Thubten was one of the funniest people I ever met and Tibetans are some of the sweetest and most fun loving and yet practical people I ever met traveling the world. He was a Mountain Climbing guide when I first met him in early 1986 in Dharamsala, India in the foothills of the Himalayas. (Foothills) just means that Dharamsala is between 5000 to 6000 feet in elevation and you are looking up at 20,000 foot peaks behind you into the Himalayas. Dharamsala is along the top of a 5000 to 6000 foot mountain ridge of mountains where the Dalai Lama lives with in 1985 around 10,000 Tibetan Refugees but now I hear it has grown to about 40,000 or more.
Thubten told me stories about Drukpa Kunley in English that were just so funny I laughed so hard I fell down sometimes. He had never ending funny stories to tell about Drukpa Kunley. At the time I thought it was only about spreading the Dharma (Tibetan Buddhist philosophy) in a funny Crazy Wisdom kind of way. 20 years later I found out that Drukpa Kunley was actually a real person in Bhutan and yet he is famous as a supernatural jokester to all Tibetans still today. It was really really amazing to actually find out that he was actually a real person.
So, here was Thubten telling (True) stories about a real divine madman in Bhutan and I thought they were just made up by him or others to spread the Crazy Wisdom aspects of the dharma. Nope. He was a real person. Imagine my surprise 20 years later to find out he was actually real and historical in Bhutan. And also he was a member of the Dragon lineage as well.
Sunday, January 31, 2016
Drukpa Kunley "The Divine Madman of Bhutan"
- Drukpa Kunley (1455 - 1529), also known as Kunga Legpai Zangpo, Drukpa Kunleg (Tibetan: འབྲུག་པ་ཀན་ལེགས་, Wylie: 'brug pa kun legs ...
- The Tantric Buddhist Master Drukpa Kunley is one of Tibet's foremost saints and yogis and the patron saint of Bhutan. He belongs to the Drukpa (Dragon) school ...
- Lama Drukpa Kunley is one of the strangest religious and historical characters in the exotic land of Bhutan. One of the great religious teachers and holy men, Drukpa ...
- Phallus paintings in Bhutan are esoteric symbols, ... Drukpa Kunley's intention was to shock the clergy, who were uppity and prudish in their behaviour and teachings ...
-
DZONGKHA TRANSLATION OF CHOEJAY DRUKPA KUNLEY NAMTHAR ...
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Chimi Lhakhang - Drukpa Kunley
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be here now ViennaCourse 2013
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Drukpa Kunley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article may need to be rewritten entirely to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards. (March 2010)
Drukpa Kunley (1455 - 1529), also known as Kunga Legpai Zangpo, Drukpa Kunleg (Tibetan: འབྲུག་པ་ཀན་ལེགས་, Wylie: 'brug pa kun legs), and Kunga Legpa, the Madman of the Dragon Lineage (Tibetan: འབྲུག་སྨྱོན་ཀུན་དགའ་ལེགས་པ་, Wylie: 'brug smyon kun dga' legs pa), was a great master of Mahamudra in the Buddhist tradition, as well as a famous poet,[1] and is often counted among the Nyönpa. After undergoing training in Ralung Monastery under siddha Pema Lingpa, he introduced Buddhism to Bhutan and established the monastery of Chimi Lhakhang there in 1499.Part of a series on Tibetan Buddhism 
Contents
Biography
Drukpa Kunley was born into the branch of the noble Gya (Tibetan: རྒྱ, Wylie: rgya) clan of Ralung Monastery in the Tsang region of western Tibet, which was descended from Lhabum (lha 'bum), the second eldest brother of Tsangpa Gyare. His father was Rinchen Zangpo. He was nephew to the 2nd Gyalwang Drukpa and father of Ngawang Tenzin and Zhingkyong Drukdra.[citation needed]
He was known for his crazy methods of enlightening other beings, mostly women, which earned him the title "The Saint of 5,000 Women". Among other things, women would seek his blessing in the form of sex. His intention was to show that it is possible to be enlightened, impart enlightenment, and still lead a very healthy sex life. He demonstrated that celibacy was not necessary for being enlightened. In addition, he wanted to expand the range of means by which enlightenment could be imparted, while adding new evolutionary prospects to the overarching tradition. He is credited with introducing the practice of phallus paintings in Bhutan and placing statues of them on rooftops to drive away evil spirits.[2] Because of this power to awaken unenlightened beings, Kunley's penis is referred to as the "Thunderbolt of Flaming Wisdom" and he himself is known as the "fertility saint". For this reason women from all around the world visited his monastery to seek his blessing.[3][4]
Visitors to Drukpa Kunley's monastery in Bhutan are welcome to enjoy a short trek up a hill. The monastery is very modest, only one smallish building, but it contains a wood-and-ivory lingam through which one can obtain blessings from the monk in residence.[citation needed].
Poems and songs of Drukpa Kunley
Poem about happiness
I am happy that I am a free Yogi.
So I grow more and more into my inner happiness.
I can have sex with many women,
because I help them to go the path of enlightenment.
Outwardly I'm a fool
and inwardly I live with a clear spiritual system.
Outwardly, I enjoy wine, women and song.
And inwardly I work for the benefit of all beings.
Outwardly, I live for my pleasure
and inwardly I do everything in the right moment.
