By Nadia Beider
The relationship between religion and tolerance is unclear. Some studies report that certain aspects of religiosity, such as attendance and belief, are associated with prosocial behaviours and compassion. However, religious belonging is often associated with higher levels of prejudice, racism, antisemitism and xenophobia relative to those who do not identify with a religious tradition (Zuckerman 2009). The dichotomy between nones (who have no religious affiliation) and affiliates can be overly simplistic, especially as the size of the unaffiliated population increases apace. Given the importance of childhood religious socialization in determining subsequent religious, political and cultural orientations, distinguishing between disaffiliates, who were raised within a religious tradition and have since exited organized religion, and lifelong nones, who have never been affiliated, may give a clearer understanding of patterns of tolerance among religious nones and of the relationship between affiliation and prejudice.
Using data from the European Values Study, it is possible to compare the attitudes of disaffiliates, lifelong nones, and Christians towards a range of religious, national, and ethnic minorities in contemporary Europe. The pattern that emerges from the quantitative data analysis indicates that being a disaffiliate is correlated with a more positive attitude towards members of minority groups. Disaffiliates, who left the religion in which they were raised, are less Islamophobic, antisemitic, xenophobic and racist than either lifelong nones or Christians. As most nones in Europe and North America are disaffiliates rather than lifelong nones, these finding suggest that the apparent lack of prejudice among nones is, in fact, a function of the specific characteristics of disaffiliates, rather than simply a lack of religious belonging. The results are particularly surprising as we might have expected disaffiliates to occupy a half-way house position between Christians and lifelong nones, as they do for indicators of religiosity such as belief and attendance, which show that disaffiliates retain elements of their childhood and current religious identity.
Why are disaffiliates so tolerant?
There are a number of possible explanations for the positive attitudes of disaffiliates towards Jews, Muslims, immigrants/foreign workers, and members of a different race. Aspects of religion such as faith promote prosocial, altruistic behaviours, while others, such as affiliation may increase the likelihood of viewing others negatively (Ben-Nun Bloom, Arikan, and Courtemanche 2105). It may, therefore, be necessary to conceptualize religion, and indeed nonreligion, as a complex set of elements, each of which may have different and even contradictory outcomes. Disaffiliates, especially those who retain elements of religious faith and teachings are uniquely placed to feel some of the positive effects of religious commitment, without the social identity that renders the affiliated more likely to express intolerance of members of other groups.
Social identities increase the distance between members of different groups, bringing about positive evaluations of in-group members and negative attitudes towards others. Identifying as Christian, for example, increases the odds of negative evaluations of non-Christians. This effect is particularly marked among Christians whose religious identity is cultural or national, rather than a result of deep spiritual connection. The data indicate the active Christians (defined as those who attend religious services at least once a month) tend to be more tolerant than nominal Christians, for whom religious belonging may be an expression of ethno-religious identity. This form of Christian nationalism takes its most extreme form in Russia, where the identification of the nation with the church is used to frame a discourse that promotes intolerance of a range of ‘others’ situated outside of the national collective.
Alternatively, we may need to look more closely at the factors motivating disaffiliation. Hout and Fisher (2002) have argued that it is the discomfort of liberally oriented Christians that explains the huge rise in disaffiliation in the USA in the last few decades. Although the political conditions in Europe differ from those in the USA, there is evidence for this kind of Christian nationalism in the context of the debate over the EU referendum in the UK (McAndrew 2020). In that case, we may be witnessing a realignment in which those who have liberal values are more likely to reject their religious identity. In contexts in which religion is perceived to be intolerant towards minorities (for example sexual minorities) and hostile to liberal positions on a range of issue such as divorce, contraception and abortion, some may cease to identify as affiliated in order to bring their religious and social attitudes into alignment. If a liberal orientation is truly a predictor of disaffiliation, that may explain the high levels of tolerance found among disaffiliates.
Whatever the reasons, the data indicate that there are significant differences between the attitudes of lifelong nones and disaffiliates towards religious, national, and ethnic minorities. These findings problematize the notion that affiliation is associated with prejudice while being a religious none is linked with tolerance. It is impossible to fully understand the relationship between religious belonging and tolerance without distinguishing between nones on the basis of their childhood religious socialization experiences and dividing them into disaffiliates and lifelong nones. Over time, the proportion of lifelong nones within the nonaffiliated population is expected to rise, which will likely change the relationship between religious affiliation and tolerance. Should lifelong nones represent a higher proportion of the unaffiliated population, the difference between the levels of prejudice found among nones and affiliates would be expected to converge.
Keywords: disaffiliation, lifelong nones, prejudice, tolerance
Nadia Beider is a postdoctoral fellow at the Social Research Institute, University College London. Her research focuses on religious change, particularly the ways in which religious switching shapes attitudes and behaviors.
NSRN Online 