By Erica Orange & Jared Weiner, The Future Hunters, and Eshanthi Ranasinghe, Exploration & Future Sensing, Omidyar Network
As economies evolve, so do the societal constructs and belief systems that they embody. For many years, we witnessed the loss of faith in traditional religions, institutions, and communities that have failed to adapt to modern times, evolving perceptions of right and wrong, new familial structures, and changing lifestyles. Widespread education, globalization, even interfaith marriages, have led to more secularization, especially in countries with high religious diversity. Across many religious orders — Christian, Judaic, Buddhist, Islamic, Hindu — disillusionment with actions taken in the name of religion or religious identity have led some to embrace “new secularism.”
In the US, the share of the population who does not identify with any organized religion is growing. Religious “nones” in the US now equal the number of evangelicals and Catholics. According to the Public Religion Research Institute, the number of Americans with no religious affiliation has been steadily rising since the late 1980s. Young people around the world are less religious by several measures. A 2018 Pew Research poll across 106 countries found that adults under the age of 40 are “significantly less likely to be affiliated with a religious group.” The gap is also common in Latin America, where it applies in 14 out of 19 countries. Alongside the expansive innovation, economic growth, and globalization of the past many decades, people took their faith out of unyielding religious institutions they were raised with, and put it into new institutions — science and technology, politics and law, media, new social networks, business, capitalism, and more.
But we are now living in uncertain times: changing geopolitical, economic, and sociocultural landscapes; greater volatility, complexity, and inequity; increasing loneliness and anxiety, and declining trust in institutions, leading to heightened mental and emotional strain. Despite good macro-economic indicators, many people feel uncertain about their future. The ritual of going to a place of worship each week once had an important role to play, in finding kinship and community, making sense of life’s challenges, finding stillness and peace beyond day-to-day routine. In times of disruptive change and declining trust, where are people putting their faith? How do they find belonging, meaning, or a sense of place in a lonely world? We are seeing new pillars of belonging emerge.
Rise of Celebrity Churches: From Kanye’s Sunday Service to churches like Zoe and Mosaic, Los Angeles’ new breed of celeb-laden ministries have people, mostly young, searching for salvation, authenticity, and spirituality. This form of evangelical Christianity involves fashion, music, social media (especially Instagram), and celebrity. Recent attempts by churches to be more attractive to secular populations have led cool churches to emphasize “relationship” over “religion.” Prayer candles have even undergone a pop culture rebirth with independent boutiques and Etsy shops selling updated versions that replace the saints with celebrities.
Rise of the Celebrity Guru: On the footsteps of legendary gurus such as Osho Rajneesh in the 1970s, Indian acolytes are meeting the demands of renewed religious fervor in the country and around the world. Mystic Sadhguru brings his message of Inner Engineering, building off of modern appreciation for and frustration with materialistic achievement and aspiration. “As there is a science and technology to create external well-being, there is a whole dimension of science and technology for inner well-being.” Though he is not without critics, Sadhguru’s YouTube channel has over 4 million subscribers; his message is clearly resonating. Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is a spiritual humanitarian leader and teacher with true global presence. Sri Sri tours globally to spread his vision of “a Stress-Free, Violence-Free World,” teaching his Art of Living course and leading meditation sessions from India to Russia to Amsterdam. His work and teachings are estimated to have reached 450 million people across 156 countries.
Church of Planting and Silicon Valley: Silicon Valley remains one of the least religious parts of the US. Transforming the Bay with Christ is “a nonprofit organization working to jumpstart a Jesus movement in the Bay Area that results in spiritual and societal trans- formation.” The movement has made significant inroads within the last five years, with 500 churches across 30 locations in the Bay Area. A new church has even been planted solely for Walt Disney World employees. And just as surely as Silicon Valley is being impacted by churches, church- es are being impacted by Silicon Valley. Concepts like “ KROI” (Kingdom Return On Investment) help direct funding in new church planting endeavors, backed by Evangelical groups who developed the concept of “church planting” 20 years ago, when trying to solve for a basic problem — loss of the young members they needed to sustain their churches.
New Forms of Leadership: Pope Francis and his push for openness toward migrants, Muslims, and gay people, may have less influence on the global political stage, where nationalists and the far-right dominate, but his impact on the church is sizable. By appointing cardinals and bishops on the front lines of the faith, Francis is reconstituting a church that is willing to consider the challenges of the modern world with those of other faiths and with atheists.
