Tuesday, March 4, 2025

Part I

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The Share of Christians in the U.S. Has Stabilized? – Pew Releases Updated Findings of Its Religious Landscape Study

Sometimes it’s hard to know exactly what to do with vast surveys and statistical information. Sometimes it tells us what is obvious. Sometimes it tells us something that’s false. Sometimes the data come in and the picture is truly interesting. That’s what has taken place with the release just days ago of a Pew Research Center report known as the Religious Landscape Study. This survey was first undertaken in 2007. It’s a part of the legacy of J. Howard Pew and the Pew family who established the Pew Charitable Trust. The Pew Research Center is a major representation of that family’s philanthropy. It’s a very credible research organization.

The religious landscape study begun, as I said, in 2007, really has shown a lot of change on the American religious landscape. The word landscape here is more than just indicative. The word landscape really does describe what we’re looking at. We’re trying to get a big picture of what’s going on religiously in our world, and in particular in this case, within the United States.

Now, the big headline in terms of the most recent of these surveys just out is this, as reported in the Washington Post, “After Years of Decline, Share of Christians in US has Stabilized.” Well, that’s really interesting because the big story since 2007 has been the relative decline of Christianity, church attendance, church membership in the United States. The big rise has not been in non-Christian religion, so to speak. The big rise has been in those who are described as religiously unaffiliated. And now famously they are known as the Nones, N-O-N-E-S.

Thus, this report, very interesting, tells us that there are two groups in the United States that are basically plateaued. They’re showing stability right now rather than change. This would be the share of the population identifying as Christian and the share of the population identifying as non-affiliated one way or another.

Now, as we are told in the study, 62% of Americans call themselves Christian. Now, this gets to another point we need to keep in mind, especially in worldview perspective when we’re considering this kind of survey. Are we talking here about those who have some very clear Christian identity? Well, that’s not at all at stake. What we have here are persons who identify as Christian. So that tells us that we’re not defining the terms here theologically, we’re defining them in terms of self-identification.

At the same time, we do know as Christians that self-identification is not irrelevant, and thus that’s really the kind of survey information we’re looking at. So 61% of Americans call themselves Christian, identify as Christian. And that’s been relatively stable, The Post tells us, over the past five years. But that also has to be seen as down from 71% in 2014 and 78% in 2007. So let’s go back. The first of these landscape studies came out in 2007. The percentage of Americans who identified as Christian at that time was 78%. We’re now down to 62%.

Now, I think most Christians, most biblically minded Christians, looking at the world around us, looking at the population of our own country, considering our own culture, we have a pretty good idea that something like this has happened. I think it’s important to say, and I want to argue, that the most interesting and informative part of this kind of survey is not so much a number as it is the trends. The trends turn out to be really informative. The trend of unbelief has been going up rather remarkably. And that means also those who are disaffiliated or unaffiliated with any religious group.

Now remember again, these are folks who self-identify. They’re identifying themselves as unaffiliated. They have been described as more and more secular. Is that fair? Almost assuredly so. Now at the same time, the supposedly secular in American society turn out, at least by and large, not to be so secular as you might expect. Because even as they describe themselves as unaffiliated, when it comes to specific beliefs and religious practices, it turns out that they are not quite so comprehensively or consistently secular as the data might indicate.

We’re told that the percentage or share of Americans who identify as religiously unaffiliated is now about 30%. Specifically in this last survey, 29%, about one out of every three. Just slightly less than a third of the American population.

Now, as we’re thinking about not so much the number, but the pattern, the pattern that’s being reported here is that there is stability. But the big pattern over a longer period of time is the radical secularization of so much of American society. That number was exceedingly low, say, in the 1950s and ’60s and ’70s. And so in the span of about a half a century, we had the secular surge. And even if it has plateaued a bit for now, the big fact that Christians need to keep in mind is that the culture has been trending in a more secular direction for decades now. That is not being reversed.

If anything, it’s just being a bit slowed down. It’s a stability, a plateau. No one knows how long that’s going to last. At this point, there is no expectation that that trend is going to be reversed, but it is significant that at least at this point it has slowed down. And the numbers right now have reached some sort of stability. But you know, stability, again, is a pattern. And stability is contrasted with change. And even if we have had a period of radical change, now some stability, well, the fact is that stability can disappear in an instant.

One of the big factors revealed in this study is generational change. Now, this is something that thoughtful Christians think about a lot. We observe that the faith once for all delivered to the saints has to be appropriated and believed by, and taught by, and embraced by and defended by generation after generation. The generational replacement factor just underlines to us one of the challenges we face. That is the challenge of replacing every single generation. And here’s where at least in terms of the big category of those who identify as Christian, that generational replacement is not happening.