Outwardly I am a ragged beggar
and inwardly a blissful Buddha.
Song about the pleasure
A young woman finds pleasure in love. A young man finds pleasure in sex. An old man finds pleasure in his memoirs. This is the doctrine of the three pleasures.
Who does not know the truth, is confused. Those who have no goals, can not sacrifice. Those who have no courage, can not be a Yogi. This is the doctrine of the three missing things.
Even if a person knows the way of wisdom; without practicing there is no realization. Even if a master shows you the way, you have to go it by yourself.
The five spiritual ways
I practice the path of self-discipline. I meditate every day.
I go the way of embracing love. I work as a mother and father of all beings.
I do the deity yoga. I visualize myself as a Buddha in the cosmic unity.
I read the books of all religions and practice all at the right moment.
The life is my teacher and my inner wisdom is my guide.[5]
Main teachers
- Gyalwang Drukpa II, Gyalwang Kunga Paljor ('brug chen kun dga' dpal 'byor) 1428-1476
- Lhatsun Kunga Chökyi Gyatso (lha btsun kun dga' chos kyi rgya mtsho) 1432-1505
- Pema Lingpa (padma gling pa) 1445-1521
Main lineages
See also
Notes
-
- Stein (1972), pp. 262, 272.
- Retold from Keith Dowman, Franz-Karl Ehrhard (Translator): The holy fool- the dissolute life and the profane songs of the tantric master Drugpa Künleg. O.W. Barth in jest, 2005, ISBN 978-3-502-61159-2
References
- Brown, L.; B. Mahew; S. Armington; R. Whitecross (2009). Bhutan. Penguin. ISBN 1-74059-529-7.
- Choden, Karma (2014). Phallus: Crazy Wisdom from Bhutan. ButterLamp Publishers. ISBN 978-9993691174.
- Dargey, Y. (2001)History of the Drukpa Kagyud School in Bhutan (Thimphu). ISBN 99936-616-0-0. pp 91–110.
- Dowman, K. & S. Paljor (eds.) (1980) The Divine Madman: the sublime life and songs of Drukpa Kunley (London). ISBN 0-913922-75-7.
- Stein, R. A. (1972). Tibetan Civilization. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California. ISBN 0-8047-0806-1 (cloth); ISBN 0-80-470901-7 (pbk).
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- end quote from:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drukpa_Kunley
(Tibetan) Buddhism in Bhutan: Wikipedia
Buddhism in Bhutan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Bhutanese Buddhist monk looking out the window of a monastery.
| Part of a series on |
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 Mahayana Buddhism portal |
Contents
Organizations
In 1989 some 1,000 monks (lam, or gelong, novices) belonged to the Central Monastic Body in Thimphu and Punakha, and some 4,000 monks belonged to district monastic bodies. The hierarchy is headed by the Je Khenpo, who was assisted by five lopons or masters, each in charge of religious tradition, liturgy, lexicography, or logic and university. The lonpon, one of whom, the Dorji Lonpon, normally succeeded the current Je Khenpo, had under them religious administrators and junior monastic officials in charge of art, music, and other areas. Gelugpa monks were celibate, but Nyingmapas consist of not only monks but also householders, allowing them to marry, raise families, and work in secular occupations while performing liturgical functions in temples and homes. In all, there were some 12,000 monks in Bhutan in the late 1980s. There were also active congregations of nuns, but no figures were readily available. The majority of Bhutan's Buddhists are adherents of the Drukpa subsect of the Kargyupa (literally, oral transmission) school, one of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism.Since July 2002, Menjong Chöthün Tshogpa, currently a nationwide non-profit organization in Bhutan, has been formed by the Supreme Dharma King or His Holiness of Bhutan mainly to preserve the indigenous Buddha's Teachings as their age-old culture and tradition. Subsequently Trizin Tsering Rimpoche has been enthroned as the chairman by His Holiness Truku Jigme Chödrag Rinpoche 70th Kyabje Dorjechang (Supreme Dharma King) of Bhutan himself since June 2003.[2][3]
Later in 2004, Trizin Tsering Rimpoche founded the Buddha Dordenma Image Foundation, under the patron of His Holiness of Bhutan, with an aim to fulfill a former prophecy in a terma of Guru Padmasambhava to bestow blessings on world peace and glorious happiness through the currently running Buddha Dordenma Project.