Many other religious traditions are undergoing remaking and revival as well — and have been for some time. A New Age version of Kabbalah, the ancient mystic Jewish tradition, came into favor among celebrities in the 2000s. Buddhist and Vipassana meditation teachings have been taken on with zeal around the world, in the form of modern new movements like Against the Stream, and integrated into other spiritual and mental well-being practices as well. But as quickly as these movements rise, they can also fall due to financial corruption or worse. The evolution of these newer versions of traditional practice is likely to continue.
Work Devotion: For many college-educated Americans, work has morphed into a religious identity, promising transcendence and community, but often failing to deliver. The decline of traditional faith in the US has coincided with an explosion of new atheisms. Some people worship beauty, some worship political identities, and others worship their children. But workism is among the most potent of the new religions. Hustle culture is obsessed with striving. “Rise and Grind” is both the theme of a Nike ad campaign and the title of a book by a “Shark Tank” shark. The concept of productivity has taken on an almost spiritual dimension, particularly as the overworked seek a sense of greater meaning.
Technology Culture: If work is the new religion, who are its gods? From Lagos to Colombo, tech culture permeates startup hubs, as the young and motivated look to Steve Jobs and Jack Ma for billionaire inspiration, and tech founders become deified. It is as if the innovations themselves have become sources of faith. Tech culture is built on a sense of greater belonging and purpose. Two of the tech world’s main personalities with cults are Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk. Many followers of Musk also have an almost cult-like devotion to his company, Tesla.
And further out, it may be less about who is worshipped and more about what. We may be reaching a point when AI becomes so smart it will outperform human capabilities, leading to a superhuman intelligence that some will view as “divine.” Some predict that an AI god will emerge by 2042 and write its own bible. And new robotic priests can bless, advise, and even perform funerals. As more religious communities incorporate robotics (and AI), it will change how people experience faith.
Fitness Fanatic: Flywheel, SoulCycle, Pure Barre, Barry’s Bootcamp, CrossFit, CorePower Yoga, and others attract a fanatical following. High-end fitness studios configure working out as a means for spiritual renewal and self-realization. Cult gyms are booming. Supermarkets are even capitalizing on the trend. Hy-Vee teamed up with high-intensity training gym Orangetheory to build studios attached to its stores. And Whole Foods’ flagship store in Austin, Texas, partners with barre, spinning, and yoga studios
Beyond traditional religion, members of Gen Z, the least religious generation but also most tolerant, are remaking religion to suit their values. Many do not adhere to sacred teachings, but rather are “looking to impart a new doctrine that allows each person to choose their own worldview.” Young people’s use of technology is also helping them create new communities, “ones that can amplify the positive potential of a radically diverse generation.”
On the other end of the generational spectrum, seniors are also using technology to address isolation and loss of belonging, and create a greater sense of identity and community. E-sports, or video game playing as a competitive spectator sport, is one example. Sweden’s Silver Snipers and now Finland’s Grey Gunners (“We Will Finnish You”), are a group of over-65 gamers breaking the traditional mold of video gaming. And Senior Planet is a community of people 60 and older who are “harnessing technology to change the way they age.” Their mantra is “age with attitude.”
Other types of communities are forming, too. The move toward “coming together” — communal dining, discussion salons, affinity group travel — is a natural extension of the trend toward “aloneness.” Dinner with Strangers is part of a growing community that, yes, throws dinner parties for strangers. And Starbucks was one of several retailers to mainstream the communal table model. Airbnb invited people to “Belong Anywhere.” Cuba, cut off from the US for more than 50 years, is the fastest-growing market in Airbnb’s history. Traditional pastimes are booming, too. Bowling alleys are becoming popular again because people want to create a sense of belonging by doing something together and fostering real interaction.
