Americans worry that religious institutions are watering down, abandoning traditional beliefs: survey

By Samantha Kamman, Christian Post Reporter Sunday, April 16, 2023

While a significant number of American adults say religious faith is important to their everyday lives, many fear that religious institutions are “watering down” or abandoning traditional beliefs, according to a recent survey. 

On Thursday, Rasmussen Reports released a survey of 1,056 American adults, with 75% saying that faith is important to their everyday lives, an increase from 71% in 2018. Another 49% of respondents answered that their faith is very important to their everyday lives. 

Regarding the religious denominations of those surveyed, 25% identified as Evangelical Christians, 21% were Catholic and 16% identified as Protestant. Three percent of participants identified as Jewish and 1% identified as Muslim. Another 17% identified as some other religious faith, while another 12% said they were atheists. 

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The level of importance respondents placed on faith differed across denominations. Sixty-nine percent of Evangelical Christians consider faith to be important to their daily lives, and 60% of Catholics held the same opinion. Forty-five percent of Protestants, 33% of Jews, 37% of Muslims, and 52% of those who identify as some other religion. 

Among the groups with concerns that religious institutions are watering down or abandoning their traditional beliefs, 52% of Evangelical Christians strongly believed that this is the case. Thirty percent of Protestants, 41% of Jews, and 34% of Catholics held the same opinion. 

In terms of political identities, 35% of participants who are Evangelical Christians and call themselves Republicans and 23% who identify as Democrats agreed, in addition to 19% of adults who are not affiliated with either party. Twenty-three percent of Republicans and Democrats who identify as Catholic also said this is true about present-day religious institutions. 

Seventeen percent of respondents that identify as unaffiliated expressed the same opinion, as did 18% of Democrats 14% of Republicans and 16% of the unaffiliated that identify as Protestant.

Women (53%) were more likely than men (44%) to consider their faith to be very important to their daily lives. Men are also more likely (38%) than women to rarely or never attend church, synagogue or mosque. Among racial lines, 39% of whites, 49% of blacks and 48% of other minorities said that they attend religious services at least monthly.

Married adults are more likely (47%) than their unmarried peers (33%) to attend religious services at least monthly. 

The adults most likely to strongly agree that religious institutions nowadays are watering down or abandoning their traditional beliefs said that they attend religious services at least weekly. 

Sixty-two percent of Catholics responded that they attend services at least monthly, similar to 51% of Evangelical Christians and 40% of Protestants. Regarding weekly service attendance, 31% of Catholics and 28% of Evangelical Christians said they attend weekly services, alongside 23% of Protestants. 

Fifty-two percent of Republicans, 44% of Democrats and 34% of the unaffiliated attend religious services at least monthly. Republicans (42%) were more likely than Democrats (31%) or unaffiliated adults (32%) to strongly agree that too many religious institutions nowadays are watering down or abandoning their traditional beliefs. 

More Republicans (55%) than Democrats (49%) and unaffiliated adults (44%) consider their religious faith to be very important in their daily lives. 

Income played a role in how much emphasis those surveyed placed on faith, and Americans earning less than $100,000 annually were more likely to consider their religious faith to be a very important part of their daily lives. Sixty-four percent of those with annual incomes below $30,000 said the same thing. 

The survey was conducted from April 9-11 with the margin of sampling error at +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% confidence level. Fieldwork for the survey was done by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. 

As The Christian Post previously reported, a separate survey released by Rasmussen Reports in October found that one-third of American adults said they attend religious services at least once per month. The survey of 1,155 U.S. adults, conducted from Sept. 20-21, 2022, found that 69% of American adults consider themselves religious, with 24% saying they're very religious.