The Catholic League on the Newsweek "Spirituality in America" Poll

William Donohue at the Catholic League has commented on the Newsweek "Spirituality in America" article that I posted yesterday:

August 22, 2005

“MULTICULTURAL” U.S. MOSTLY CHRISTIAN

The cover story of Newsweek magazine, “Spirituality in America,” contains fascinating information that was gleaned from a survey of Americans conducted by Newsweek and Beliefnet.com. Catholic League president William Donohue commented on the poll results today:

“The poll shows that 85 percent of Americans are Christian (63 percent Protestant and 22 percent Catholic); Jews and Muslims each make up 1 percent; 4 percent did not designate their religion; and 6 percent profess to believe in nothing. To understand the social significance of this profile, consider what the U.S. looked like a half-century ago.

“Will Herberg’s book, Protestant, Catholic, Jew was published in 1955. At that time, 91 percent of Americans were Christian (68 percent Protestant and 23 percent Catholic); Jews were 4 percent; and 5 percent expressed no religious preference. So in the 50 years since Herberg’s classic appeared, the percent of the nation that is Protestant declined slightly; Catholics constitute about the same proportion; and the number of self-identified Jews has declined. Yes, we now have more Muslims and adherents of other religions than ever before, but the real news is how little our nation has changed.

“Why is this important? Because for the past few decades, the multicultural industry has been beating the drums of the radical secular agenda. The multicultural specialists, most of whom work in education, the non-profit sector and large corporations, would have us believe that it is the height of intolerance to celebrate our Christian heritage in the schools or at work. Hiding under the names of diversity and inclusion, these multicultural gurus have sought to gut America from its religious moorings. And now we know that not only is the secular agenda inimical to the best interests of society, it is based on propaganda as well.”

(emphasis added)