The Zhabdrung
Prior to 1907, the highest Buddhist leader in Bhutan was the Zhabdrung, a tulku who is seen as the reincarnation of Bhutan's founder. His formal activity to benefit all sentient beings is destined to occur in seven lives, each with his own prophecy.Monasteries
Monasteries and convents are common in Bhutan. Both monks and nuns keep their heads shaved and wear distinguishing maroon robes. Their days are spent in study and meditation but also in the performance of rituals honoring various bodhisattvas, praying for the dead, and seeking the intercession of bodhisattvas on behalf of the ill. Some of their prayers involved chants and singing accompanied by conch shell trumpets, trumpets made from human thighbones, metal horns up to three meters long, large standing drums and cymbals, hand bells, temple bells, gongs, and wooden sticks. Such monastic music and singing, not normally heard by the general public, has been reported to have "great virility" and to be more melodious than its Tibetan monotone counterparts. Common people do practice the religion in their own ways: day to day works, in their speech, in their thought and visiting the holy place and persons on holy dates (holy dates are the 8, 10, 15, 25, 28 and 30th day in a month in Bhutanese calendar).Buildings and objects
To bring Buddhism to the people, numerous symbols and structures are employed. Religious monuments, prayer walls, prayer flags, and sacred mantras carved in stone hillsides are prevalent. Among the religious monuments are chorten, the Bhutanese version of the Indian stupa. They range from simple rectangular "house" chorten to complex edifices with ornate steps, doors, domes, and spires. Some are decorated with the Buddha's eyes that see in all directions simultaneously. These earth, brick, or stone structures commemorate deceased kings, Buddhist saints, venerable monks, and other notables, and sometimes they serve as reliquaries. Prayer walls are made of laid or piled stone and inscribed with Tantric prayers. Prayers printed with woodblocks on cloth are made into tall, narrow, colorful prayer flags, which are then mounted on long poles and placed both at holy sites and at dangerous locations to ward off demons and to benefit the spirits of the dead. To help propagate the faith, itinerant monks travel from village to village carrying portable shrines with many small doors, which open to reveal statues and images of the Buddha, bodhisattavas, and notable lamas.Bön in Bhutan
Before the introduction of Buddhism, Bön religion was prevalent in Bhutan. Imported from Tibet and India, perhaps in the eighth century, Bön doctrine became so strongly reinvigorated by Buddhism that by the eleventh and twelfth century[4] it reasserted itself as an independent school apart from Buddhism. Bön continues to be practiced in modern Bhutan.See also
References
- Baruah, Bibhuti. Buddhist Sects and Sectarianism. p. 235.
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Library of Congress Country Studies.Bibliography
- Marks, Thomas A. (1977), Historical Observations on Buddhism in Bhutan, The Tibet Journal, Vol. 2 (2), pp. 74-91 – via JSTOR (subscription required)
External links
Why a path of Compassion?
If you hate yourself you will also tend to hate others.
If you hate others and yourself you might kill one or the other or both.
In fact, psychologically murderers are often called "suiciders vicariously dying with
everyone they kill". In other words killing for some is in place of their own suicide.
For some, this is reason enough to embark on a path of compassion.
It is in everyone's enlightened self interest to embark on a path of compassion simply
because it will save both your life and your family's lives and all the lives of those around you.
Other see it in a different way also:
which is:
If I am compassionate to myself I will be happier.
If I am compassionate to others they too will be happier.
If we are all compassionate in a practical way to each other
then we tend to create a heaven on earth.
In some ways this is what America is all about
as people come here who would have been enemies
in their native lands but who can often be friends here
instead of killing each other.
and if they still practice killing and revenge then they are either
killed themselves eventually or they are found by law enforcement
and either put in prison or killed by the State.
But, those who practice compassion and are law abiding citizens
can often live in peace and harmony in a heaven like realm all or
most of their lives here and in many other countries on earth.
If you hate others and yourself you might kill one or the other or both.
In fact, psychologically murderers are often called "suiciders vicariously dying with
everyone they kill". In other words killing for some is in place of their own suicide.
For some, this is reason enough to embark on a path of compassion.
It is in everyone's enlightened self interest to embark on a path of compassion simply
because it will save both your life and your family's lives and all the lives of those around you.
Other see it in a different way also:
which is:
If I am compassionate to myself I will be happier.
If I am compassionate to others they too will be happier.
If we are all compassionate in a practical way to each other
then we tend to create a heaven on earth.
In some ways this is what America is all about
as people come here who would have been enemies
in their native lands but who can often be friends here
instead of killing each other.
and if they still practice killing and revenge then they are either
killed themselves eventually or they are found by law enforcement
and either put in prison or killed by the State.
But, those who practice compassion and are law abiding citizens
can often live in peace and harmony in a heaven like realm all or
most of their lives here and in many other countries on earth.
Will Too big to fail Banks Bankrupt all nations on earth eventually?
The likely answer is "Yes"
if people are being honest about it.
However, then there are places like China where even if a too big to fail bank actually collapsed no one would find out about it and anyone who tried to talk about it would suddenly disappear.
Is this the future of "Too big to fail banks"?
where governments hide the financial truths from people all over the world?
Answer: Likely it would be the only way to prevent the financial collapse of all nations on earth.
I know this is a strange answer but unfortunately either you break up all the "too big to fail banking systems on earth" or you have to lie to all the people on earth to avoid something much worse than the Great Depression worldwide eventually.
Otherwise when a too big to fail banking system collapses it would be the end of civilization (at least in being how we know it to be today).
if people are being honest about it.
However, then there are places like China where even if a too big to fail bank actually collapsed no one would find out about it and anyone who tried to talk about it would suddenly disappear.
Is this the future of "Too big to fail banks"?
where governments hide the financial truths from people all over the world?
Answer: Likely it would be the only way to prevent the financial collapse of all nations on earth.
I know this is a strange answer but unfortunately either you break up all the "too big to fail banking systems on earth" or you have to lie to all the people on earth to avoid something much worse than the Great Depression worldwide eventually.
Otherwise when a too big to fail banking system collapses it would be the end of civilization (at least in being how we know it to be today).
spiritual but not religious growing in the U.S.
Why is this?
