Richard Parker

Oxford-trained economist, Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, and Senior Fellow at the Shorenstein Center. He co-founded Mother Jones and has long taught and spoken on religion and politics in America.

The “Nones” Category Obscures Americans’ Spiritual and Moral Lives

Harvard’s Richard Parker and USC’s Diane Winston argue that journalists should not treat the 29% of Americans labeled religious “nones” as people without belief, moral commitments or sources of meaning. In a Faith Angle Forum discussion, Winston contends that the secular-sacred divide obscures how religion, politics, markets, culture and technology shape one another, while Parker warns that survey categories and polling trends cannot provide a full account of a person’s life. Their shared prescription is to report beyond affiliation labels without collapsing every cultural or political commitment into religion.

The Aspen InstituteJul 10, 202615 min read