How Important Is Religion to National Sovereignty?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns faith, religion, and freedom. There are two underlying principles for this discussion. Please keep them in mind as you read the following information.

The first principle comes from the Book of Mormon – Another Testament of Jesus Christ. It is: The prayers of righteous people protect righteous and unrighteous people alike. (See Alma 10:22-23.) The second principle is that citizens of all nations should have religious liberty and be allowed to worship God as they choose. (Article of Faith 1:11.)

An article written by Mariya Manzhos and published in the Deseret News shared some interesting profiles about how religion and culture intersect. 

When researchers study people’s relationship with religion and faith, they cast a wide net of questions that get at both inner beliefs and outward practices.

Some questions focus on attitudes and identity: Do people see religion or spirituality as important? Do they identify as Christian? Do they believe animals have spirits – or do they believe in God? Other questions explore lived practices: How often do they pray, attend church, meditate, light candles or read scripture?

Together, these answers sketch the contours of how individuals, and entire nations, experience religion and spirituality.

Pew Research Center asked some of these questions in a recent study about the religiously unaffiliated, or “nones,” held across 22 countries. The findings show that many people who don’t identify as religious still hold different beliefs or engage in spiritual practices, but the strength of those ties varies widely.

In Brazil, for example, 92% of the unaffiliated say they believe in God, compared to just 10% in Sweden. Similar divides are seen between Latin America and South Africa on one end of the spectrum and much of Europe and Australia on the other.

According to Manzhos, researchers found that countries are individual in their stages of secularization. There are three stages of religion decline: Participation-Importance-Belonging.

First, religious practices like service attendance decline, often among younger generations….

In the second stage, people are questioning religion’s personal importance and weakening their sense of belonging….

The final stage marks the shedding of religious identity altogether for the younger generations….

These religious transitions show that secularization isn’t a single story of religious decline. It also reveals the many ways faith lingers through belief, identity and practice.

Tracing these patterns may help us understand how faith still influences broader values, culture and politics – even as religious affiliation fades.

For leaders of congregations, understanding how secularization works may point to a central challenge in halting it – how to create religious communities where more young people feel that they belong.

In her article, Manzhos indicated that the United States is in the second stage where people are questioning the importance of religion to them personally. “The United States fits this pattern today: younger adults attend services less often and are 45% less likely than older generations to claim a religious affiliation, although a recent report from Barna Group challenged this pattern with its finding that Gen Z and millennials now go to church more often than older adults.” Other nations placed in this stage are Mexico, Brazil, Thailand, Greece, Italy and Canada.