Saying ‘no’ to your parents’ religion, or to all religion as currently defined, does not mean saying ‘no’ to faith. And God, whether you believe in Him/Her or not, help anyone who makes that mistake regardless of how many statistics they use to prove their point. Statistics, a teacher of mine at the University of Chicago used to say, are used most often the way a drunk uses a lamppost, more for support than for illumination.
Nowhere is that more true than when demographers, sociologists and statisticians use simple, rigid categories to describe something as complex and nuanced as spiritual identity. That’s why we should beware sweeping conclusions like the one on today’s USA Today which suggests that faith may be vanishing. Are they kidding?

If the study tells us anything at all, it is that the categories by which people measure and define their own faith are shifting and that is hardly new. The personalized, even idiosyncratic nature of faith in our culture has been a growing trend for a very long time. We may look back to Robert Bella’s Habits of the Heart, or the emergence of American Pentecostalism in a Los Angeles stable 100 years before that, or even the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock.
The bottom line is that we have also been a culture that rejected the spiritual status quo. But we have not ever been, and are not now, a culture that rejects faith. We just want in on our own terms – that is the American tradition. The American Religious Identity Survey actually confirms that. For people invested in status quo categories, whether out of academic or theological necessity, that may be upsetting, but it need not be for the rest of us.
The results of the American Religious Identity Survey suggest that we live in a time of incredible spiritual ferment – one in which personal freedom and individual dignity are celebrated. The last time I checked, those were pretty good values to celebrate.
In light of this survey, we simply need to ask ourselves two questions. First, how do people, whatever faith they follow (including no faith at all) maintain their sense of obligation to the welfare of others when personal freedom defines their identity? Without that kind of commitment, forget religion, the world is in trouble. Second, and how do those of us who still feel deeply rooted in a particular tradition take advantage of this moment not to make converts, or beef up our numbers, but serve all people (most of whom will never sit in our pews or pay our dues) who might benefit from some of the wisdom contained within the traditions we follow?