{"id":858194,"date":"2025-10-16T05:00:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T10:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?p=858194"},"modified":"2025-10-14T13:52:50","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T18:52:50","slug":"they-dont-hate-you-what-the-data-really-says-about-the-nones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/they-dont-hate-you-what-the-data-really-says-about-the-nones\/","title":{"rendered":"They Don\u2019t Hate You: What the Data Really Says About the Nones"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t<div class=\"content-restriction-preview\"><p>One of the reasons I love my work is that I can quantify things that we often only understand through \u201cvibes.\u201d That\u2019s a common refrain I hear in comments from folks: \u201cI feel like this is happening\u2026\u201d And they want me to provide hard data that either reinforces or challenges their perceptions.<\/p> <p>I think that\u2019s especially common among Christians. Many feel that a significant share of Americans are against them, their beliefs, and their way of life. There\u2019s a good reason for that: the loudest voices on social media often hold the most extreme views. People calling believers \u201cChristo-fascists\u201d are certainly going to get a lot of shares on Facebook. Still, that kind of rhetoric warps our understanding of how the average person actually feels.<\/p> <p>I get the general impression that most evangelicals believe the non-religious really don\u2019t like them. But I\u2019ve been looking at data on perceptions of religion<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"content-restriction-block\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"content-restriction-block-login login-toggle\">Already a member? <a href=\"#\">Log in<\/a><\/div>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"content-restriction-block-content\">\n\t\t\t\t<h2>Unlock premium content!<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Get access to all Church Answers premium content from our expert contributors plus many other membership benefits.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<h3>$9.97 per month<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Unlimited access<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/join\/\" class=\"button\">Join Now<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n\t\t<div class=\"content-restriction-preview\"><p>One of the reasons I love my work is that I can quantify things that we often only understand through \u201cvibes.\u201d That\u2019s a common refrain I hear in comments from folks: \u201cI feel like this is happening\u2026\u201d And they want me to provide hard data that either reinforces or challenges their perceptions.<\/p> <p>I think that\u2019s especially common among Christians. Many feel that a significant share of Americans are against them, their beliefs, and their way of life. There\u2019s a good reason for that: the loudest voices on social media often hold the most extreme views. People calling believers \u201cChristo-fascists\u201d are certainly going to get a lot of shares on Facebook. Still, that kind of rhetoric warps our understanding of how the average person actually feels.<\/p> <p>I get the general impression that most evangelicals believe the non-religious really don\u2019t like them. But I\u2019ve been looking at data on perceptions of religion<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"content-restriction-block\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"content-restriction-block-login login-toggle\">Already a member? <a href=\"#\">Log in<\/a><\/div>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"content-restriction-block-content\">\n\t\t\t\t<h2>Unlock premium content!<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Get access to all Church Answers premium content from our expert contributors plus many other membership benefits.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<h3>$9.97 per month<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Unlimited access<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/join\/\" class=\"button\">Join Now<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t","protected":false},"author":17635,"featured_media":858200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"0","publish_post_category":"1","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,183,195,184,179,175,186,177,178,191,14796,180,194,18058,176,185],"tags":[21313,21312,80,21311,20410,21309],"class_list":["post-858194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-answers","category-communications","category-conflict-and-people-problems","category-discipleship","category-first-impressions","category-grow","category-health-and-metrics","category-lead","category-membership-and-assimilation","category-mind-body-and-spirit","category-monday-wednesday-featured","category-outreach-and-evangelism","category-preaching","category-premium","category-revitalize","category-worship","tag-agnostics","tag-atheists","tag-christians","tag-nothing-in-particulars","tag-religion","tag-they-dont-hate-you-what-the-data-really-says-about-the-nones","membership-content","access-restricted"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>They Don\u2019t Hate You: What the Data Really Says About the Nones | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One of the reasons I love my work is that I can quantify things that we often only understand through \u201cvibes.\u201d That\u2019s a common refrain I hear in comments from folks: \u201cI feel like this is happening\u2026\u201d And they want me to provide hard data that either reinforces or challenges their perceptions. I think that\u2019s especially common among Christians. Many feel that a significant share of Americans are against them, their beliefs, and their way of life. There\u2019s a good reason for that: the loudest voices on social media often hold the most extreme views. People calling believers \u201cChristo-fascists\u201d are certainly going to get a lot of shares on Facebook. Still, that kind of rhetoric warps our understanding of how the average person actually feels. I get the general impression that most evangelicals believe the non-religious really don\u2019t like them. But I\u2019ve been looking at data on perceptions of religion for a long time, and that\u2019s not really what comes through when you examine a variety of survey questions. For instance, in a recent survey of 12,000 non-religious Americans, we included a short set of statements designed to gauge how the nones view religion. Three of the items were especially revealing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/they-dont-hate-you-what-the-data-really-says-about-the-nones\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"They Don\u2019t Hate You: What the Data Really Says About the Nones | Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the reasons I love my work is that I can quantify things that we often only understand through \u201cvibes.\u201d That\u2019s a common refrain I hear in comments from folks: \u201cI feel like this is happening\u2026\u201d And they want me to provide hard data that either reinforces or challenges their perceptions. I think that\u2019s especially common among Christians. Many feel that a significant share of Americans are against them, their beliefs, and their way of life. There\u2019s a good reason for that: the loudest voices on social media often hold the most extreme views. People calling believers \u201cChristo-fascists\u201d are certainly going to get a lot of shares on Facebook. Still, that kind of rhetoric warps our understanding of how the average person actually feels. I get the general impression that most evangelicals believe the non-religious really don\u2019t like them. But I\u2019ve been looking at data on perceptions of religion for a long time, and that\u2019s not really what comes through when you examine a variety of survey questions. For instance, in a recent survey of 12,000 non-religious Americans, we included a short set of statements designed to gauge how the nones view religion. 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Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis. Before that he was an associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, and was also the graduate coordinator. He has authored over thirty peer-reviewed articles and book chapters alongside six books (including The Vanishing Church, The Nones, and The Great Dechurching) about religion and politics in the United States. He served as a pastor in the American Baptist Church for over twenty years, leading First Baptist Church of Mount Vernon, IL for 17.5 years until its closure in July 2024.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/author\/ryanburge\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"They Don\u2019t Hate You: What the Data Really Says About the Nones | Church Answers","description":"One of the reasons I love my work is that I can quantify things that we often only understand through \u201cvibes.\u201d That\u2019s a common refrain I hear in comments from folks: \u201cI feel like this is happening\u2026\u201d And they want me to provide hard data that either reinforces or challenges their perceptions. I think that\u2019s especially common among Christians. Many feel that a significant share of Americans are against them, their beliefs, and their way of life. 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