One of every nine Americans--totaling at least 24 million American adults--does not belong to any organized religion, according to a major 4-year study of 6,705 U.S. adults conducted by Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University E.W. Scripps School of Journalism.
This makes the religiously unaffiliated second in number only to Roman Catholics in the United States.
A total of 754 individuals surveyed by Scripps Howard News Service volunteered the answer "none" when asked: "What is your religious preference--Protestant, Roman Catholic, Jewish or another church?" Of those answering none, 21% were Asian, 11% were white, 10% were Hispanic and 9% were African-American.
The study found that males, singles, or married people with no children were more apt to claim no religious ties, as were residents of large cities--especially urban areas in the northeast or on the Pacific Coast.
The religiously unaffiliated were more apt to identify themselves as moderates or liberals, and to be independents or leaning toward the Democratic party.
Although Scripps Howard News Service maintained "education has little or no impact on religious affiliation," in fact its statistics show that the religiously unaffiliated are more apt than not to have some college or post-graduate education.
The statistic that flies in the face of the Freedom From Religion Foundation's own experience regards age. The study found religious participation especially low among the young, with 17% of young adults unaligned, compared to only 7% of people who are at least 65. Yet the average age of members of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, based on nearly 2,000 responses to a 1999 questionnaire, is 58. The largest bloc of membership is in the 70-80 age range. Most Foundation members typically are retirees.
The Scripps Howard statistic on the nonreligious bears out the findings of another large survey undertaken by the National Survey of Religion and Politics, 1992, University of Akron Survey Research Center, showing the "nonreligious" at 18.5%.
These surveys show the United States to be more closely in line with international religious affiliation, where the "nonreligious," when combined with the "atheist" category, are consistently among the largest groupings by affiliation (or lack of affiliation).
The information about the religiously unaligned has a 4% margin of error. Residents of every state and the District of Columbia were surveyed in seven national public opinion polls taken from 1996-1999 by the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University.
¥ Michigan: Gov. John Engler is trying to block a state GOP initiative to put school vouchers ("Kids First! Yes!") on the November 2000 ballot, writing GOP committee members a letter in November asking them to wait until his blue ribbon committee studies the issue. Engler opposes the initiative, concerned in part it will boost Democratic voter turnout.
¥ Wisconsin: A state appeals court ruled on Oct. 20 that public school districts don't have to bus students to private schools as long as they help cover transportation costs. Providence Catholic School in Kenosha County sued 9 school districts which paid parents of students but did not provide buses for school use.
¥ Coretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther King, Jr., told teachers at the annual meeting of the Wisconsin Education Association Council meeting in Milwaukee in October that tuition vouchers distract from a needed debate on how to improve public schools: "The most destructive trend today, in my view, is the inadequate funding of public education."
¥ Messmer High School, Milwaukee, a Catholic school named for an archbishop, dedicated its huge new athletic center in November to Gov. Tommy G. Thompson, a Catholic booster of parochial aid through vouchers. School "choice" students who receive a voucher of $5,106 a year in tax money, now make up about half of Messmer's student body, greatly expanding the school's enrollment. The school had faced closing due to declining enrollments.
¥ The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction released statistics in November showing that 8,104 students are now enrolled in Milwaukee's school "choice" program, costing $39 million--half funded by a reduction to Milwaukee Public Schools, and half in a reduction in aid to all other 425 school districts. Of 91 private schools receiving taxpaid vouchers, 63 are religious.
¥ Ohio: The Supreme Court on Nov. 5 voted 5-4 to grant an emergency request by Ohio to overturn an injunction barring new students from participating in the nation's largest voucher program aiding religious schools. U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver Jr., Cleveland, ruled in August that only previous recipients of tuition vouchers could obtain state financial help pending his decision on a challenge of the program. The Supreme court order postpones Oliver's order until the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules in the case. Judges dissenting were: Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer.