Now, I’m going to argue that in the more conservative precincts and in more conservative groups within Christianity and in particular within conservative Protestantism or Evangelicalism, there’s far less of an issue with generational replacement certainly when you look at the number of young people who are coming along, very involved in church, very involved in Christian education, very much identifying as Christians. But we do have to look at their generational cohort and understand that cohort is increasingly secular, far more secularized than, say, an obvious point would be their grandparents’ generation.

The data all indicate that as you look at different religious groups, that problem of generational replacement is by no means equal. You look at liberal Protestantism, the problem is catastrophic. Where in the world are the children? And even more profoundly, where in the world are the teenagers? In many churches, they’re just gone.

We are also looking at the fact that as Americans identify in a more religiously pluralized way, you do have those who identify as holding to a religion other than Christianity up from 5% in 2007 to now about 7%. So that’s not as large as some people, including many in the press would often insinuate. But it is also important to recognize about 1.7% of Americans are Jewish.

Now, one of the big factors there is that even though the population cohort identifying as Jewish is very small, the influence of Judaism and of the Jewish people in the United States is very, very large. In fact, it’s one of the most interesting stories on the American religious landscape. It’s not new, but it sure is interesting.

You’re probably wondering about some other major religious groups. How many Muslims in the United States? Well, we’re talking about growth from 2007 when Muslims represented 0.4% of the population to the current landscape study in 2024, rising to 1.2. So that’s from 0.4 to 1.2. Still a very small percentage of the total population, but one that’s basically tripled during that time. That’s probably also surprising to many Americans, but this has a great deal to do with immigration and population growth coming from persons with an Asian background. We’re also looking at Hinduism. Similarly, in this case, the Asian subcontinent growing from 0.4% to 0.9% of the US population.

Part II

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Religious People Trend Toward Conservatism: Pew Research Center Affirms Influence of Theology on Political Beliefs

But the big headline story is not so much about the percentage held by those who are religious, those who are unreligious, those who identify as Christian, those who identify as something else. The big story here is how you have now an extremely clear interface, an overlay between religious identification and political identification.

The great divide in the United States between Left and Right is increasingly, virtually the same as the divide between Christian and non-Christian, or more specifically, religious and non-religious. So here’s how the Washington Post reports it. And trust me, the Washington Post knows how to understand politics, “Generally, the more religious someone is, the more likely they are to identify or lean toward the Republican Party and express conservative opinions. Less religious people are more likely to identify or lean toward the Democratic Party and express liberal opinions.” And that again is from the latest religious landscape study.

Further, “Highly religious Americans, for example, are more likely than the least religious Americans to say that abortion should be illegal, that homosexuality should be discouraged, that children are better off if mothers stay at home, that environmental regulations cost jobs and hurt the economy. And that if America is too open to outsiders, it risks losing national identity.”

So the Washington Post, without question, the most influential newspaper in the nation’s capitol, a paper that basically thrives on political discourse, it points to the fact that this overlay between religious, conservative, and more secular liberal, that is, if anything, the most important revelation coming from this study. That is really huge.

Now, from a Christian perspective, it simply affirms what we would expect. We would expect that worldview eventually produces political position, political convictions, and political action, add to that political identification. The fact is that the more religious one is, the more conservative one is. And I think it’s pretty easy to understand why. Obviously there are religious liberals, but the point is that religion tends to make you more conservative. And this is in particular true of Christianity. The more active, the more affiliated, the more clear one is about Christian identity, the more predictably one is expected to hold to conservative political positions and to follow political actions on the conservative side as well.

The Post summary goes on to tell us that among self-described liberals, 37% identify as Christian. Now here’s what’s really interesting. That’s down fully from 62% in 2007. As The Post points out, pretty remarkable, a 25 point shift during those years. “Meanwhile, the share of liberals who identify with no religion increased to 51% in 2024, up from 27% in 2007.” The report declares, and I quote, “There are now more religious Nones than Christians among liberals, a reversal since 2007.”

So pause for a moment. There are now more religious Nones than Christians among liberals. Now, the point is that there is no seismic movement from conservative to liberal. It’s instead a seismic movement inside liberalism towards a more secular understanding. And if anything, that’s probably socially and in terms of worldview, a greater consistency.

The Post also tells us, “There has also been a decline in Christian identity among moderates. Among those who identify as politically moderate, 61% say they are Christian, down 16 points in 2007.” Finally, in this section, “Conservatives are the most likely to identify as Christian, though there’s also been a 7-point shift away from Christianity there as well. 82% identify as Christian compared with 89% in 2007.”

