What The Religiously Unaffiliated Do in the Shadows

The so-called Religious Nones have become the single biggest group in America, and they are not as secular as we may think.

“Religious Nones” are people who don’t identify as religious; they may identify as atheistic, agnostic, or unaffiliated. I’m no atheist, but always have been unaffiliated: my parents were raised in the Catholic Church, then both left before my brother and I ever got to it. I’m happy with where I am in my religiously unaffiliated life; it’s propelled me to learn about all kinds of different religious and spiritual traditions, and experiment with believing all kinds of different things. If I’d been raised Catholic I’d almost certainly have reckoned with breaking from the Church; organized religion doesn’t feel like my jam.

Still, for my entire adult life, part of me has longed for a kind of spiritual community. I yearn for a solid faith in the unknown, in a kind of God that I know and trust is there. For short durations of time, I have found this kind of spiritual connection and a community along with it—in the yoga studio, the Buddhist meditation center—but inevitably, I move on to try something else. I keep searching. I think what I’m searching for can only be found inside me, I think that’s what a lot of people call God?

Guess I’ll keep searching.

So many people I know also share this sort of longing for some kind of spirituality. What I think we’re looking for, as well as faith, is other people to be with. We’re looking to make meaning of our existences. We’re looking for our purpose.

For a good chunk of the world, religious affiliation can provide this—a sense of purpose, community, faith. And, as we are understanding more now, these tenets of life can be found in many other places.

Let’s get more into it.

According to this data from Pew Research Center, in 2022, 25-30% of adults in America identify as Religious ‘Nones’, or religiously unaffiliated. This number is 10% higher than it was in 2007, which means that the Religious Nones are now the biggest group in the U.S. This increase can be explained in large part by two trends: more people are leaving their birth religion to become religiously unaffiliated, and, fewer people who were raised without religion are adopting one in adulthood.¹

Interesting, right?

Tara Isabella Burton, a theologian and writer whose work seeks to explain cultural shifts in religious identity (among other things), argues that the decline in traditional religious affiliation does not suggest increasing secularity in the culture. In her book, Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World, she makes the compelling case that many of these so-called-secular people appear to be replacing traditional religion with new, “remixed” sorts of religions. Essentially, they are just finding new homes for their spiritual longings outside of traditional religious spaces. Burton astutely recognizes that these “Religious Nones” (25-30% of Americans!) might be better labeled as the “Religiously Remixed”. It’s not that these people don’t believe in anything, they just don’t follow the foundations of traditional religions. Overall, Burton depicts the Religiously Remixed as people who don’t follow institutions, but do follow their intuition; they may blend traditional prayer with Tarot cards, or practice self-hypnosis and attend Christmas mass. She tells us, “more and more Americans envision themselves as creators of their own bespoke religions, mixing and matching spiritual and aesthetic and experiential and philosophical traditions. The [Religiously] Remixed hunger for the same things human beings have always longed for: a sense of meaning in the world and personal purpose within that meaning, a community to share that experience with, and rituals to bring the power of that experience into achievable, everyday life.”²

Burton categorizes the Religiously Remixed (aka Religious Nones in the national polls) in three groups. The first group is the “Spiritual But Not Religious;” people for whom religion plays some part in their lives or their sense of identity (like sitting for mass twice a year, or following marriage or burial rituals that align with their church.) However, their primary sense of purpose, community, and how they “make meaning” comes from outside of their religion. The second group is the “Faithful Nones;” people who claim no religious affiliation or identity at all but who long for something “bigger.” Overall, the Faithful Nones are more likely than the first group to seek out community in other, non-traditional ways and form chosen families with people who may share their values.

Burton calls the final Remixed group the “Religious hybrids: people who say they belong to a given religion, believe or practice a portion of it…but also disregard elements that don’t suit them, or supplement [with] spiritual elements [or] beliefs from other traditions.”³ Basically, the religious hybrids choose practices and information from various religions and spiritual traditions to create a sort of spirituality that works for them.

And hey, that’s their right.

Does this kind of spirituality sound familiar? Do you know people like this? Is it you? When we look at what the Religiously Remixed are doing instead of going to mass or synagogue, we find...well, that they’re doing a lot of different things. They might be practicing witchcraft in their bathrooms, or lighting candles on the full moon with a group of local Wiccans. They might religiously attend SoulCycle or CrossFit classes; they may partake in a Yoga Teacher Training; they probably believe in astrology. They might join a biking or hiking group, or become a lively member of an online forum or a video game. They might walk their dogs by the river every morning or ride horses with their close-knit horse community. They might become a wellness culture influencer or a social justice activist, or a dedicated member of the sober group down the street, where they feel needed, loved, accepted.

Obviously, religious people can do all these things mentioned above—but for people who don’t affiliate themselves with a kind of organized religion, some of these practices become more meaningful. The personal purpose of the religiously unaffiliated can become tied up in the fandom or activist group they’re a part of. The desire for spiritual meaning and direction urges them to fulfill it somewhere else, outside of a religious structure.

A lot more people are finding their own version of “bespoke” spirituality, that they craft to their own personalized taste. It makes sense why this is happening—I think it’s due in part to a culture that rests upon individualism and the internet. Burton comments, “people want a spiritual identity and surrounding community that precisely reflects their values, their moral and social ambitions, their lived experience, and their sense of self.” The use of social media—where our feeds are curated exactly to our taste, and we have the ability to see what anyone is doing—is absolutely connected to the rise of the bespoke spiritual identities of the Religiously Remixed. What we believe, what our friends believe, what we find amusing, and who we admire is at our fingertips all day long, along with the ability to learn about and be influenced by an infinite amount of people and ideas, religious or otherwise.⁴

Essentially, what we are witnessing and are likely a part of is a great shift in the way religion and spirituality are treated in the U.S. It would make sense if the numbers of Religious Nones continue to grow, and if we continue to form these sort of remixed religions.

There’s a lot more to this topic that I’ll have to get into another week—stay tuned, or at least let me know you’re interested in it. I find the topic of religion and spirituality—especially as it is currently being shaped by the internet—fascinating. Where do we find meaning? From which groups do we feel a sense of belonging? If we feel a sense of spirituality, where do we feel it, and where does it come from?

I do think it is everyone’s right to seek a sense of authentic purpose, belonging, and wholeness. How very American I must sound. But how human, too, because each and every one of us will always have a need for belonging, purpose, and meaning. Maybe we find it all within an organized structure of a religion…or maybe we don’t. We need guidance, love, support and faith, and we deserve to find it somewhere. We ought to look at our lives critically and evaluate if we are satisfying those needs and where we are doing so. If we’re lacking in some way…well, we keep looking. We keep following the longing.

Keep searching to fill that god-shaped hole inside of you, and see where and to whom it takes you.

Maggie

1. Pew Research Center, 2022. How U.S. religious composition has changed in recent decades.

2. Burton, T.I., 2020. Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World, pp. 9-10

3. Burton, T.I., 2020. Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World, pp. 20-22

4. Burton, T.I., 2020. Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World, p. 24