Religious Identity in the Imagining of Public Religious

Religious Identity in the Imagining of Public Religious Diversity A Canadian Case Study Peter Beyer University of Ottawa

The Research project (Canada) • “ 2 nd gen” for recent immigrants • Sample of 86 interviews ▫ From across country (incl. French & English) ▫ From various religious & ethnic families ▫ Different recruiting techniques • Main questions: ▫ How individual religious identity constructed? ▫ How public religious diversity understood? ▫ Attitudes to religious diversity

“CULTURE” Conceptual Vectors “RELIGION” “SPIRITUALITY”

Demographic Profile of 86 participants • Average = about 23 (18 -32) • 52 women, 34 men (3 LGB, 5 married) • Slightly less than half born in Canada ▫ Others born in 22 different countries ▫ Range of ethnicities from 5 continents, some mixed • 55 Christians (17 RC, 5 Eastern, 33 Protestant), 12 Sikhs, 9 Muslims, 4 Hindus, 3 Buddhists, 2 No religion

Personal religious identity & orientation to religious diversity • Identification with “a religion” or not • Exclusive or non-exclusive identification • “SBNR status” (incl. SBNR, bricoleurs, à la carte, seekers, but no religion or atheists) • How other religions/religious identities conceived • Attitudes to other religions/identities

Identification with “a religion” • Positive identification = 81 ▫ But, a few explicitly “cultural” only = 5 • No religion = 3 • Atheist = 2 ▫ All three LGB no religion or atheist • Vast majority has clear, self-declared, identification with “a religion” ▫ Note: 24 of 37 recruitment texts encourage this 17 of the interviews from the 13 others

Exclusive or non-exclusive • All but 15 (at most) have clear and single religious identity, as self-reported • Of the 15, eight are of East & Southeast Asian origins ▫ Already a cultural component in religious identification ▫ Of other 7: 1 NR, 4 RC, 2 Sikh • Single, exclusive religious identities are the norm in sample ▫ = few people identify with more than one religion ▫ … and when they do, it’s within a religion • Reprise: proportions do not represent population

“Spiritual but not religious” status • • 34 of 86 qualify by own identification Mostly à la carte, but many expressly SBNR Includes all: NR/atheist, cultural identifiers Strong correlation between religious identification and “SBNR” status

Religious identity and SBNR status • Roman Catholics: 14 of 17 • Eastern Christians: 3 of 5 (1 non-SBNR) cultural/low level) • Protestant: ▫ Mainline: 1 or 2 (both cultural Christians; 1 low) ▫ “Evangelical”: 5 of 31 • Sikhs: 5 of 12 (2 non-SBNR cultural/low level) • Muslims: 2 of 9 (1 cultural & SBNR) • Hindus: 1 of 4 (3 cultural, incl. the one SBNR) • Buddhists: 2 of 4 (2 cultural, 2 SBNR) • No Religion: 1 of 2

How other religions conceived or identified • 2 ways: ▫ Identifiable religions, especially “world religions” ▫ Personal religions of other individuals E. g. everyone has their own, if they have one • Recognition of fuzzy boundaries between religion, culture, and spirituality ▫ For many = religion & spirituality same ▫ For most = religion & culture related The “Evangelical” pattern: first not second

Attitudes to other religions/identities • Most accept equal value of all religions / religious paths • 2 big exceptions: ▫ Evangelical Christian: 15 of 31 say their religion the best, the only true, although tolerate others ▫ 6 of 9 Muslims accept others only in Islamic way, but tolerant of all (neo-Nurcu skewing)