Family Life

03.09.09 | FL News Team

The American Religious Identification poll is scheduled for release today. It will say the percentage of Americans who label themselves as Christian has tumbled more than eleven-percent in a single generation.

The ARIS survey says almost all religious denominations have lost members since the poll was first taken in 1990. "USA Today" quotes survey co-author Barry Kosmin as saying, "more than ever before, people are just making up their own stories of who they are. They say, I'm everything, I'm nothing. I believe in myself." 

Among the survey findings: 15-percent of Americans claim they're affiliated with no organized religion. While Baptists are represented by nearly 16-percent of the population the number is down from more than 19-percent in 1990.

The Catholic faith is claimed by more than 25-percent of survey respondents, down about one-percent from earlier polls. Jewish numbers have dropped from one-point-eight-percent in 1990 to one-point-two-percent today.

Bucking the trend is the percentage of people saying they're Muslims. That has doubled from three-tenths of a percent in 1990 to six-tenths of a percent today.

Reverend Kendall Harmon, a theologian for the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina says a couple once walked into his office carrying a yellow pad full of questions their teenage son had provided. Among them: "What is that guy doing hanging up there on the plus sign?"