You can read about them in a steady stream of reports heralding the demise of 21st-century American Christianity: the growing population of “Nones” who are no longer filling church pews. The label, of course, comes from that dangling multiple-choice item on questionnaires asking about religious affiliation: “None of the above.”
“The Nones” is an unfortunate term, easily confused with “the nuns.” You can’t use it in conversation without spelling it out. But Nones not nuns: vows are not their specialty.
Who are they? Although the unaffiliated are a varied bunch, sociologists reassure us that a great many of them self-identify as “spiritual.” The spiritual-but-not-religious subset of Nones haven’t given up on God (whoever or whatever they conceive God to be). Their search for the divine has simply broadened beyond traditional churches.
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