¥ Illinois: A coalition of educators and religious groups filed a lawsuit on Nov. 4 against a new tuition tax credit allowing public funds to pay for students attending private religious schools, contending it favors the rich. Someone spending between $250 to $2,250 on tuition, book and lab fees will be given a $500 credit. About 75% of the 1,400 private schools in Illinois are religiously affiliated. The annual tax revenue loss will be $50 million to $160 million.
Worshipping Female Sacrifice. Since an "Untouchable" widow leapt onto the funeral pyre of her husband in November committing the outlawed sati, tens of thousands of devout Hindus have made a pilgrimage to venerate the woman as a deity and fetch ashes from her funeral pyre. Source: AP, 11/19/99
Teen Christian Opens Fire. A 13-year-old 7th grader at Fort Gibson's middle school, Oklahoma, opened fire with a semiautomatic handgun and wounded 4 students on Dec. 6. Mystified authorities reported the youth belonged to a teen Christian group. Source: AP, 12/7/99
Arm Kids For Jesus? Hours after the above shooting, Christian extremist presidential candidate Gary Bauer insisted allowing religion into the schools would solve the crime problem: "I don't think it's a gun problem. I think this is a problem of the heart and soul." Source: AP, 12/7/99
Mismatch Made In Heaven? The Bible Belt boasts the nation's highest divorce rate, with Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, and Oklahoma in the top 5, about 50% above the national divorce averages. Sources: Census Bureau/AP/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, 11/12/99
Scary Texas. The latest Texas Poll of 1,000 adults in November found 82% believe students should be able to lead prayers over school public address systems, 64% think creationism should be taught along with evolution, and nearly a third think only creationism should be taught. Source: Dallas Morning News, 11/21/99
Scary Country. Gallup, run by "born again" George Gallup, found in a nationwide survey of 1,000 U.S. adults, that 68% favor teaching creationism along with evolution, and 40% favor teaching creationism instead of evolution. Source: Daily Oklahoman, 10/16/99
Won't Spare The Rod. A long-awaited September ban on beatings in British private schools will be appealed to the European Court of Human Rights by a group of 40 independent Christian school leaders who swear by the cane. Source: Reuters/Vancouver Sun, 9/2/99
Officious Interference. Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston wrote Gov. Paul Cellucci to lambast him for nominating Margaret Marshall to be chief justice of Massachusetts' highest court, contending the pro-choice Protestant is "open to serious charges of anti-Catholicism." Source: AP, 10/5/99
Dummying Down. Gallup released a poll just in time for Halloween claiming 1 in 5 Americans "believe" in witches, and a third of 1,005 adults polled believe in ghosts, three times the number who believed in ghosts 2 decades ago. Source: AP,10/30/99
Muslims "Menace" Catholics? Alain Besancon told an October synod of European bishops sponsored by the Vatican that the number of Muslims in France, 4-5 million, now equal to the number of practicing Catholics, is creating a "menace." Source: AP, 11/3/99
Baptists Menace Hindus. After offending Jews in September, the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant U.S. denomination, urged members in October to pray for the millions of Hindus "lost in the hopeless darkness of Hinduism." It released 30,000 booklets calling for the conversion of those "who worship gods which are not God." Source: Jacksonville Times-Union, 10/25/99
Baptists Menace Chicago. The Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago have asked Southern Baptists to reconsider a plan to bring thousands of missionaries to the city next summer, fearing it may spark violence against Jews, Hindus and Muslims, all of whom have been targeted for conversion by Baptists. Source: AP/Tennessean, 11/28/99
Catholics Also Menace Hindus. Proclaiming it is God's "command to preach the Gospel" to all nations, the Pope urged Catholic leaders in Asia to "penetrate the hearts of Asian people," in defiance of Hindu requests to halt aggressive conversions and to apologize for historic abuses. Source: Washington Post, 11/7/99
Catholics Menace Orthodox. The Orthodox Church in Georgia of the former U.S.S.R. reacted suspiciously to a November visit from the Pope who said "we must build new bridges so that with one heart and mind Christians may together proclaim the Gospel to the world." Source: AP/ Chicago Sun Times, 11/9/99
