“Not affiliated or disaffiliated does not necessarily mean that Nones have no religious or spiritual needs and yearnings”

…according to Pew Research, the fastest growing religious demographic in America is “None.” …Not affiliated or disaffiliated does not necessarily mean that Nones have no religious or spiritual needs and yearnings. The Nones are taking matters into their own hands as they seek to fulfill their unmet needs through innovations in the religious and spiritual domains.

It’s enlightening to view this institutional disaffiliation through the lens of the highly problematic cord-cutting that still plagues the Pay TV industry. Cord-cutting does not mean these viewers, particularly the younger demos, aren’t consuming their favorite content. They are consuming it in different ways and on different screens.

For the Nones, this very well might be less a matter of whether they are abandoning their religious and spiritual needs and yearnings, and more a matter of existing resources just not getting the job done. Perhaps this demographic is just looking for new religious products and services that are simpler, cheaper and more accessible or a repurposing of the existing portfolios. Like attendance, our attention spans are also on the decline.

Craig Hatkoff and Irwin Kula, “The great unbundling: Will organized religion go the same way as cable TV?”, Big Think (15 August 2018) [https://bigthink.com/offwhite-papers/the-great-unbundling-will-organized-religion-go-the-same-way-as-cable-tv]