I think being inside a Church isn't what it used to be. More people now want to experience God personally and not through a minister. They want to be free to experience God anytime and anywhere in all situations. Or if they don't believe in God and might be Buddhist they want to experience compassion for all life in the universe all the time not just Sundays while they are in Church.
Being Spiritual but not religious just usually means they want to experience spirituality all the time and not be hypocrites by only experiencing God in Church and not thinking about God the rest of the week or not thinking about being compassionate to themselves and all beings 24 hours a day 7 days a week in their lives.
It's about being real rather than having fake lives.
It's about being honest with yourself and others (at least as much as one can survive on a daily basis).
I think being inside a Church isn't what it used to be. More people now want to experience God personally and not through a minister. They want to be free to experience God anytime and anywhere in all situations. Or if they don't believe in God and might be Buddhist they want to experience compassion for all life in the universe all the time not just Sundays while they are in Church.
Being Spiritual but not religious just usually means they want to experience spirituality all the time and not be hypocrites by only experiencing God in Church and not thinking about God the rest of the week or not thinking about being compassionate to themselves and all beings 24 hours a day 7 days a week in their lives.
It's about being real rather than having fake lives.
It's about being honest with yourself and others (at least as much as one can survive on a daily basis).
America’s Changing Religious Landscape
Religion & Public Life
America’s Changing Religious Landscape
Christians Decline Sharply as Share of Population; Unaffiliated and Other Faiths Continue to Grow
The
Christian share of the U.S. population is declining, while the number
of U.S. adults who do not identify with any organized religion is
growing, according to an extensive new survey by the Pew Research
Center. Moreover, these changes are taking place across the religious
landscape, affecting all regions of the country and many demographic
groups. While the drop in Christian affiliation is particularly
pronounced among young adults, it is occurring among Americans of all
ages. The same trends are seen among whites, blacks and Latinos; among
both college graduates and adults with only a high school education; and
among women as well as men. (Explore the data with our interactive database tool.)
To be sure, the United States remains home
to more Christians than any other country in the world, and a large
majority of Americans – roughly seven-in-ten – continue to identify with
some branch of the Christian faith.1 But
the major new survey of more than 35,000 Americans by the Pew Research
Center finds that the percentage of adults (ages 18 and older) who
describe themselves as Christians has dropped by nearly eight percentage
points in just seven years, from 78.4% in an equally massive Pew
Research survey in 2007 to 70.6% in 2014. Over the same period, the
percentage of Americans who are religiously unaffiliated – describing
themselves as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” – has jumped
more than six points, from 16.1% to 22.8%. And the share of Americans
who identify with non-Christian faiths also has inched up, rising 1.2
percentage points, from 4.7% in 2007 to 5.9% in 2014. Growth has been
especially great among Muslims and Hindus, albeit from a very low base.
The
drop in the Christian share of the population has been driven mainly by
declines among mainline Protestants and Catholics. Each of those large
religious traditions has shrunk by approximately three percentage points
since 2007. The evangelical Protestant share of the U.S. population
also has dipped, but at a slower rate, falling by about one percentage
point since 2007.2
Even as their numbers decline,
American Christians – like the U.S. population as a whole – are becoming
more racially and ethnically diverse. Non-Hispanic whites now account
for smaller shares of evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and
Catholics than they did seven years earlier, while Hispanics have grown
as a share of all three religious groups. Racial and ethnic minorities
now make up 41% of Catholics (up from 35% in 2007), 24% of evangelical
Protestants (up from 19%) and 14% of mainline Protestants (up from 9%).
Religious intermarriage also appears to be
on the rise: Among Americans who have gotten married since 2010, nearly
four-in-ten (39%) report that they are in religiously mixed marriages,
compared with 19% among those who got married before 1960.3 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% of people who got married
before 1960 fit this profile.
While many U.S. religious groups are aging, the unaffiliated are comparatively young – and getting younger,
on average, over time. As a rising cohort of highly unaffiliated
Millennials reaches adulthood, the median age of unaffiliated adults has
dropped to 36, down from 38 in 2007 and far lower than the general
(adult) population’s median age of 46.4 By
contrast, the median age of mainline Protestant adults in the new
survey is 52 (up from 50 in 2007), and the median age of Catholic adults
is 49 (up from 45 seven years earlier).
These are among the key findings of the
Pew Research Center’s second U.S. Religious Landscape Study, a follow-up
to its first comprehensive study of religion in America, conducted in
2007.
Because the U.S. census does not ask
Americans about their religion, there are no official government
statistics on the religious composition of the U.S. public.5 Some
Christian denominations and other religious bodies keep their own
rolls, but they use widely differing criteria for membership and
sometimes do not remove members who have fallen away.6 Surveys
of the general public frequently include a few questions about
religious affiliation, but they typically do not interview enough
people, or ask sufficiently detailed questions, to be able to describe
the country’s full religious landscape.
The Religious Landscape Studies were
designed to fill the gap. Comparing two virtually identical surveys,
conducted seven years apart, can bring important trends into sharp
relief. In addition, the very large samples in both 2007 and 2014
included hundreds of interviews with people from small religious groups
that account for just 1% or 2% of the U.S. population, such as Mormons,
Episcopalians and Seventh-day Adventists. This makes it possible to
paint demographic and religious profiles of numerous denominations that
cannot be described by smaller surveys. The most recent Religious
Landscape Study also was designed to obtain a minimum of 300 interviews
with respondents in each state and the District of Columbia as well as
to represent the country’s largest metropolitan areas, enabling an
assessment of the religious composition not just of the nation as a
whole, but also of individual states and localities. (See Appendix D.)
