The "Other Christian" plurality amongst youngs

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

One of the many interesting things you can learn from this is to compare the "Religious Affiliation" rates amongst age demographics, while a lot of it is pretty obvious (like "No Religious Affiliation" decreasing with age), one interesting thing is that the "Other Christian" section is way bigger amongst youngs and has a plurality amongst 18-29s (and actually 30-44s now that I see it.) The percentage is about twice as high as amongst those over 60 where it is smaller than both Protestant and Catholic. What is this?

I'm guessing these are probably non-denominationals, and perhaps more likely to be people not affiliated with any church but still identifying as "Christian". I can definitely see that as a plurality in my age range.

[DC Al Fine]

I'd throw in some people who don't go to church, but still identify as Christian for whatever reason.

Do you have a link to the numbers?

[afleitch]

Bear in mind 'other Christian' is also a halfway point for people on a journey away from faith altogether.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Bear in mind 'other Christian' is also a halfway point for people on a journey away from faith altogether.

It can also be a transitional stage between one denominational affiliation and another, or between some other religion and Christianity, or between Christianity and some other religion. Or towards faith, although I'd imagine that's far less common than the reverse in most of the countries that posters on this site actually come from.

Far more 'other Christians' are made than born, and I would bet that far more who are made don't stay in that category than do.

[afleitch]

Bear in mind 'other Christian' is also a halfway point for people on a journey away from faith altogether.

It can also be a transitional stage between one denominational affiliation and another, or between some other religion and Christianity, or between Christianity and some other religion. Or towards faith, although I'd imagine that's far less common than the reverse in most of the countries that posters on this site actually come from.

Far more 'other Christians' are made than born, and I would bet that far more who are made don't stay in that category than do.

Well of course That's why I said it can also be a transitional stage between faith and loss of faith as well as what BRTD was implying. It also depends on where you look. There seems to be tendency for people to say they are 'X' when it comes to religion for statistical purposes, so census results often differ from other surveys. The USA seems to have less 'nones' than European nations but I don't consider it to be any more or less religious/secular than we are.

You may be correct that more 'others' are made than born but it is a difficult shift to identify and it seems to very country to country.

In the UK, the Social Attitudes Survey has 'None' at 50% and 'Other Christian' at 6%. Of the others, 78% were brought up in that faith. Indeed that's the most 'exclusive' (i.e amongst it's adherents it has a high proportion of people who were brought up in that faith than those who join) except Non Christians and Catholics. The switchers between CofE and Other Christians are like for like in terms of number.

[fezzyfestoon]

Probably (hopefully) "other Christian" is just a waiting room for "none".

[Blue3]

Or it's just Christians, like me, who don't like organized religion. You know, like how Jesus was.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

Probably (hopefully) "other Christian" is just a waiting room for "none".

It can be.  It's a place for people who want to still identify as having faith in Jesus but don't want to have to listen to any doctrinal rules, basically.  I was there in my mid-teens, and although I forget if I ever actually believed any of it, I did identify as Christian.  

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

In the UK, the Social Attitudes Survey has 'None' at 50% and 'Other Christian' at 6%. Of the others, 78% were brought up in that faith. Indeed that's the most 'exclusive' (i.e amongst it's adherents it has a high proportion of people who were brought up in that faith than those who join) except Non Christians and Catholics. The switchers between CofE and Other Christians are like for like in terms of number.

So it's a completely pointless comparison. "Other Christian" in the UK survey means any Christian that isn't Church of England or Catholic, here it's any Christian that doesn't qualify as Protestant or Catholic. Obviously in the UK it's a far broader category. Apples and oranges.

[DemPGH]

Other is, yes, very easily a transitional period between faith and non-faith, but it certainly suggests a rejection of dogma. Religious dogmas and traditions generally suited the superstitious cultures that invented them and are more difficult sells now. But I think the really big group that the "Other" represents is the personalization of concepts like God and faith. It's like defining love or some other term like that. If you stopped 50 people I'd bet you'd get 40-45 distinct answers. Now it would be a good question to ask, why has that suddenly happened? Technology and communication? Got to play a big role, I would think, and so there's less of a stigma associated with rejection religion, particularly amongst young people.

I was never an "Other," I was never really religious (as in, "Jesus put something on my heart today to tell you!" - I was never like that at all, although I went to Methodist and Presbyterian churches mostly because it was social), and ultimately I got to a point where I realized religions were just invented by people for really a variety of reasons, a few benign, most malevolent. I came to regard most religions, in fact, as quite malevolent, certainly Western religions. And I still do.

My embrace of agnosticism was a quick and purely rational decision as a result, so I skipped the "Other" phase.

[afleitch]

In the UK, the Social Attitudes Survey has 'None' at 50% and 'Other Christian' at 6%. Of the others, 78% were brought up in that faith. Indeed that's the most 'exclusive' (i.e amongst it's adherents it has a high proportion of people who were brought up in that faith than those who join) except Non Christians and Catholics. The switchers between CofE and Other Christians are like for like in terms of number.

So it's a completely pointless comparison. "Other Christian" in the UK survey means any Christian that isn't Church of England or Catholic, here it's any Christian that doesn't qualify as Protestant or Catholic. Obviously in the UK it's a far broader category. Apples and oranges.

Actually no. It is a category for people who don't select any of the Protestant or Orthodox Churches. So it's apples and apples

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

So every single Protestant denomination in the UK has its own category?

[afleitch]

Yes. It's a self response question not a prompt.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Well no one is going to volunteer "Other Christian" so that category must consist of a collection of various answers, and probably not people who just say "Christian". In this case people are actually selecting the category, with what they mean being not too clear, but I am suspecting that if forced to self respond most would just say "Christian".

[afleitch]

Well no one is going to volunteer "Other Christian" so that category must consist of a collection of various answers, and probably not people who just say "Christian". In this case people are actually selecting the category, with what they mean being not too clear, but I am suspecting that if forced to self respond most would just say "Christian".

One more time.

Say someone says in the Social Attitudes Survey; 'I'm a Brethren', they are marked down as a Brethren. If they say they are Orthodox they are marked down as Orthodox. If they just say 'Christian' they are marked down as 'Other Christian' to differentiate with the larger Christian category that also contains Catholics, Protestants etc which is then created from the numbers of people who answered all Christian faiths. I don't understand why you can't grasp that?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

OK now how many answer that? It's probably a significantly smaller percentage than in the US. Answering just "Christian" to such a thing in the US usually means "I quit the church I was raised in but still identify as Christian". I would see that number being a lot lower in the UK (with those converting to "None" much higher of course.)

[Oldiesfreak1854]

They're probably put-off by the bickering between denominations (which, unfortunately, my own denomination has contributed a HUGE amount to.)