Showing papers on "Supreme Being published in 1954"

Religious Communities in Present-Day America

Abstract: One of the striking facts about the present religious situation in the United States is the notable growth of religious bodies and the marked increase in religious affiliation on the part of the American people. In 1900, 36 per cent of the American people were reported as religiously affiliated; by 1930, the figure had risen to 47 per cent; and by 1950, to 57 per cent. In the quarter of a century from 1926 to 1950, the population of the United States rose 28.6 per cent; church membership, however, jumped nearly 60 per cent. The annual gain in church membership since 1940 has been some two per cent, the most rapid in all our history. Allowing for the notorious imprecision of statistics on religion, it may still be asserted with considerable confidence that there is today among the American people a greater tendency than ever before to regard themselves as affirmatively religious and to identify themselves with religious institutions. The actual religious significance of this tendency is not easy to assess; certainly it would be rash to infer from the statistics any conclusions as to the actual faith of the masses of the American people. There are too many cultural and sociological factors involved, and “religion” means too many different things to different people, to make any such inference at all possible. But I do not think it can be denied that there is today a growing tendency towards religious identification among Americans. Even those Americans who avow no particular church affiiliation would, in the great majority, regard themselves as “religious” in some sense. Again, merely as a cultural fact, it may be asserted that Supreme Court Justice Douglas' recent dictum (speaking forthe court in the New York released time case, 1952), “We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being,” just about describes the view the American people, by and large, take of themselves.