The Impoliteness of Talking About Religion
Why are Americans often reluctant to discuss faith outside of their families?
There’s a grandmotherly American adage about religion—that it’s impolite to talk about faith in public. It’s as much a self-fulfilling prophecy as a social convention. If people decline to discuss religion out of a fear of being impolite, their collective silence might make it easier to think talking about religion is, in fact, impolite.
A significant number people in the U.S. do seem to feel this way. According to , only a third of Americans