The latest survey was conducted in English
and Spanish among a nationally representative sample of 35,071 adults
interviewed by telephone, on both cellphones and landlines, from June
4-Sept. 30, 2014. Findings based on the full sample have a margin of
sampling error of plus or minus 0.6 percentage points. The survey is
estimated to cover 97% of the non-institutionalized U.S. adult
population; 3% of U.S. adults are not reachable by telephone or do not
speak English or Spanish well enough to participate in the survey. (See Appendix A
for more information on how the survey was conducted, margins of error
for subgroups analyzed in this report and additional details.)
Even a very small margin of error, when
applied to the hundreds of millions of people living in the United
States, can yield a wide range of estimates for the size of particular
faiths. Nevertheless, the results of the second Religious Landscape
Study indicate that Christians probably have lost ground, not only in
their relative share of the U.S. population, but also in absolute
numbers.
In 2007,
there were 227 million adults in the United States, and a little more
than 78% of them – or roughly 178 million – identified as Christians.
Between 2007 and 2014, the overall size of the U.S. adult population
grew by about 18 million people, to nearly 245 million.7 But
the share of adults who identify as Christians fell to just under 71%,
or approximately 173 million Americans, a net decline of about 5
million.
This decline is larger than the combined
margins of sampling error in the twin surveys conducted seven years
apart. Using the margins of error to calculate a probable range of
estimates, it appears that the number of Christian adults in the U.S.
has shrunk by somewhere between 2.8 million and 7.8 million.8
Of
the major subgroups within American Christianity, mainline
Protestantism – a tradition that includes the United Methodist Church,
the American Baptist Churches USA, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Episcopal Church,
among others – appears to have experienced the greatest drop in absolute
numbers. In 2007, there were an estimated 41 million mainline
Protestant adults in the United States. As of 2014, there are roughly 36
million, a decline of 5 million – although, taking into account the
surveys’ combined margins of error, the number of mainline Protestants
may have fallen by as few as 3 million or as many as 7.3 million between
2007 and 2014.9
By
contrast, the size of the historically black Protestant tradition –
which includes the National Baptist Convention, the Church of God in
Christ, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Progressive Baptist
Convention and others – has remained relatively stable in recent years,
at nearly 16 million adults. And evangelical Protestants, while
declining slightly as a percentage of the U.S. public, probably have
grown in absolute numbers as the overall U.S. population has continued
to expand.
The
new survey indicates that churches in the evangelical Protestant
tradition – including the Southern Baptist Convention, the Assemblies of
God, Churches of Christ, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the
Presbyterian Church in America, other evangelical denominations and many
nondenominational congregations – now have a total of about 62 million
adult adherents. That is an increase of roughly 2 million since 2007,
though once the margins of error are taken into account, it is possible
that the number of evangelicals may have risen by as many as 5 million
or remained essentially unchanged.10
Like
mainline Protestants, Catholics appear to be declining both as a
percentage of the population and in absolute numbers. The new survey
indicates there are about 51 million Catholic adults in the U.S. today,
roughly 3 million fewer than in 2007. But taking margins of error into
account, the decline in the number of Catholic adults could be as modest
as 1 million.11
And, unlike Protestants, who have been decreasing as a share of the
U.S. public for several decades, the Catholic share of the population
has been relatively stable over the long term, according to a variety of
other surveys (see Appendix C).
Meanwhile,
the number of religiously unaffiliated adults has increased by roughly
19 million since 2007. There are now approximately 56 million
religiously unaffiliated adults in the U.S., and this group – sometimes
called religious “nones” – is more numerous than either Catholics or
mainline Protestants, according to the new survey. Indeed, the
unaffiliated are now second in size only to evangelical Protestants
among major religious groups in the U.S.Factors Behind the Changes in Americans’ Religious Identification
One of the most important factors in the
declining share of Christians and the growth of the “nones” is
generational replacement. As the Millennial generation enters adulthood,
its members display much lower levels of religious affiliation,
including less connection with Christian churches, than older
generations. Fully 36% of young Millennials (those between the ages of
18 and 24) are religiously unaffiliated, as are 34% of older Millennials
(ages 25-33). And fewer than six-in-ten Millennials identify with any
branch of Christianity, compared with seven-in-ten or more among older
generations, including Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers. Just 16% of
Millennials are Catholic, and only 11% identify with mainline
Protestantism. Roughly one-in-five are evangelical Protestants.
However,
generational replacement is by no means the only reason that religious
“nones” are growing and Christians are declining. In addition, people in
older generations are increasingly disavowing association with
organized religion. About a third of older Millennials (adults currently
in their late 20s and early 30s) now say they have no religion, up nine
percentage points among this cohort since 2007, when the same group was
between ages 18 and 26. Nearly a quarter of Generation Xers now say
they have no particular religion or describe themselves as atheists or
agnostics, up four points in seven years. Baby Boomers also have become
slightly but noticeably more likely to identify as religious “nones” in
recent years.
