Identify and briefly explain three reasons that support the claim that American society is becoming increasingly secular. (9 Marks)

Many sociologists argue the fact that America is becoming a secular society (a society where religious thinking, practice and institutions lose social significance – B. Wilson 1966). Bruce is a strong believer in secularisation and has thought up of three reasons supporting his beliefs;

Secularisation from Within, Bruce believes that the emphasis on traditional Christian beliefs and glorifying God has declined to keep religion popular and thus America becoming a secular society. The purpose of religion has changed from seeking salvation in heaven to seeking personal improvements in the world (e.g. having your child christened to get them into the best school). Evidence of this is that churchgoers are now a lot less strict in their adherence to traditional religious morality than previously, and it not just non-religious people who are acting like this.

Religious Diversity, religious followers are now much less dogmatic in their views and are open to other opinions, this is called practical relativism. Lynd and Lynd’s study found in 1924, 94% of churchgoing young people agreed with the saying ‘Christianity is the one true religion and all people should be converted to it’, whereas in 1977 this figure plummeted to a small 41%. The Erosion of Absolutism is the counterpart to practical relativism and indicates that due to living in a society where there are so many different views, we start to doubt our own.

Declining Church Attendance, Opinion poll research estimates that church attendance has been stable at roughly 40% of the attendance since 1940, however this figure has been criticised by many sociologists such as Hadaway (1993) who argues that if this figure was true every church in America would be full – but they are not. Hadaway later carried out some more research which found that in Ashtabula County, Ohio after interviewing people regarding church attendance and then counting number at church services the number of people who said they attended church was a staggering 83% higher than the average number of those at services! This ‘attendance gap’ seems to be rising as many other sociologists have carried out similar studies and the more recent the study generally the larger the gap. Bruce sees this as critical evidence for the proof of secularisation, and that people lie about going to church as they still see it as socially desirable or normative to go to church. However I would like to argue that if people are socially embarrassed about not going to church and that church is the ‘norm’ thing to do then how can you argue that secularisation in happening in America?