Burning Man is an annual arts festival and temporary city erected in the Nevada desert that attracts approximately 70,000 people. It is dedicated to community, extreme self-reliance and self-expression, sexual openness and freedom, unconditional gifting and decommodification. Since the first Man burned in 1986, Burning Man became a refuge for people who felt excluded from the mainstream and traditional society, looking for alternative belonging. Its 2017 event theme was “Radical Ritual,” derived from global religious symbols. Many regular attendees “viewed this as the next step to becoming a full-fledged religion. Noting that humanity now exists without a defined religion linked to a tribe, festival organizers announced plans to place the Man (the large wooden effigy ritually burned at the culmination of each event) inside a symbolic temple before burning it.” For many longtime Burners, some have even asked for a “separation of church and my burn.” To many, it has become something of a religion, with Burners referring to festivals as yearly pilgrimages. Many advocate for kids attending the festival. Others view Burning Man as a place for positive personal growth. But the idealism may be waning. The festival has suffered from a perception by some that it is a “utopian playground for privileged white people” and Instagram influencers. About 1 percent of attendees are black. An impending federal clampdown on Burning Man’s huge environmental impact may also jeopardize its “free spirit ethos.”
Beyond Burning Man, festivals continue to retain spiritual appeal despite commercialization. Witness the rise of Bonnaroo, or Envision — which is one of more than 200 “transformational” festivals. These festivals, such as Tomorrowland in Belgium, Shambhala in Canada, Transmission in Prague, and Psychedelic Circus in Germany, “have an ethos of community building, personal growth, and creative expression.” More music festivals than ever have a psychedelic focus. Festivals are even being used to directly tackle and address difficult issues, like Good Grief, Bristol, a gathering exploring loss taking place in Bristol, UK.
Neotribalism: When Belonging becomes Exclusion: Belonging is a human need that is often unmet and expressed differently between individuals and populations. But desire for belonging can also descend into dangerous tribalism, with religious undercurrents. Today, the world is being shaken by people who feel dispossessed and disrespected, and it is little prepared for disruption. Some believe that the real clash is between “those who want to exercise their religious allegiances and those who have been modernized by an increasingly secular West.” Increasingly, the world is being divided into those who identify more with others around the world, and those who identify more with their locale or “tribe.” There is increasing skepticism of the glory of globalization.
All of this is very much a part of “us/them” efforts, including neonationalist uprisings, terrorist online recruiting tactics, and identity politics — but also empathy for, and desire to defend, one’s own. Trumpian nationalists, authoritarian populists, and Islamic jihadists could be considered different versions of the same anti-pluralist movements of hate, against the diversity, fluidity, and the interdependent nature of modern life. According to columnist David Brooks, “Anti-pluralists yearn for a return to clear borders, settled truths, and stable identities.” But do these movements manipulate one’s desire for belonging, or simply fulfill it?
Belonging in Protest: In reaction to this rise in tribalism is the rise in cohesion, togetherness, and collective action to battle it. Black Lives Matter, climate activism (see the New Climate Narrative trend), Women’s March; people are banding together to protest political oppression and inequality. In January, thousands gathered in cities across the country as part of the nationwide Women’s March rallies, focused on issues such as climate change, pay equity, reproductive rights, and immigration. The Black Lives Matter movement served as a source of empowerment and social identity for many who felt disenfranchised. And protests that denounced President Trump’s immigration policies demonstrate how people can come together to promote familial belonging in the face of adversity. But as we see increasing bifurcation across media channels, social networks, political parties, and more, split between “globalist” and “nationalist” camps, do these groups become the antithesis of each other, or a mirror image?
As humans, we have the desire to belong. Belonging is closely connect- ed to identity. Now some portend we are moving toward a post-demographic world, with “fluid identities and blurring gender roles, as well as a significant improvement in the rights, freedoms, protections, status, and empowerment of particularly women and members of the LGBTQ community.” Younger generations, too, are growing up in a world of greater choice and are less prone to following a linear path from education, to work, to family formation. Tolerance, diversity and inclusion could all become core tenets of belonging, identity, and connection in the future. But how do we reconcile belonging for all with belonging for some? How can we create an environment that fosters human connection, and also honors individual and group identity? How can we decouple the need for belonging from isolation, bigotry, judgment, and hate? How do we address inequity and hurt? What new structures might we dream up and create as a salve to our lonely, fragmented world?
This is Trend #4 of 5 in Omidyar Network’s Exploration and Future Sensing 2020 Trends to Watch. View the full series here.
Consider Explorations an open space for discussion. We welcome new perspectives — especially those rarely heard, contradictory, relevant, and tangential — and most of all, conversation and partnership to build the future we want, one that includes and empowers us all.
