The Religiously Unaffiliated in 2020: The Influences and Roles of the "Nones" in Contemporary Healthcare
Mary Lynn Dell, MD, DMin, Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Pediatrics,The Ohio State University and Nationwide Children's Hospital
In addition to scientific and technological advances, many accepted cultural norms, beliefs, and role expectations of health care providers and patients were solidified between World War II and the 1990s. Associated with these commonly held suppositions about medical culture were related, often reliable and predictable generalizations about the religious and spiritual beliefs and practices of patients, families, and health care providers. The major world faith traditions of Christianity and Judaism predominated, followed distantly by other traditions such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and others. Even if individuals did not attend religious services or participate regularly in organized faith communities, enough elements of American society were informed by basic religious principles served to keep the large majority of providers and patients united in shared, religiously informed beliefs and priorities regarding health care.
However, the assumption that most Americans claim traditional religious affiliations has changed dramatically over the last thirty years. The National Survey of Religious Identification (1990) found 7% of the population to be religiously unaffiliated. According to the American Religious Identification Survey (2008), this number rose to 15% in less than two decades, especially in those thirty years of age and younger. Consistent with the trend toward non-affiliation of younger individuals, sociologist of religion Christian Smith and the National Study of Youth and Religion (2001-2005) found that 40% of emerging adults were religiously indifferent, religiously disconnected, or irreligious. Most recently, the Pew Research Center has defined the religiously unaffiliated, often referred to as the “Nones”, as a collective group of those who identify themselves as atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular”. Between the 2007 and 2014 Religious Landscape Studies conducted by the Pew Research Center, the unaffiliated increased from 36.6 million to 55.8 million adults. The “Nones” are now exceeded in size only by evangelical Protestants, surpassing the numbers of Catholics and mainline Protestants in the United States.
Though two thirds of “Nones” believe in some aspect of a deity or higher power, they tend not to subscribe to the views and beliefs of God as described in traditional sacred writings. With the decline in religious affiliation and traditional beliefs and practices stemming from adherence to historical world religions may come changes in values, attitudes, and behaviors in the realms of medicine and healthcare that have been rooted in, informed or influenced by particular theological tenets and ethics. This paper will offer observations about current and future implications of the increasing percentage of the “Nones” – as patients, family members, and health care providers – in health care. Specific areas to be considered include normal development, wellness, preventive medicine, reproduction, death and dying, common bioethical issues, pharmacology, psychiatry and mental health, economics and service delivery, and public health and social justice issues in medicine.
However, the assumption that most Americans claim traditional religious affiliations has changed dramatically over the last thirty years. The National Survey of Religious Identification (1990) found 7% of the population to be religiously unaffiliated. According to the American Religious Identification Survey (2008), this number rose to 15% in less than two decades, especially in those thirty years of age and younger. Consistent with the trend toward non-affiliation of younger individuals, sociologist of religion Christian Smith and the National Study of Youth and Religion (2001-2005) found that 40% of emerging adults were religiously indifferent, religiously disconnected, or irreligious. Most recently, the Pew Research Center has defined the religiously unaffiliated, often referred to as the “Nones”, as a collective group of those who identify themselves as atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular”. Between the 2007 and 2014 Religious Landscape Studies conducted by the Pew Research Center, the unaffiliated increased from 36.6 million to 55.8 million adults. The “Nones” are now exceeded in size only by evangelical Protestants, surpassing the numbers of Catholics and mainline Protestants in the United States.
Though two thirds of “Nones” believe in some aspect of a deity or higher power, they tend not to subscribe to the views and beliefs of God as described in traditional sacred writings. With the decline in religious affiliation and traditional beliefs and practices stemming from adherence to historical world religions may come changes in values, attitudes, and behaviors in the realms of medicine and healthcare that have been rooted in, informed or influenced by particular theological tenets and ethics. This paper will offer observations about current and future implications of the increasing percentage of the “Nones” – as patients, family members, and health care providers – in health care. Specific areas to be considered include normal development, wellness, preventive medicine, reproduction, death and dying, common bioethical issues, pharmacology, psychiatry and mental health, economics and service delivery, and public health and social justice issues in medicine.