New England now the least religious region in America

[Rufus12]

http://www.latimes.com/news/lo...09mar16,0,842718.story

Damn. Hard to believe I live in the least religious state in America.

A full 22% of New Englanders identified with no religion last year, compared with 20% on the West Coast, the survey says. New England's shrinking Catholic population is part of the explanation.

By Joanna Lin
March 16, 2009

New England, where the Puritans and others sought religious freedom, has surpassed the West Coast as the least religious region in America, according to a new major national survey.

The study, released last week, showed that since 1990, the percentage of Americans claiming no religion has nearly doubled, growing to 15% last year. That was the overall conclusion. But tucked inside the report are figures offering portraits of various regions.

Nonbelievers, skeptics and the unaffiliated are clustered in New England and along the Pacific, even as all 48 states surveyed have become less religious, the American Religious Identification Survey found.

On the West Coast, 20% of residents identified with no religion last year, compared with 22% of New Englanders.

Whereas Pacific states have long been called the "unchurched belt," the irreligious population over the last two decades grew more in New England -- where it nearly tripled -- than in any other region.

To account for the rise of "Nones" in the six-state region, researchers with the survey point to the area's shrinking Catholic population: New England is now 36% Catholic, down from 50% in 1990.

"There's a complete reciprocal, a correlation of Catholics to no religion," said the survey's principal investigator, sociologist Barry A. Kosmin of Trinity College in Connecticut.

Survey respondents were not asked whether they left the Catholic Church, but Kosmin and religion scholars said Catholics may feel disaffected with religious institutions in general or estranged by clergy sex abuse scandals.

"The obvious suspect here . . . would be the pedophilia scandals in the Catholic Church," said Randall Balmer, a professor of American religious history at Barnard College and Columbia University. "In New England, particularly Massachusetts, that hit pretty hard." Indeed, Massachusetts saw its Catholic population drop 15 percentage points and its unaffiliated group jump 14 percentage points between 1990 and 2008.

But outside New England, 13 states, primarily in the Sun Belt, saw upticks in their Catholic population.

In California, Catholics climbed 8 percentage points and are now the largest religious group in the state at 37% of the population.

In Texas, Catholics grew 9 percentage points to total 32% of the state. However, they are still outnumbered by other Christian denominations, which account for 48% of the population even after falling 20 percentage points.

That Catholics are gaining parishioners in these states is no surprise, scholars said. Latin American immigrants, most of whom are Catholic, have kept the percentage of the nation's Catholics nearly level: Catholics make up 25% of the country, compared with 26% in 1990, despite adding 11 million adherents.

"While the Catholic Church is holding its own overall numerically, it really has a significant leakage from what you might call the old European stock Catholics. It's being replenished by immigrants, primarily from Latin America," said Peter W. Williams, a professor of comparative religion at Miami University in Ohio.

The country's Latino population has more than doubled since 1990 -- from 22.4 million to 45.5 million in 2007 -- and is concentrated in border states. In 2007, 48% lived in California or Texas.

But determining the nation's Catholic population is not as simple as counting the Latino population, said Timothy Matovina, director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame.

Though the number of Latinos in the country is increasing, many Latino Catholics are switching to Protestant denominations or becoming unaffiliated, Matovina said. And, he said, the percentage of American Latinos who are Catholic falls after the first generation.

"For Latino Catholics, it's a kind of 'shrink while you're growing' phenomenon," he said.

The same is true for Christian groups overall, the survey found. Christian denominations added 22 million members since 1990 to total more than 173 million in 2008, but as a proportion of the population, Christians fell from 86% to 76%.

It's difficult to pin why Americans are abandoning their organized religions in any given region, Matovina said.

"People tend to judge by what happens at 11 o'clock Sunday morning," he said. "People think much more locally."

Geographic and social mobility within the country also blur the borders of America's religious landscape, scholars said. But regional religious distinctions won't fade entirely, Williams said.

"Regions are like denominations. . . . They tend to shift," he said. "On the other hand, there are certain basic structures in American life, like religious denominations and regional identity, that are very durable and aren't static and aren't going away any time soon."

The survey can be found at www.americanreligionsurvey-aris.org.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Good, at least we do something right.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Apparently they still feel the need to punish themselves by continuing to live in the NE. Typical reformed Catholic behavior.

 

[Flammable]

Originally posted by: TastesLikeChicken
Apparently they still feel the need to punish themselves by continuing to live in the NE. Typical reformed Catholic behavior.

I would never leave New England, i love it

 

[n yusef]

Originally posted by: TastesLikeChicken
Apparently they still feel the need to punish themselves by continuing to live in the NE. Typical reformed Catholic behavior.

Says the man living in Florida.

 

[MrMatt]

Originally posted by: Flammable

Originally posted by: TastesLikeChicken
Apparently they still feel the need to punish themselves by continuing to live in the NE. Typical reformed Catholic behavior.

