Interfaith and Nondenominational Weddings Trends - New Study Offers Insight

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A recent study on religion in America may provide some insight into the growing trend in interfaith and non-religious weddings.

"The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey" released February 25 by The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life tells us that more than a quarter of Americans have abandoned or switched from the faith of their birth and 16.1 percent consider themselves unaffiliated.

The study does not specifically cite statistics on Interfaith weddings or marriage, as far as we can see. However, the fluidity of people's religious beliefs is obviously opening the door to increasing numbers of interfaith unions. The evidence that such a large number of Americans have stepped away from organized religion points to the increased demand for non-denominational or non-religious wedding ceremonies.

Of the group of unaffiliated individuals, about 4 per cent say they are Agnostic or Atheistic. So they may still believe in God but not religion, per see. Does that mean that the rest of the nonaffiliated are affiliating with some spiritual practice?

Just over 12 percent says they are connected to "nothing in particular".

Hmmm... it is fascinating to see such a changing sentiment about religion. It appears that a fair number of people are making choices to follow a path that is personally fulfilling. Or not follow one at all.

The survey was based on interviews with 35,000 people.

In the scheme of things, the survey says that people are "moving around" among different faiths and houses of worship and that the "Unaffiliated" was the fourth largest group.

1) Evangelical Protestant Churches 23.3%
2) Catholic 23.9%
3) Mainline Protestant Churches 18.1%
4) Unaffiliated, 16.1 %

In addition to all this, there are some interesting findings on most all of the worlds faiths, broken down in several ways -- such as where in the nation and marriage statistics. I do not see any mention of earth-based religions, though, in this report, unless they are under the 0.3 per cent of "other world religions."

Check out the survey results for yourself.

Interfaith Lotus Yantra image available from The Lotus Temple.