{"id":1471,"date":"2017-05-25T08:00:31","date_gmt":"2017-05-25T13:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/?p=1471"},"modified":"2017-05-30T10:05:31","modified_gmt":"2017-05-30T15:05:31","slug":"measuring-secularization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/2017\/05\/25\/measuring-secularization\/","title":{"rendered":"The Meaning and Measurement of Secularization"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Secular Hall Lamp, Leicester. Photo by Chris Hoare, Flickr CC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

President Trump recently <\/span>signed an executive order<\/span><\/a> that removes the financial threat churches face when their leaders publicly support a political candidate. While <\/span>many argue<\/span><\/a> that the order is largely symbolic and too narrow to mean any real change, <\/span>others<\/span><\/a> think it went too far, and the order has sparked discussions about the proper place of religion in what many see as an increasingly secular country. Long-standing discussions among social scientists about the meaning and measurement of “secularization” help put Trump\u2019s order in context and reveals the complexity of religion\u2019s role in American society. <\/span><\/p>\n

At its most general, <\/span>secularization<\/span><\/i> is defined as the process whereby the political and\/or societal significance of religion and its institutions wane slowly and religion becomes differentiated from the secular public spheres of social and political life. But the way religiosity is measured in studies of secularization matters. For example, while many have pointed to a decline in church attendance, or <\/span>behavior<\/span><\/i>, in both the U.S. and Britain as indicators of secularization, others argue that this trend has not resulted in a loss of religious <\/span>beliefs<\/span><\/i>. <\/span><\/h5>\n