I would never leave New England, i love it

ditto. I love it here.

 

[summit]

too many gays in new england. look at the patriots that at least 52 gays.

 

[BoomerD]

Does that mean they've done away with the stupid "Blue Laws?"

I'm sure many of them have been relaxed or eliminated since I lived there 45 years ago, but...

 

[SampSon]

This generation is now becoming old enough to be surveyed.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Wow, a whole 22% :laugh:

 

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: BoomerD
Does that mean they've done away with the stupid "Blue Laws?"

I'm sure many of them have been relaxed or eliminated since I lived there 45 years ago, but...

Sorta... In MA you can now buy liquor seven days a week, but only after noon on Sundays and not on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day. CT is still a clusterfuck of stupidity.

 

[nageov3t]

Originally posted by: BoomerD
Does that mean they've done away with the stupid "Blue Laws?"

I'm sure many of them have been relaxed or eliminated since I lived there 45 years ago, but...

we've still got them even in jersey, at least in one county.

super annoying... I visit my parents every other sunday and do laundry while I'm there. I'd love to be able to run some errands and give some tax dollars to the town while I'm waiting on a load in the dryer, but they won't let me.

 

[JC]

Still not worth it.

<---- grew up in PA, close enough!

 

[miketheidiot]

Originally posted by: TastesLikeChicken
Apparently they still feel the need to punish themselves by continuing to live in the NE. Typical reformed Catholic behavior.

new england is pretty chill.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Originally posted by: BoomerD
Does that mean they've done away with the stupid "Blue Laws?"

I'm sure many of them have been relaxed or eliminated since I lived there 45 years ago, but...

Nope, here in Connecticut package stores close at 8pm and don't open at all on Sundays. But it's never a problem, just keep an extra case of beer on hand at all times.

 

[Strk]

Originally posted by: BeauJangles

Originally posted by: BoomerD
Does that mean they've done away with the stupid "Blue Laws?"

I'm sure many of them have been relaxed or eliminated since I lived there 45 years ago, but...

Sorta... In MA you can now buy liquor seven days a week, but only after noon on Sundays and not on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day. CT is still a clusterfuck of stupidity.

But we still can't buy it at grocery stores.

 

[geno]

What can I say? We're ahead of the curve.

 

[Codewiz]

Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt

Originally posted by: BoomerD
Does that mean they've done away with the stupid "Blue Laws?"

I'm sure many of them have been relaxed or eliminated since I lived there 45 years ago, but...

Nope, here in Connecticut package stores close at 8pm and don't open at all on Sundays. But it's never a problem, just keep an extra case of beer on hand at all times.

LoL, even most of South Carolina got rid of the blue laws.

 

[jman19]

Originally posted by: TastesLikeChicken
Apparently they still feel the need to punish themselves by continuing to live in the NE. Typical reformed Catholic behavior.

Says the person living in Florida...

Yeah, living in the most cultured place in country would really suck.

 

[Fox5]

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer
Wow, a whole 22% :laugh:

More than 1 out of 5 people?

Considering nation wide it's probably more like 1 out of every 20 or 40, that's considerably less religious. Not to mention this is only people not identifying with any religion, people in general are probably less religious as a result of exposure to people and circumstances that inspire no religion.

 

[Babbles]

Speaking of Blue Laws, after living in Texas for 25+ years then moving up to Pennsylvania where I currently live I was amazed with how asinine the Blue Laws are in this state and the surrounding states. I always just assumed that they Blue Laws were going to be more respective down in Texas relative to the North, but boy was I wrong.

It's anal retentive as hell here in Pennsylvania.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Pretty soon they'll be eating babies and voting Democrat!!! We must do something to stop this madness! Quick, everyone let's pray!!!

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: BeauJangles

Originally posted by: BoomerD
Does that mean they've done away with the stupid "Blue Laws?"

I'm sure many of them have been relaxed or eliminated since I lived there 45 years ago, but...

Sorta... In MA you can now buy liquor seven days a week, but only after noon on Sundays and not on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day. CT is still a clusterfuck of stupidity.

I love CA. You can buy liquor here 24/7 365 days a year and you can buy a bottle of vodka in your local supermarket.

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: BeauJangles

Originally posted by: BoomerD
Does that mean they've done away with the stupid "Blue Laws?"

I'm sure many of them have been relaxed or eliminated since I lived there 45 years ago, but...

Sorta... In MA you can now buy liquor seven days a week, but only after noon on Sundays and not on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day. CT is still a clusterfuck of stupidity.

I love CA. You can buy liquor here 24/7 365 days a year and you can buy a bottle of vodka in your local supermarket.

you can buy alcohol in any some MA supermarkets...Lots of them do not want to pony up the cash to do so, however. They do exist though.

 

[WelshBloke]

78% is still pretty 'effin religious though.

<is from the UK