New Pew Forum Poll on Religious Belief in America

Americans are widely known now for our rather mix-and-match tendencies in religious approach and identity. Many people attend services of other religions than our own and blend Christianity with other religious practices like Buddhist meditation and New Age techniques.

This is no doubt a prominent approach within my denomination, Unity. We have always drawn inspiration and influence from other religious traditions from the very start when Charles and Myrtle Fillmore were reading about Indian religion and taking metaphysical cues from Emerson and other Transcendentalists. While Unity is not New Age, it is New Thought, which is a tradition that feels free to draw on New Age methods and beliefs to forward people on their spiritual journey, while often retaining much language, scripture, and culture from Christianity.

So this new Pew Forum poll is relevant to all Americans, but Unity occupies a unique place in American religious practice since it stands within the predominant Christian tradition yet draws on and incorporates much from other religions that constitute the rich plurality of religion and culture within the U.S.

The Pew Forum poll generally states that although the U.S. is an overwhelmingly Christian country, significant minorities say they hold beliefs of the sort found at Buddhist temples or New Age gatherings. Twenty-four percent of those surveyed overall and 22 percent of Christians say they believe in reincarnation, the idea that people will be reborn in this world again and again. Also, another piece in the poll relates that 1/4 of Americans say they sometimes attend services of a faith different from their own. (I am part of this 25% since, though I'm a progressive Unity Christian, attend Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Christian services often and I participate in Buddhist temple ceremonies and meditation gatherings from time to time as well.)

Alan Cooperman, associate director for research at the Pew Forum, says, ''It is as much now the norm as it is the exception for Americans to blend multiple religious beliefs and practices." (Faith in Public Life)

This rather new but increasingly present phenomenon of multiple religious belonging is becoming a permanent and interesting feature of the American religious situation. Within Unity circles, multiple religious belonging is probably more common than in other denominations and is very much welcomed, which can be witnessed in public statements of the Association of Unity Churches and Unity Institute as well as local Unity congregational statements.
This is all a testament to the openness and inclusivity of the Unity movement (regardless of the internal disputes about Unity's "identity") and to the influence of the wonderful religious diversity of our current religious context in the U.S.

Read more about the Pew Forum Poll at Faith in Public Life.