I don’t think I’m particularly shocked by that number. I don’t think I’m shocked by the shift from a very high number of 89 to still a very high number of 82. I think if anything, we do note that in this time of worldview tumult in this country, you do have the rise of some on the Right who reflect a more, say, stoic or even Nietzschean worldview than a Christian worldview. And I think that would account for at least a good percentage within the numbers of that shift. But the bottom line in all of this is that this particular report tells us that religious beliefs really matter. And in particular in this country, that means the majority, faith being Christian, Christian beliefs really matter. Christian beliefs, Christian identification tends to indicate a far more conservative set of convictions, even politically as compared to religious liberals or seculars.

Now let me just point out. That makes all kinds of sense. As we think about worldview and the importance of worldview, whether persons around us recognize worldview or not, the human brain starts to think in more consistent terms. We ache for consistency. Every single one of us fails at the total test of consistency, but over time, we do tend to work out a rather comprehensive and consistent worldview.

And here’s the point, if you believe that there is a God who created the earth, made us male and female in his image, then in terms of a whole array of issues, LGBTQ issues, gender identity, sexuality issues, marriage issues, gender issues, male and female issues, we’ve got nowhere to go. And that is precisely because of our fundamental and foundational theological convictions. We’ve got nowhere to go. When you look at the landscape now dividing over these basic issues, there is no question that the great divide is liberal and conservative. And when you look closer, that great divide is Christian identified and far less Christian identified, religiously identified, and far less religiously identified, religious on the one hand, secular on the other.

I know many Christians want to avoid using the word religious, but when you’re looking at this kind of social data, that’s the word that is used. And in this case, we all understand it does tell us something.

Two other big data points are also important. When you think about immigration to the United States, is this a secular immigration? The pattern turns out not to be quite secular at all. As a matter of fact, we mentioned Hinduism and Buddhism and Islam. And of course we’re also looking at a vast influx of those who are traditionally Catholic coming from Latin, Central and South America.

So debates over immigration are a thing unto themselves, but at least at this point, we do need to recognize that immigration is not trending the United States in a more secular direction. I guess one of the interesting questions is whether or not the United States will trend many of those immigrants in a more secular direction.

Part III

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Can Christians Retain Their Own Young People? Christians Face a Big Challenge in a Highly Secular Society That is Capturing More and More Young People

But all right, the big question is looking at liberal, conservative, secular, more religious, looking at all these different dichotomies, looking at Democrats, Republicans, what about the even more basic divide? That’s the divide when it comes to biology between men and women. Well, the Pew religious landscape study is shown over and over again that, by and large, women are more religiously identified than men. And we are told in this study that that is basically true across generations. But we’ve also been talking on The Briefing about the fact that there is a lot of information coming in now, a good bit of data telling us that in the younger cohort of Americans, in particular, say, ages 18 to 35, young men are now more likely to attend church than young women. Young men are more conservative, in this case, than young women indicated in political activities and voting patterns as well. That certainly tells us something, and we’ll be returning to that issue with further considerations pretty quickly.

On the other hand, we do need to note that this religious landscape study tells us that younger Americans are, by and large, much more secular than older Americans. That gets back to that problem we talked just a little bit ago about the generational replacement challenge. And at this point, I want to step back from just looking at the data coming in from the religious landscape survey and talk to Christians and say this is where we need to understand we face a very big challenge. I think most conservative politically-minded Christians fully understand that. We face a huge challenge.

But we don’t get to raise all the children. We don’t get to influence all the teenagers and young adults, but we do get to start right at home and we get to start right in our local churches. And that’s where one of the big tests is whether we can retain our own children and retain our own young people at church. That’s absolutely massive. And we do know this. It’s verified over and over again, young people who are highly involved in a church in the ages between, say, 12 and 22, are far more likely to stay involved than those who are not. That’s not exactly glass shattering information, but it is something good for us to be reminded about quite regularly.

Part IV

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English is Now the Official Language of the U.S. – What Does It Mean? Equally Important, What Does It Not Mean?

Well, all right. While we’re thinking about this kind of trend, let’s look at another trend, a major development, another executive order from President Donald Trump. This one was announced just days ago. It was announced last Saturday when the White House announced that President Trump has signed an executive order that designates English as the official language of the United States.

Now, I think a lot of Americans just assumed that English was or is the official language of the United States. Well, it is, but it wasn’t until Saturday when President Trump signed this executive order. Now, once again, congress could act, but at this point it is unlikely that any congressional action is going to follow. What is important is that President Trump has issued this executive order.

