When I talk about the size of the “nones,” I see this really interesting conflict play out among the scores of non-religious people in the United States.
found my Power Point set from a lecture i gave in 2020 "My Religion is None: Perspectives on Jewish Attrition" The Jewish data at the time centered on a focused population study from 2013 but with some newer data from the American Enterprise Institute report on Religion which included Jews. The Nothing In Particular still included a Jewish identity, people with culture who liked gefilte fish, maybe, or Henny Youngman jokes but more ancestrally Jewish than adherent to theology or worship. Like Ryan's None's, these young people came from secular homes, tied to their Jewish past by circumcision or maybe a Bar mitzvah or a Jewish surname. They were not protesters who difiantly walked away from their parent's faith. And they weren't atheist active God deniers.
Unlike Ryan's Nones, these guys were not social drifters at all. Many found their other lives in the professions, school, and social organizations more welcoming than they found the Jewish institutions which often have cliques and gatekeepers. They are personally productive. And the organizations that could have had their talent, the synagogues, advocacy groups, seem smaller and less diverse.
What intrigued me from the Pew data of 2013 was the inflection point where disaffiliation broke from its baseline, about 1992. Not the slow steady drift way like the Protestant data. More a break with failure to recover.
Chris Arnade's divide misses most of the middle folks, something I believe distorts his view. A short way of saying this, 25% is way too many people to be "back row folks".
By the way - 2 hours after publishing:
This post is tracking about 25% lower than a normal post in 2025.
And has one comment.
That's so incredibly on brand for anything about the 'nothing in particulars'
I feel like political parties should definitely be paying attention to this post!
found my Power Point set from a lecture i gave in 2020 "My Religion is None: Perspectives on Jewish Attrition" The Jewish data at the time centered on a focused population study from 2013 but with some newer data from the American Enterprise Institute report on Religion which included Jews. The Nothing In Particular still included a Jewish identity, people with culture who liked gefilte fish, maybe, or Henny Youngman jokes but more ancestrally Jewish than adherent to theology or worship. Like Ryan's None's, these young people came from secular homes, tied to their Jewish past by circumcision or maybe a Bar mitzvah or a Jewish surname. They were not protesters who difiantly walked away from their parent's faith. And they weren't atheist active God deniers.
Unlike Ryan's Nones, these guys were not social drifters at all. Many found their other lives in the professions, school, and social organizations more welcoming than they found the Jewish institutions which often have cliques and gatekeepers. They are personally productive. And the organizations that could have had their talent, the synagogues, advocacy groups, seem smaller and less diverse.
What intrigued me from the Pew data of 2013 was the inflection point where disaffiliation broke from its baseline, about 1992. Not the slow steady drift way like the Protestant data. More a break with failure to recover.
Nothings in Particular seem to be very similar to Chris Arnade's formulation of "back-row people".
Curious what the racial breakdown of the NIPs look like.
Chris Arnade's divide misses most of the middle folks, something I believe distorts his view. A short way of saying this, 25% is way too many people to be "back row folks".
Fair, yeah
I swear I've read a Far Side comic about the National Association of Nothing in Particulars.