Religious intermarriage increases as Christian Millennials decline

By Nisa Islam Muhammad -Staff Writer- | Last updated: May 29, 2015 - 9:35:06 AM

WASHINGTON - “I would marry someone that’s not Christian. Christianity is not that important to me.”

“A person’s faith is not on my list of top ten things I look for in a spouse.”

“A person’s character and value system is more relevant than their religion. People can say they are Christian and act like the devil.”

On a busy corner in the nation’s capital those were the responses from millennials (Americans born between 1981 and 1996) when asked, “Would you marry someone that’s not Christian?” They mirror the findings of the 2014 Landscape Study of Religion by the Pew Research Center that interreligious marriage is on the rise.

According to the report, among Americans who have gotten married since 2010, nearly four-in-ten (39 percent) report that they are in religiously mixed marriages, compared with 19 percent among those who got married before 1960.

The rise in intermarriage appears to be linked with the growth of the religiously unaffiliated population. Nearly one-in-five people surveyed who got married since 2010 are either religiously unaffiliated respondents who married a Christian spouse or Christians who married an unaffiliated spouse. By contrast, just 5 percent of people who got married before 1960 fit this profile.

“I would marry a man even if he wasn’t Christian,” said Darla Peterson, a 29-year-old executive assistant. “That was important when I was younger but not so much now. I want to marry a man with good character and values, he may be Christian, he may be Muslim. I’m Christian and want to marry a man who believes in God.”

“Getting married is just so hard for Black women that I don’t want to add another stumbling block that he has to be Christian when a lot of good men don’t go to church for one reason or another.”

On that same corner when asked if they go to church respondents answered: “I used to go to church but I stopped.” “Even though I grew up going to church, I just don’t find it relevant anymore.” “Church, why?” “I’m spiritual, not religious.” “I can find more important things to do with my Sunday mornings than go to church.”

“We’ve known that the religiously unaffiliated has been growing for decades,” said Greg Smith, Pew’s associate director of religion research and the lead researcher on the new study. “But the pace at which they’ve continued to grow is really astounding.”

Millennials are not the only ones leaving the church. The report found that married and singles are leaving, the rich and the poor are leaving, the young and the old are leaving, from coast to coast, north and south are leaving. In fact almost every demographic group has seen a significant drop in people who call themselves Christians.

“It’s an interesting phenomena that I didn’t really think about until you just asked,” said Harrison Rollins, a 33-year-old engineer. “I used to go to church all the time when I was younger but life just sort of got in the way. I changed churches, met a girlfriend who didn’t go to church, tried to get her involved, that was too difficult so I just stopped going. I still believe in God but I just don’t go to church anymore.”

“I will listen to T.D. Jakes or Creflo Dollar sometimes on the internet. I know I need to get back to church. I’m working on it.”

The report explained that overall, 35 percent of adult millennials are religiously unaffiliated. Far more millennials say they have no religious affiliation compared with those who identify as evangelical Protestants (21 percent), Catholics (16 percent) or mainline Protestants (11 percent).

Although older generations also have grown somewhat more religiously unaffiliated in recent years, millennials remain far more likely to identify as religious “nones.” The 35 percent of millennials who do not identify with a religion is double the share of unaffiliated Baby Boomers (17 percent) and more than three times the share of members of the Silent generation (11 percent).

While some millennials are leaving their childhood religion to become unaffiliated, most millennials who were raised without a religious affiliation are remaining religious “nones” in adulthood.

“It’s not as if young people today are being raised in a way completely different from Christianity,” explained Mr. Smith. “But as adults they are simply dropping that part of their identity.”

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