The political activities we measured included voting, volunteering, contacting representatives, protesting and donating to political campaigns. We examined the political behaviors of people who engaged in activities such as yoga, meditation, making art, walking in nature, praying and attending religious services. To answer our research question about spirituality and civic engagement, we used a new nationally representative survey of Americans studied in 2020. “But they shoved a handful of verses down my throat that completely sexualize me as a gay person and … dismissed who I am as a complex human being.

“They loved to tell me my sexuality doesn’t define me,” one 25-year-old former evangelical, Christian Ethan Stalker, told the Religion News Service in 2021 in describing his former church. This explanation may hold especially true among Americans disaffected by the rightward lurch that now divides many congregations, exacerbating cultural fissures around race, gender and sexual orientation. They are less likely to frequent local businesses.Ĭhen suggests that this disinvestment in community can ultimately lead to cuts in public services and weaken democracy.Īlternatively, our research posited, spiritual practices may serve as a substitute for religion. They invest in their company’s social capital rather than building ties with their neighbors, religious congregations and other civic groups. When workplaces fulfill workers’ most personal needs – providing not only meals and laundry but also recreational activities, spiritual coaches and mindfulness sessions – skilled workers end up spending most of their time at work. As one employee described a company mindfulness program, it helped her “self-manage” and “not get triggered.” While these skills made her happier and gave her “the clarity to handle the complex problems of the company,” Chen shows how they also teach employees to put work first, sacrificing other kinds of social connection.īringing spiritual practice into the office may give workers deeper purpose and meaning, but Chen says it can have some unintended consequences. This is the argument sociologist Carolyn Chen pursues in her new book “ Work, Pray, Code,” about how meditators in Silicon Valley are re-imagining Buddhist practices as productivity tools. Spiritual practice could lead people to focus on more selfish or self-interested pursuits, such as their own personal development and career progress, to the detriment of U.S. Our research began with the assumption that moving from organized religious practices to spiritual practices could have one of two effects on greater American society. Spiritually selfish or religiously alienated? We used survey data to compare how these two groups of spiritual and religious Americans vote, volunteer and otherwise get involved in their communities. They suggest religiously disengaged Americans are channeling their energies into themselves and their careers rather than into civic pursuits that may benefit the public.Īs sociologists who study religion and public life, we wanted to answer that question. Some critics question whether this new focus on mindfulness and self-care is making Americans more self-centered.

Not everyone considers these practices “spiritual,” but many do pursue them as an alternative to religious engagement.

The number of those who practiced yoga jumped from 9.5% to 14.3%. Meanwhile, other kinds of meaningful practice are on the rise, from meditation and yoga to new secular rituals like Sunday assemblies “without God.” Between 20, the percentage of American adults who meditated rose from 4.1% to 14.2%, according to a 2018 CDC report.

Gallup found that 47% of Americans reported church membership in 2020, down from 70% in the 1990s nearly a quarter of Americans have no religious affiliation. Today – the rise of a politically potent religious right over the past 50 years notwithstanding – fewer Americans identify with formal religions. Through churches and other faith-based organizations, congregants volunteer, engage in local and national civic organizations and pursue political goals. Historically, religious Americans have been civically engaged. As the United States gets less religious, is it also getting more selfish?

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