\n


\nOkay, enough of the paraphrasing – you can track down the study
\nyourself and dig into all the fascinating data – onto the analysis
\nand interpretation. Frankly, the Pew data does not surprise me. A lot
\nof people I know like to say that they are “spiritual but not
\nreligious.” Others will even be so bold and admit to being
\n“religious, but do not believe in organized religion.”
\nSemantics I say! Listen, now is a particular tough time to believe in
\nreligion. The Catholic Church and Islam in particular have really poor PR.
\nFrom deviant Priests to nutty Jihadis, the perverts and extremists
\nin their respective groups tend to drown out the rest. And then
\nthere’s that prickly science that keeps pushing evolution and
\ndisputing long held beliefs that the various scriptures cite as
\nirrefutable law. In fact, modern cosmology makes it really really
\ndifficult for individuals “believe” all the wacky theories that
\ndiehards hold to be gospel (pun intended). In any other setting aside
\nfrom the indemnity provided by religion, anyone grounding their views
\nbecause an old white man sitting in the clouds says it’s so, would be
\nremanded to an asylum. In short, I’m not surprised that God is dying
\nat such a rapid rate.
\nOf course, I used to be one of those people who said that “I didn’t
\nbelieve in organized religion.” It was hip in college but now it just
\nfeels lame and cliched. The notion of saying “I belong to the Church
\nof Unaffiliated” is a lot more attractive and cool sounding. Of
\ncourse, given a few years, the Church of Unaffiliated will likely
\ncome up with all sorts of strange rules and decrees, laws and
\ninterpretations. Political candidates will pander to us and go out of
\ntheir way to insure that they appeal to moderates in our group. There
\nwill be “unaffiliated fundamentalists,” the most articulate of which
\nwill appear on Larry King any time some haughty organization like Pew
\nreleases some study. I guess that’s just the nature of the game. My
\ndad likes to say that “God created Religion and then the Devil came
\nand organized it.” It’s a rather witty one-liner but now that the Pew
\nForum is backing it up in some strange way, it just doesn’t feel so
\ncool. In short, I think the “unaffiliated” is just a fad. But at
\nleast we’re not Scientologists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Monday the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released a study in which they chronicled the state of faith and organized religion in America. The news is not good if you are a God lover, worst of all of you are a Jesus lover. 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