As the shifting religious profiles of
these generational cohorts suggest, switching religion is a common
occurrence in the United States. If all Protestants were treated as a
single religious group, then fully 34% of American adults currently have
a religious identity different from the one in which they were raised.
This is up six points since 2007, when 28% of adults identified with a
religion different from their childhood faith. If switching among the
three Protestant traditions (e.g., from mainline Protestantism to the
evangelical tradition, or from evangelicalism to a historically black
Protestant denomination) is added to the total, then the share of
Americans who currently have a different religion than they did in
childhood rises to 42%.
By a wide margin, religious “nones” have
experienced larger gains through religious switching than any other
group. Nearly one-in-five U.S. adults (18%) were raised in a religious
faith and now identify with no religion. Some switching also has
occurred in the other direction: 9% of American adults say they were
raised with no religious affiliation, and almost half of them (4.3% of
all U.S. adults) now identify with some religion. But for every person
who has joined a religion after having been raised unaffiliated, there
are more than four people who have become religious “nones” after having
been raised in some religion. This 1:4 ratio is an important factor in
the growth of the unaffiliated population.
By
contrast, Christianity – and especially Catholicism – has been losing
more adherents through religious switching than it has been gaining.
More than 85% of American adults were raised Christian, but nearly a
quarter of those who were raised Christian no longer identify with
Christianity. Former Christians represent 19.2% of U.S. adults overall.
Both the mainline and historically black
Protestant traditions have lost more members than they have gained
through religious switching, but within Christianity the greatest net
losses, by far, have been experienced by Catholics. Nearly one-third of
American adults (31.7%) say they were raised Catholic. Among that group,
fully 41% no longer identify with Catholicism. This means that 12.9% of
American adults are former Catholics, while just 2% of U.S. adults have
converted to Catholicism from another religious tradition. No other
religious group in the survey has such a lopsided ratio of losses to
gains.
The evangelical Protestant tradition is
the only major Christian group in the survey that has gained more
members than it has lost through religious switching. Roughly 10% of
U.S. adults now identify with evangelical Protestantism after having
been raised in another tradition, which more than offsets the roughly 8%
of adults who were raised as evangelicals but have left for another
religious tradition or who no longer identify with any organized faith.
Other highlights in this report include:
- The Christian share of the population is declining and the religiously unaffiliated share is growing in all four major geographic regions of the country. Religious “nones” now constitute 19% of the adult population in the South (up from 13% in 2007), 22% of the population in the Midwest (up from 16%), 25% of the population in the Northeast (up from 16%) and 28% of the population in the West (up from 21%). In the West, the religiously unaffiliated are more numerous than Catholics (23%), evangelicals (22%) and every other religious group.
- Whites continue to be more likely than both blacks and Hispanics to identify as religiously unaffiliated; 24% of whites say they have no religion, compared with 20% of Hispanics and 18% of blacks. But the religiously unaffiliated have grown (and Christians have declined) as a share of the population within all three of these racial and ethnic groups.
- The percentage of college graduates who identify with Christianity has declined by nine percentage points since 2007 (from 73% to 64%). The Christian share of the population has declined by a similar amount among those with less than a college education (from 81% to 73%). Religious “nones” now constitute 24% of all college graduates (up from 17%) and 22% of those with less than a college degree (up from 16%).
- More than a quarter of men (27%) now describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated, up from 20% in 2007. Fewer women are religious “nones,” but the religiously unaffiliated are growing among women at about the same rate as among men. Nearly one-in-five women (19%) now describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated, up from 13% in 2007.
- Although it is low relative to other religious groups, the retention rate of the unaffiliated has increased. In the current survey, 53% of those raised as religiously unaffiliated still identify as “nones” in adulthood, up seven points since 2007. And among Millennials, “nones” actually have one of the highest retention rates of all the religious categories that are large enough to analyze in the survey.
- As the ranks of the religiously unaffiliated continue to grow, they also describe themselves in increasingly secular terms. In 2007, 25% of the “nones” called themselves atheists or agnostics; 39% identified their religion as “nothing in particular” and also said that religion is “not too” or “not at all” important in their lives; and 36% identified their religion as “nothing in particular” while nevertheless saying that religion is either “very important” or “somewhat important” in their lives. The new survey finds that the atheist and agnostic share of the “nones” has grown to 31%. Those identifying as “nothing in particular” and describing religion as unimportant in their lives continue to account for 39% of all “nones.” But the share identifying as “nothing in particular” while also affirming that religion is either “very” or “somewhat” important to them has fallen to 30% of all “nones.”
- While the mainline Protestant share of the population is significantly smaller today than it was in 2007, the evangelical Protestant share of the population has remained comparatively stable (ticking downward slightly from 26.3% to 25.4% of the population). As a result, evangelicals now constitute a clear majority (55%) of all U.S. Protestants. In 2007, roughly half of Protestants (51%) identified with evangelical churches.
- Since 2007, the share of evangelical Protestants who identify with Baptist denominations has shrunk from 41% to 36%. Meanwhile, the share of evangelicals identifying with nondenominational churches has grown from 13% to 19%.
- The United Methodist Church (UMC) continues to be the largest denomination within the mainline Protestant tradition. Currently, 25% of mainline Protestants identify with the UMC, down slightly from 28% in 2007.