Catholics Menace Painting. The Catholic League's amicus brief supporting the City of New York's unsuccessful bid to cut off funding of the Brooklyn Museum of Art due to the presence of a painting, contended the First Amendment "bans discrimination against people of faith [and] prohibits exclusion of specifically religious sensibilities from the ambit of 'decency.' " Source: Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights News Release, 10/18/99
Muslims Menace Writer. Muslim extremists called for the death of playwright Terrence McNally, whose play now running in London portrays Jesus Christ as gay. The Al-Muhamjiroun quoted Mohammed as saying, "Whoever insults a messenger of God must be killed." Source: AP, 10/31/99
Something They Can Agree On. Muslims protesting the above London play joined Roman Catholics picketing outside the Pleasance Theatre where McNally's "Corpus Christi" is playing. Source: AP, 10/31/99
Southern Baptists Expel. Georgia's Southern Baptists voted overwhelmingly on Nov. 16 to expel two churches letting gays serve as leaders and permitting a gay wedding: "We know they do not value the Holy Scriptures," said president Gerald Harris. Source: AP, 11/17/99
Texas Baptists Rebel. The Baptist General Convention of Texas, believe it or not, voted on Nov. 10 to repudiate the denomination's call last year for women to "submit graciously" to husbands. Source: Washington Post, 11/10/99
A controversy after a public official said that Jews should move to Israel if they don't like "living in a Christian nation" ended with the removal of religious displays at the Tippecanoe County Courthouse, Indiana.
Commissioner Kathleen Hudson, who made the remarks in an e-mail reply to a Jewish constituent, added: "I am personally getting tired of defending my faith in Christ. If you don't like living in a Christian nation, then by all means move to Israel."
Hudson later apologized, then voted with a majority in late November to end the practice of allowing nativity scenes at the courthouse.
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Nov. 15 to hear an appeal from school board officials in Santa Fe, Texas, seeking to overturn an appeals court ruling barring student prayer over the PA system at school football games.
Challenging the school prayers are Mormon and Catholic students and their parents. A 3-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that the football prayers circumvent the Constitution.
Joining Texas in asking the Supreme Court to hear the case were: Alabama, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, South Carolina and Tennessee. Gov. George W. Bush was the only governor to sign the brief.
A sophomore from the Santa Fe school said football prayers "led to a lot of problems . . . fighting and arguing at school, with the kickers and gangs and atheists taking sides."
The U.S. Supreme Court in November heard arguments in a case taken by religious students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who successfully sued to stop their activity fees from funding "objectionable" groups.
The federal appeals court in Chicago ruled in favor of the Christian students. About $15 of the $166.50 in fees paid each semester by students were distributed to more than 180 student groups, including a women's center and an AIDS support group objected to by the students.
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Oct. 22 that a New Jersey school was right to refuse to let a 6-year-old read a bible story out loud in class. That court upheld a lower court ruling that first grade teacher Grace Oliva, of Haines Elementary School, Medford, was right to prevent the boy from reading from "The Beginner's Bible" in 1996. Judge Walter K. Stapleton, writing for the court, said otherwise students might have believed the bible was school sanctioned.
The National Organization for Women filed a lawsuit immediately after the state of Florida in November approved sale of "Choose Life" license plates, with proceeds going to antiabortion (religious) groups for adoption. NOW's complaint called the slogan "a religious motto which has frequently been used to harass, intimidate and at times kill" those who choose abortion.
U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott in early December dismissed a challenge by a Jewish plaintiff against the establishment of Jesus' (alleged) birthday as a national holiday. In Dr. Seuss-style verse implying the litigant was a Grinch, she also implied joy, sharing and caring are unique to Christmas: "Christmas is about joy/And giving and sharing/It is about the child within us/It is mostly about caring!"
Dlott said the government recognizes public holidays to "accommodate the calendar of public activities," including visiting with families and "attending religious services." Dlott decreed that the Establishment and Santa are "both worthwhile claus(es)."
