There was once a day when, as an educator in Christian higher education, you could assume most of the students in your classroom identified as Christian, came from a Christian background and engaged in a faith community. You wouldn’t make this assumption simply because you were at a Christian organization but because 78% of Americans identified as Christian and 40% attended church weekly. However, for years, The Pew Research Center has noted a steady decline in Christian affiliation and an increase in those who identify as “nothing in particular” or “nones.” Pew data from 2019 suggested that the percent of Americans who identified as Christian was down to 63%. This has caused many Christian leaders to sound alarms and engage in culture wars to understand and mitigate the factors that might be fueling this decline.
However, the latest report from the Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape Study released this past month, which surveyed 37,000 Americans, suggests that the decline in Christian identity is leveling off. Essentially, the fears around the inevitable ongoing decline of the Christian faith in the U.S. may not be supported by the data. We must keep in mind that the data is descriptive, not explanatory. The picture the Pew data paints is of a U.S. that is much less Christian than it was in the past but not one that is on a speeding train towards complete secularism and abandoning of the faith.
That said, we should continue to wrestle with this data and engage in meaningful conversations with one another and our students about what this all means. Here are some key data points from the report and some questions for further consideration for Christian higher education.
- In 2007 78% of the overall U.S. population identified as Christian. In 2024, 62% of the population identified as Christian. This suggests that the majority of the population still subscribes to our faith tradition. In a pluralistic country like ours, this is quite remarkable. We must moderate our doom and gloom or fatalistic impulses related to the decline of the faith. At the same time, the fact remains that fewer folks today identify as Christian than in years past. We have to engage in intentional and non-judgmental conversations with students to understand their religious identity. We should seek to understand the concerns and questions of those who do not identify as Christian as well as the motivations for those who do.
- The slowdown of the decline began 5 years ago. Over the last five years, the percentage decline in Christian identity began to level off. What happened 5 years ago? Is this related to demographic and population shifts? Are Americans actually changing their beliefs? Have historical, political, environmental, or social changes contributed to the slowing? More investigation and conversation need to happen to understand this phenomenon, especially given the age of many of our students. What have they seen in the last 5 years, and how has that impacted their faith formation? A global pandemic, surge in online worship services, and ongoing socio-political waring has undoubtedly impacted their faith formation. However, we don’t know how and to what degree. Questions and conversations are a good starting place to understand what might be contributing to this leveling off.
- African Americans and immigrants continue to have high endorsement of Christianity. Nearly 60% of immigrants are Christian. This is something that should be considered in our conversations about immigration. From a Biblical perspective, Christians follow a savior who was born to a poor family and forced to flee an evil dictator. Today we would call this family “refugees”. Further, scripture gives some clear instructions from God to his chosen people about the ways they were to care for and avoid exploiting foreigners or immigrants. This Pew data forces us to consider these theological truths as we wrestle with current social policy. How do we respond to complex issues like immigration in a way that is faithful to scripture and acknowledges that more than half of those coming to this country are our brothers and sisters in Christ?
Further, African Americans remain the group with the highest percentage of Christians at 73%. African Americans are likely to be members of Historically Black denominations and tend to hold more liberal political and social views than their white counterparts. The data suggests there is an important intersection between race/ethnicity and Christian faith that educators should not be afraid to explore. It’s possible that our Black students come from committed Christian communities and can help us all understand why and how they remain so connected to the Christian faith.
This especially noteworthy considering the historical and current weaponization of the Gospel message to promote racism, white supremacy, and oppression. Scholars have explored this in depth including practices like selectively redacting scripture, taking scripture out of context, and promoting racial segregation in congregations. Others have examined the deletion from our collective history the contributions of Africans in the early development of the Christian church. Despite these deliberate efforts to use or manipulate the Christian faith to exclude or oppress African Americans this group remains the most Christian group in the country. This seems counterintuitive at first glance. However, a closer look might just be a miraculous testimony to the truth of the Gospel; that God has decided to reveal himself to a group that has been persecuted in the name of Christ. Instead of avoiding topics of race and culture in the classroom we might lean into these conversations to understand what keeps our Black students tethered to their faith.
- There are deep divides in Christian faith identity among political ideological lines. In 2007 two-thirds of those who identified as liberal were Christian. Now only one-third do. This should force us all to ask the chicken or the egg question Is political affiliation and ideology shaping faith…or is faith shaping political ideology? In Christian higher education, we have the unique opportunity to facilitate the examination of social policy alongside scripture. This should lead not to indoctrination but to discipleship.
It should be possible for various individuals who follow Christ to come to different conclusions about the role of government and social policy in promoting flourishing. As we interact with our students and our colleagues can we make room for the Christian who prioritizes the unborn and the Christian who prioritizes the care for creation and the natural environment? Do those who hold liberal political and social views find incompatibility between their values and the Gospel? Or is the case that liberals find their values to be incompatible with the voices that claim there is only one way to be a faithful Christian? Research suggests that those who have higher levels of education are more likely to hold liberal socio-political views. So what does that mean for us who value higher education and Christian identity? Here is an area where we have a unique opportunity to be countercultural and present the Gospel faithfully while preparing students to be nuanced in their thinking about how to live out our faith in a pluralistic society.
