On January 3, 2013, newly-reelected Rep. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona’s 9th District stood before John Boehner and placed her hand not on the Bible, as 112 congressional classes before her had, but rather on a worn copy of the U.S. Constitution. In so doing, Sinema became the only nominally unreligious representative in Congress as well as an indicator of changing national attitudes towards the intersection of politics and religion.
After all, the rapid fall of religion in the post-World War II era has been a phenomenon well documented by scrupulous pundits and media outlets heralding the arrival of “post-Christian” America. In 2009, Newsweek ran a controversial cover announcing “The Decline and Fall of Christian America”, and more recently, The Huffington Post similarly published a piece on post-Christian America’s “Arrival”. Both articles point to the historical rise in self-identified atheists and the accompanying drop in religious adherents to prophesy a not-to-distant future in which secularism will become the dominant force on the Hill.
Polls like the American Religious Identification Survey initially seem to support this prognosis, finding that 20 percent of the American electorate has become religiously unaffiliated. But with the latest Pew survey showing that three-quarters of Americans believe that religion is losing its influence, it seems suspect that only one brave soul has come out as non-religious in Congress. Is it strategic redistricting? Apathetic voters? Although the issue at hand is certainly complex, neither of these explanations seems to adequately account for the level of influence religious organizations continue to exert in a nation that is losing interest in its churches and synagogues. The most reasonable explanation for such a dramatic discrepancy seems to be that, despite the decline of institutionalized religion, Americans maintain an incredibly intimate relationship with faith.
The Rise of the “Nones”
In a 2007 Pew Research Center survey, 15.3 percent of U.S. adults answered a question about their current religion by saying they were atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular.” Since then, the number of religiously unaffiliated respondents has grown each year, now standing at 19.6 percent. And while the ranks of the unaffiliated have grown significantly over the past five years, the Protestant share of the American population has shrunk to its lowest percentage in the history of Pew surveys.
Annie Laurie, the president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, perceives these statistics as the writing on the wall for the Christian Right. In an interview with the HPR, she noted, “We’ve seen one in three young people identify as non-religious. Of course, they’re still immature, they might change their views, but that’s showing the growth we will continue to see grow in the secular demographics. We’re finally catching up with Western Europe.”
The comparison is an interesting one to make. Countries like the United Kingdom and France have seen dramatic declines in church attendance over the past few decades, with a recent poll commissioned by a Church of England-sponsored group reporting that over 42 percent of Britons identified as atheist or agnostic. And in many ways, America has historically viewed Europe as an older sibling, always a step ahead in sociopolitical and economic development. Just as the current fight for gay marriage seems to trail developments in Europe and the continual enlargement of the U.S. government points to their welfare states, the demise of religion is also often thought to be similarly inevitable.
However, the truth is that the United States differs significantly from the countries of Western Europe, specifically regarding our religious foundations. While the Catholic and Anglican churches represented established state religions in France and the United Kingdom, respectively, the American founding fathers explicitly forbade any such arrangement. They opted instead for the Constitution, as Thomas Jefferson put it, “to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and infidel of every denomination.”
By being the first to disestablish churches, the nation may have ironically made religion more popular, not less. Dr. Mark Hall of the Heritage Foundation explains in an interview with the HPR that the establishment clause in the Constitution “allowed the free market to reign with respect to religion in America. Religious organizations tended to be very innovative in how they reached out and recruited new followers, whereas in Europe, we have these old established churches supported by tax dollars, so that there was no need to be innovative and no need to reach out in creative ways.
This continual adaptation is visible in America’s history of winners and losers. Some early New England denominations, such as the Anglican and Congregational churches, were characterized by more somber, liturgical services, and they eventually faded. Instead, the charismatic Baptists and Methodists, who were all but non-existent in the 18th century, came to dominate the American religious scene by the late 19th century. And with the exit of the losing denominations from the marketplace of ideas, others like Christian Science, Mormonism, and Scientology rose to take their place and find their niches.
Just within the last century, televangelism and crusades developed as powerful spiritual and political outlets. Iconic evangelists like Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, and James Dobson reached millions of Americans at a time when religion was also experiencing a protracted decline after the tumultuous wars in Vietnam and Korea. Nevertheless, their sweeping crusades and revivals played a crucial role in reenergizing the faithful and bringing millions back into the pews in what many consider to be a Third Great Awakening. They also solidified religion’s place in the political sphere by planting the seeds of broad grassroots support for socially conservative issues and leading unprecedented initiatives like the Moral Majority.
Faith in the 21st Century
Today, the rise of mega-churches like Lakewood Church in Texas and North Point Community Church in Georgia exemplifies the creative power of religion in America. These hubs of Christianity exude spiritual vitality and a vibe that consistently draws thousands of young adults. As regular attendance drops elsewhere around the nation, researchers at the Hartford Institute for Religion Research have found that the 1,300 American mega-churches are experiencing explosive growth, now averaging 4,000 attendees each week.
In a brave effort, the Church of England has also attempted to follow its changing congregation through modern language rewrites of its prayer book, appeals to public concern with poverty, and even the approval of female bishops. However, it appears to be too little and too late. In 2012, the Church of England’s average weekly attendance across England was 1.05 million. Today, the entire denomination now attracts fewer than 800,000 worshippers to its churches on a typical Sunday, according to the latest Cathedral Statistics. Despite similar efforts, then, religion in England might never have reached the same level of diversity and innovation that has historically characterized American faith.
America is not a post-religious society, despite what sensationalist headlines may have us believe. While the general popularity and scope of organized religion are currently on the decline both in the United States and in Europe, the future will reveal very different trajectories. Just as religion has waxed and waned throughout history, so it will continue to do into the foreseeable future. The demographics are rapidly shifting, and as the next generation moves away from traditional sources to satisfy their spirituality, religious institutions will inevitably step up to a legacy of innovation that dates back to the nation’s founding.
Image sources: Gage Skidmore/Flickr, Wikimedia
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