Stephen King, Starbucks, and American Christianity (Part 1 of 4)

I know I’m going to shock some of you when I tell you this, but I think Stephen King is an amazingly gifted writer. I don’t like everything he writes, I assure you, but it’s hard to argue with his ability to tell a tale.

He’s known primarily as an author of horror stories (like Carrie, Cujo, Misery, Salem’s Lot, etc.), but he’s written some remarkable works in non-horror genres (like The Green Mile, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, and On Writing [non-fiction]). The pinnacle of his writing accomplishments is a seven book series called The Dark Tower, written across a time period spanning almost 25 years.

Most of my friends, I’m guessing, wouldn’t read a Stephen King novel if it were given to them for free. He’s not my favorite author; Dean Koontz is. I have, however, read the entire Dark Tower series and found it to be the most fascinating work of fiction I’ve ever read.

The reason King is on my mind this morning is because of something he said recently. In the February, 2008, edition of “Citizen,” King is quoted as saying, “I'm not a vampire type, when somebody shows me the cross....But organized religion gives me the creeps.” Not that I was unaware of his aversion to “organized religion”…he discussed it in some detail in his non-fiction work called On Writing, which is slightly autobiographical as well as what he calls “A Memoir of the Craft.”

King’s comment that “organized religion gives [him] the creeps” has me thinking. On the surface, it would be easy to dismiss his comment as sacrilege…blasphemy. But before we go off half-cocked on King, let’s think about what thoughts might be behind his words.

Just this week, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released its “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey” findings. According to the survey, 78.4% of Americans call themselves Christians of some sort. Evangelicals are the largest particular group of Christians (26.3%), while Roman Catholics follow at a close second (23.9%).

One of the most intriguing yet troubling findings of the survey, at least in my opinion, is the number of people who have switched from the faiths (notice my use of the word “faiths” and not “churches”) in which they were raised. More than one out of four American adults are no longer affiliated with the faith in which they were raised, having chosen in favor of either another religion or no religion at all. If switching from one Protestant denomination to another is included, 44% of American adults have switched religious affiliations.

Can you guess, however, where the biggest gains in religious affiliation have taken place? Among those who claim no affiliation with any religion or faith tradition. “Overall, 7.3% of the adult population says they were unaffiliated with any particular religion as a child. Today, however, 16.1% of adults say they are unaffiliated, a net increase of 8.8 percentage points. Sizeable numbers of those raised in all religions—from Catholicism to Protestantism to Judaism—are currently unaffiliated with any particular religion.”

To be continued...