- More than six-in-ten people in the historically black Protestant tradition identify with Baptist denominations, including 22% who identify with the National Baptist Convention, the largest denomination within the historically black Protestant tradition.
- The share of the public identifying with religions other than Christianity has grown from 4.7% in 2007 to 5.9% in 2014. Gains were most pronounced among Muslims (who accounted for 0.4% of respondents in the 2007 Religious Landscape Study and 0.9% in 2014) and Hindus (0.4% in 2007 vs. 0.7% in 2014).12
- Roughly one-in-seven participants in the new survey (15%) were born outside the U.S., and two-thirds of those immigrants are Christians, including 39% who are Catholic. More than one-in-ten immigrants identify with a non-Christian faith, such as Islam or Hinduism.
- Hindus and Jews continue to be the most highly educated religious traditions. Fully 77% of Hindus are college graduates, as are 59% of Jews (compared with 27% of all U.S. adults). These groups also have above-average household incomes. Fully 44% of Jews and 36% of Hindus say their annual family income exceeds $100,000, compared with 19% of the public overall.
About the 2014 U.S. Religious Landscape Study
This is the first report on findings from
the 2014 U.S. Religious Landscape Study, the centerpiece of which is a
nationally representative telephone survey of 35,071 adults. This is the
second time the Pew Research Center has conducted a Religious Landscape
Study. The first was conducted in 2007, also with a telephone survey of
more than 35,000 Americans.
The new study is designed to serve three main purposes:
- To provide a detailed account of the size of the religious groups that populate the U.S. landscape;
- To describe the demographic characteristics, religious beliefs and practices, and social and political values of those religious groups; and
- To document how the religious profile of the U.S. has changed since the first study was conducted in 2007. With more than 35,000 interviews each, both the 2007 and 2014 studies have margins of error of less than one percentage point, making it possible to identify even relatively small changes in religious groups’ share of the U.S. population.
The results of the 2014 Religious
Landscape Study will be published in a series of reports over the coming
year. This first report focuses on the changing religious composition
of the U.S. and describes the demographic characteristics of U.S.
religious groups, including their median age, racial and ethnic makeup,
nativity data, education and income levels, gender ratios, family
composition (including religious intermarriage rates) and geographic
distribution. It also summarizes patterns in religious switching.
In addition, this report includes an
appendix that compares the findings of the 2007 and 2014 Religious
Landscape Studies with several other surveys and assesses how recent
developments in American religion fit into longer-term trends. Data from
a variety of national surveys, including the long-running General
Social Survey and Gallup polls, confirm that Protestants have been
declining as a share of the U.S. population and that the unaffiliated
have been growing. But there is less of a consensus about trends in
American Catholicism. Some surveys, including the one featured in this
report, indicate that the Catholic share of the population is declining,
while others suggest it is relatively stable or may have declined and
then ticked back up in recent years. (See Appendix C.)
Other findings from the 2014 Religious
Landscape Study will be released later this year. In addition to the
written reports, the Religious Landscape Study’s findings will be
available through a new interactive tool.
The online presentation allows users to delve more deeply into the
survey’s findings, build interactive maps or charts and explore the data
most interesting to them.
Acknowledgments
Many individuals from the Pew Research
Center contributed to this report. Alan Cooperman, director of religion
research, oversaw the effort and served as the primary editor. Gregory
Smith, associate director for religion research, served as the primary
researcher and wrote the Overview and Methodology. Smith also wrote the
chapter on the changing religious composition of the U.S., the appendix
on the classification of Protestant denominations and the appendix on
putting the findings from the Religious Landscape Study into context.
The chapter on religious switching and intermarriage was written by
Research Associate Becka Alper. Research Associate Jessica Martinez and
Research Assistant Claire Gecewicz wrote the chapter on the demographic
profiles of religious groups, and Research Analyst Elizabeth Sciupac
wrote the chapter on the shifting religious identity of demographic
groups. Gecewicz prepared the detailed tables. The report was number
checked by Alper, Gecewicz, Martinez, Sciupac and Research Associate
Besheer Mohamed. The report was edited by Sandra Stencel, Michael Lipka,
Caryle Murphy and Aleksandra Sandstrom. Bill Webster created the
graphics. Stacy Rosenberg, Russell Heimlich, Diana Yoo,
Besheer Mohamed, Ben Wormald and Juan Carlos Esparza Ochoa developed
the interactive tool.
The Pew Research Center’s methods team
provided advice on the sampling plan, questionnaire design, weighting
strategy and data analysis. The methods team, led by Director of Survey
Research Scott Keeter, includes Research Methodologists Kyley McGeeney
and Andrew Mercer, Research Assistant Nicholas Hatley and graduate
student intern H. Yanna Yan.
Others at the Pew Research Center who
provided research guidance include Michael Dimock, Claudia Deane, Andy
Kohut and Conrad Hackett. Communications support was provided by
Katherine Ritchey, Stefan Cornibert, Russ Oates and Robyn Tomlin.
John C. Green, director of the Ray C.
Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron, served
as a senior adviser on the Religious Landscape Studies, providing
valuable advice on the survey questionnaires, categorization of
respondents and drafts of the reports. Additionally, we received helpful
comments on portions of the 2014 study from David E. Campbell,
director, Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy, University
of Notre Dame; William D’Antonio, senior fellow, Institute for Policy
Research and Catholic Studies, The Catholic University of America; Mike
Hout, professor of sociology, New York University; and Barry Kosmin,
director, Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture,
Trinity College. We also received valuable advice from Luis Lugo, former
director of the Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life
project, and Paul Taylor, former executive vice president of the Pew
Research Center.
Funding for the 2014 Religious Landscape
Study comes from The Pew Charitable Trusts, which received generous
support for the project from the Lilly Endowment Inc.
While the analysis was guided by our
consultations with the advisers, the Pew Research Center is solely
responsible for the interpretation and reporting of the data.
Roadmap to the Report
The remainder of this report explores in
greater depth many of the key findings summarized in this Overview.
Chapter 1 offers a detailed look at the religious composition of the
United States and how it has changed in recent years. Chapter 2 examines
patterns in religious switching and intermarriage. Chapter 3 provides a
demographic profile of the major religious traditions in the United
States. Chapter 4 then flips the lens, looking at the religious profile
of Americans in various demographic groups. Appendix A describes the
methodology used to conduct the study. Appendix B provides details on
how Protestants were categorized into one of three major Protestant
traditions (the evangelical tradition, the mainline tradition and the
historically black Protestant tradition) based on the specific
denomination with which they identify. Appendix C compares findings from
the Religious Landscape Studies with other major religion surveys and
puts the current results into the context of longer-term trends.
- For estimates of the size of Christian populations in more than 200 countries and territories, see the Pew Research Center’s April 2015 report “The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050.” ↩
- For more details on long-term trends in the religious composition of the U.S. and for analysis of how the Religious Landscape Study’s findings compare with other surveys, see Appendix C. ↩
- This analysis is based on current, intact marriages. It does not count marriages between spouses with different religions if those marriages ended in divorce (and thus are no longer intact). It also does not include those who may have been in a religiously mixed marriage at the time they got married if one or both spouses later switched religions and now share the same faith. If it were possible to examine religiously mixed marriages that ended in divorce, or religious switching that resulted in both spouses sharing the same faith, then the percentage of intermarriages in previous decades may have been higher than it appears from looking only at marriages that are intact today. ↩
- The adult Millennials surveyed in the Religious Landscape Study are people born between 1981 and 1996. ↩
- For more information on religion and the U.S. Census, see Appendix 3 in the 2007 Religious Landscape Study, “A Brief History of Religion and the U.S. Census.” ↩
- For a compilation of membership figures reported by various denominations, see the 2010 Religious Congregations & Membership Study, which was conducted by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. ↩
- The estimate that there were 227 million adults in the U.S. in 2007 comes from the U.S. Census Bureau’s National Intercensal Estimates (2000-2010). The estimate that there were nearly 245 million adults in the U.S. in 2014 comes from Pew Research Center extrapolations of the U.S. Census Bureau’s estimates of the monthly postcensal resident population. ↩
- This report describes the results of the Religious Landscape Study mainly in percentage terms, and it does not include estimates of the number of people who identify with every religious group. Estimates of the size of a few of the largest groups are presented both as point estimates and with accompanying ranges that take into account each survey’s margin of error. For example, the 2014 survey finds that Christians account for 70.6% of the U.S. adult population, with a margin of error of +/- 0.6 percentage points. That is, when measured using the approach employed by this study, Christians probably account for between 70.0% of adults (70.6% minus 0.6) and 71.2% of adults (70.6% plus 0.6). Multiplying the low and high ends of this range of percentages by the number of adults in the U.S. yields an estimate that there are between 171.4 million (0.700*244.8 million) and 174.3 million (0.712*244.8 million) Christian adults in the United States as of 2014. ↩
- The estimate that the number of mainline Protestants may have declined by as few as 3 million comes from subtracting the low end of the 2007 estimate (40.1 million) from the high end of the 2014 range (37.1 million). The estimate that the number of mainline Protestants may have declined by as many as 7.3 million comes from subtracting the high end of the 2007 range (42.1 million) from the low end of the 2014 range (34.9 million). ↩
- The estimate that the number of evangelical Protestants may have grown by as many as 5 million comes from subtracting the low end of the 2007 estimate (58.6 million) from the high end of the 2014 range (63.6 million). The estimate that the number of evangelical Protestants may have remained essentially unchanged comes from subtracting the high end of the 2007 range (60.9 million) from the low end of the 2014 range (60.8 million). ↩
- The estimate that the number of Catholics may have declined by as little as 1 million comes from subtracting the low end of the 2007 estimate (53.2 million) from the high end of the 2014 range (52.2 million). ↩
- In 2007 and 2011, the Pew Research Center conducted national surveys of Muslim Americans. Those surveys were conducted in Arabic, Farsi and Urdu, as well as in English, so as to better represent the views of Muslim immigrants. Previously released population estimates based on those surveys indicated that 0.6% of adults identified as Muslims in 2007 and 0.8% of adults identified as Muslims in 2011. Surveys like the Religious Landscape Study, conducted in English and Spanish, tend to produce lower estimates of the size of certain immigrant populations than surveys conducted in more languages. In any case, both sets of estimates – those based on Muslim-specific surveys and those based on the 2007 and 2014 Religious Landscape Studies – suggest that the Muslim population in the U.S. is growing. ↩
Pagination
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