WASHINGTON — It's almost reached the level of cliche in American
society: You ask someone why they don't go to church, and they reply, "Oh,
I'm spiritual but not religious."
But what does that mean? A survey conducted jointly by the Public
Religion Research Institute and Florida State University does not provide
hard-and-fast answers, but it offers clues.
Without asking respondents directly whether they considered
themselves spiritual but not religious — or at any other spot on the
spirituality-religiosity spectrum — the survey tried to tease out what made them
different from their fellow Americans.
"We tried eight different measures to get a spiritual
analysis," said Dan Cox, PRRI research director. "Three (measures)
really held together: They felt particularly connected to the world around
them, they felt a part of something larger than the just themselves, and they
found a larger purpose in life."
To determine whether survey respondents were religious, "we
took a more conventional approach: frequency of worship attendance and salience
— how important people said religion was in their life," Cox said.
Despite the near-ubiquity of the "spiritual but not
religious" comment, this group was the smallest of the four designations,
at 18 percent. Those who are neither spiritual nor religious constitute 31
percent, those who are both spiritual and religious make up 29 percent, and
those who are not spiritual but religious account for 22 percent.
"We didn't really look at the actual practices," Cox
said in a Nov. 8 telephone interview, although that may be part of a future
survey involving the same respondents.
One intent of the study was to "look at what difference, if
any, that spirituality makes in people's behavior and life satisfaction.
According to our definition of spirituality, it has a discernible impact,"
Cox said. "How they treat other people, pro-social behaviors, holding the
door open for someone, letting others cut in line."
Among the not religious but spiritual group, 62 percent said they
had listened to someone talk about a problem in the past week; 49 percent
reported they were moved, touched or inspired while watching television in the
last week — double that of the 24 percent of nonspiritual Americans; and 72
percent said the statement "if I had to list everything I felt grateful
for, it would be a very long list" describes them either exactly or very
well.
"No activity is a greater source of inspiration than
listening to music," the survey report said. "Roughly seven in 10 (71
percent) spiritual Americans — including 69 percent of the spiritual but not
religious — say they have been touched, moved or inspired within the last week
while listening to a song or piece of music."
"Spirituality is obviously a concept that can be difficult
to pin down. The GSS — the General Social Survey (by the National Opinion
Research Center at the University of Chicago) — is a large data set. And it
asks, 'Do you consider yourself a religious person, do you consider yourself a
spiritual person?' That's not the approach that we took," Cox said.
The Pew Research Center, he added, also asks respondents to
identify themselves as spiritual or religious or not, and comes up with a
higher percentage than did PRRI. Therefore, the 18 percent figure can't be
compared to a number arrived by a different survey using different measuring methods.
"Are they growing, are they shrinking? We don't know,"
Cox said. One thing is for sure, he noted: "Interest in spirituality is
increasing. There's some signs of that."
"Most Americans who are spiritual but not religious still
identify with a religious tradition," said the survey report, released
Nov. 6.
Among Catholics, who made up 18 percent of the 2,016 subjects in
the phone and online interview pool this spring, 32 percent are both spiritual
and religious, 31 percent are not spiritual but religious, 22 percent are
neither spiritual nor religious, and 15 percent are spiritual but not
religious.
When split according to religious affiliation, unaffiliated
respondents were highest in being neither spiritual nor religious (65 percent)
and being spiritual but not religious (29 percent, with non-Christians at 28
percent), and lowest on being both spiritual and religious (1 percent).
Black Protestants were highest at being not spiritual but
religious (39 percent) and lowest at being neither spiritual nor religious (8
percent) and being spiritual but not religious (tied at 5 percent with white
evangelicals). White evangelicals were highest at being both spiritual and
religious at 54 percent, and non-Christians were lowest at being not spiritual
but religious, at 9 percent.
The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percent.