Rick Ganulin, an assistant solicitor for the city of Cincinnati, spoke before the annual FFRF convention in 1998 about his lawsuit.
The Illinois Board of Education quietly eliminated "evolution" from state school standards two years ago, the Chicago Tribune reported on October 24, adopting standards in July 1997 referring only to "change over time."
Illinois' standards do not bar teaching evolution but leave explicit mention of it to the discretion of local school boards. The paper reported that the first science test to be administered next February as part of the new Illinois Standards Achievement Test will not address the term "evolution." The Tribune reports the change was at the instigation of the Illinois Christian Coalition, which also had references deleted in the guidelines to human sexuality, health products and multicultural studies.
The Oklahoma State Textbook Committee voted Nov. 5 to require middle and high school biology and life sciences textbooks to include a disclaimer about evolution, as is done in Alabama. The disclaimer calls evolution a controversial theory that can refer to "the unproven belief that random, undirected forces produced a world of living things."
Said teacher John Dickmann: "Some of us on the committee wanted to send a strong statement to the publisher that we are fed up with textbooks that only present one side of the story."
Vice-chair Laura Dobson, a kindergarten teacher, led the attack, freely admitting she wants creationism to receive equal billing in public schools.
All committee members were appointed by Gov. Frank Keating, a Catholic who told the Tulsa World he doesn't think he descended from a baboon. Keating "dissents" from U.S. Supreme Court rulings that creationism cannot be taught in public schools.
The ACLU filed suit on Nov. 16 challenging the April sale of a downtown block of Main Street in Salt Lake City to the Mormon Church, saying the deal squelches free speech and limits public access.
The church promised to keep the plaza unfenced and open 24 hours a day when it bought 2 acres once known as "soapbox corner" from the city for $8.1 million. But it instituted a series of bans on smoking, music, begging, bicycling and other public use.
"The city has in effect given the church a preferred platform right in the heart of the city that is closed to everybody else," said the ACLU. Plaintiffs include the First Unitarian Church, the Utah branch of NOW, and Utahns for Fairness.
The rejection by House of Representative leaders of Father Tim O'Brien, Marquette University, as House chaplain brought cries of "bigotry" in early December from Catholics around the country, as well as renewed calls to end the state-funded $132,000 sinecure. The budget for the House chaplain is $277,000 annually, although few members attend the opening prayers, and chaplains travel the country collecting speaking fees while on House salary.
"For years the Foundation has protested Congressional chaplaincies," said Foundation president Anne Gaylor. "We deplore the large amount of money involved. The recent controversy proves once again the divisive nature of religion in government."
O'Brien has fumed since losing the position, charging anti-Catholic bias. He claims House leaders rejected the recommendation of a bipartisan 18-member committee who placed him first among three candidates. Only Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-MO) voted for O'Brien. House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX) voted for the Rev. Charles Wright, a Presbyterian. Rev. Wright said he looks forwarding to helping the members "bear the loneliness of leadership."
The House is scheduled to ratify the leadership's recommendation on Jan. 27.
Thousands of the 9,000 residents of Harrisburg, Illinois, rallied in November in favor of the local school board's decision to post Ten Commandments in principals' offices.
Holding a November "Restore the Law and Glory Rally" at a Baptist church in Corbin, Kentucky, were Christians addressed by Judge Roy Moore, protesting on behalf of posting Ten Commandments in Kentucky classrooms.
Although the Supreme Court in 1980 specifically overturned a Kentucky statute permitting the posting of the Ten Commandments in public classrooms, seven school districts have at least one school where the commandments are posted in classrooms: Jackson, Harlan, Pike, Russell, Knott, and Perry counties, Kentucky, and Campbell County, Tennessee.
In late November the Val Verde Board of Education in Riverside County, California, reversed its unanimous decision to post Ten Commandments in district offices after being sued by the ACLU.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 9-3 in October that Fairfax County, Virginia, had no right to ban a nonresident from placing a creche display outside the government center at Christmastime.
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