Now, we are told that something like 350 languages are spoken in the United States or are functional in the United States in written or in verbal form. 350. Let’s just make the point. You are talking here about a virtual Tower of Babel. No country can exist when looking at 350 different languages. But in one sense, that’s a pretty extreme number. Even though the number is reported in the press, it doesn’t help us a whole lot.

Generally, we are talking about a more limited number of languages. This is a pattern, by the way, that goes back to the colonial age and the early national age when even looking at the different states that eventually became a part of the Federal Union, the United States of America, there were different language patterns. You not only had German. You had French and Spanish. Of course, you also had Dutch, you had French. You have a number of languages. But by and large, English was the dominating language. And here’s what’s important. English was the language of the founders as represented in the founding arguments and the federalist papers and of course in the documents themselves. The United States didn’t begin by declaring English the official language because it almost assuredly didn’t have to. That was just obvious.

Almost immediately, there were those who spoke out against the president’s action. Vanessa Cardenas, identified as executive director of America’s Voice, told the Los Angeles Times, “This isn’t just an offensive gesture that sticks a thumb in the eye of millions of US citizens who speak other languages, but it also will directly harm those who have previously relied on language assistance for vital information.”

Well, actually, the president’s executive order doesn’t necessarily do that at all because the executive order did not limit what the federal government or its agencies and into entities may do in terms of helping people with different language backgrounds. But it does state something that I think most Americans just assumed was in place, although it was not. Although, by the way, there’s several states that do have English as the official language.

But as we look at this, I think it’s important to recognize that in the development of nations as nations, common language is extremely important. You look at a situation in which you have a language problem, well, let’s just look across America’s northern border. You think of Canada, and you think English-speaking nations still a part of Britain’s Dominion family. But you also have in Canada, Quebec, the province that is historically French in influence and speaks French and quite militantly so. This has been a very divisive issue in Canada. Again, this lesson’s very close to us. It’s been a very divisive issue. And Quebec has often threatened to separate from the union there in Canada. That’s no idle threat.

I will just say that as you look at the history of nations, nations that have a very clear national language I think are at an advantage over those who do not. I don’t see this as so much discriminatory, but just indicative of the fact that to be fully identified in the United States, to participate fully is greatly enhanced, by supported, by facilitated by the use of the English language and ability in the English language. And so even those who cry out and say, “We shouldn’t have an official language,” all you have to do is watch what will take place tonight when the president of the United States addresses a joint session of Congress, what he says may be translated into any number of languages, but the president of the United States is going to speak in English. And by the way, every previous president of the United States in a similar situation has also used English.

Christians understand there’s a bit more to this than just the politics of language. We understand that language is part of identity. It’s a part of shaping a culture. The words we use, the sentences we know, the language that becomes very common to a culture, that becomes a part of the culture itself. It’s inseparable from the culture. It even comes down often to how a spoken language sounds in the ear.

It may be hard for many people to learn English given the difficulty of English-speaking people learning any other language. That’s quite easy for us to understand. At the same time, it is an act of neighborliness to say to those in this country who do not speak English, that your citizenship and your participation in this culture will be greatly assisted by your development of some facility and knowledge of the English language. I don’t think that is even, in truth, an argument. I think it’s just a fact. I don’t see how anyone can question that maximizing citizenship and participation in this country is greatly aided by understanding English and the ability to speak in English. I do not want to silence all other languages. I think it is, however, a good thing that President Trump has indicated that English is now the official language of the United States of America.

Some will say that that’s discriminatory, but I’ll say it is simply honest and, if understood rightly, helpful. And when you think about the motto of the United States, “E pluribus unum. Out of many, one,” it’s very hard to pull that off without common understanding, common meaning, common commitments, and at least to a very considerable degree, a common language.

Let’s just remember something from the Old Testament that should serve as a grave warning to us about divisiveness rather than union. Think of the Tower of Babel. That’s not what we want for the United States of America. And honestly, that’s not what we have. The vast majority of Americans understand English and speak in English. I think it is just being a good neighbor and friend to say that is something every American should aspire to and hopefully gain in order to be an even more full participant in the American conversation.

And by the way, as Christians, we can never end the discussion there because the limitations of language, even within the simple finitude of being human, it points us to what we yearn for. And that is the glorious sight, the glorious reality of men and women redeemed by Christ from every tongue and tribe and people and nation. But let’s remember, as glorious as that day will be, that is an eschatological day. In the meantime, when you have two different languages, you need a translator.