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The Undoing of American Evangelical Prominence and the Rise of the Religiously Unaffiliated Nones

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The Undoing of American Evangelical Prominence and the Rise of the Religiously Unaffiliated Nones Liberty University School of Divinity The American UnReformation: The Undoing of American Evangelical Prominence and the Rise of the Religiously Unaffiliated Nones A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by H. G. Walker Lynchburg, Virginia December 2019 DEDICATION This is for you Papaw. Your words of encouragement to get a good education walked with me after you were gone and saw me through to completion. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To my Chair, Dr. David Hirschman, thank you for your guidance and belief that provided the direction for each step along the way toward the completion of this project. I never would have been able to do this without you serving in this role and walking along side me through this journey. For a full decade, you have been a great encouragement to me. Thank you. To Boone and Penn, though young boys during the completion of this project, knowing that each word of this work was a brick in the legacy that will be passed on to you pushed me through each doubt and obstacle during this endeavor. You both inspire me more than you will ever know. To Lauren, thank you…for everything. You have helped me in every way. This was impossible if it were not for you. I love you. ii CONTENTS DEDICATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii CONTENTS iii TABLES vii ILLUSTRATIONS viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Need and Purpose of This Study 11 Significance of Study 13 Research Problem and Thesis 25 Research Gap 27 Statement of Limitations 29 Review of Relevant Research 30 Locating Self as Researcher 34 Research Approach 37 Research Method 38 Criteria and Definition of Terms 45 Chapter Summary 52 CHAPTER 2: SIGNIFICANT PERIODS OF BELIEF AND UNBELIEF IN AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY 53 Introduction 53 Colonial America 56 First Great Awakening 1730-1745 60 iii American Revolution 1765-1783 64 2nd Great Awakening -1790-1840 72 Civil War (1861-1865) Through WWI (1914-1919) 80 Early 20th Century 87 World War II to The Rise of The Religious Right 92 Resurgence of Religious Education 96 The Dying Protestant Mainline 97 Shrinking Southern Baptists 98 The Current State of Biblical Higher Education 100 Secularization and Secular Theory 101 Chapter Summary 102 CHAPTER 3: HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS OF RELIGIOUS RESURGENCE IN AMERICA 106 Introduction 106 Colonial America 108 First Great Awakening 111 Post Awakening Expansion 114 American Revolution 116 Second Great Awakening 118 Civil War 125 Early Twentieth Century 127 World War II to Present 129 The Conservative Resurgence and The Rise of The Right 131 iv The Diminishing of American Evangelicalism 136 Importance of Familial Religious Socialization 146 Chapter Summary 150 CHAPTER 4: THE CURRENT STATE OF AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY 155 Introduction 155 Underlying Reasons for Religious Departure 159 Geography of Belief 163 Demography of Belief 165 Generation Z 167 Millennials 169 Generation X 172 Baby Boomers 176 Why Different Generations Choose None (Barriers to Faith) 178 Qualifying Theories Regarding the Increase in Nones 180 LGBTQ Equality 182 Politics 183 Socio-Economic Theories 185 Exclusive Truth Claims 186 Higher Education 186 Education and Religious Affiliation 189 Religious Socialization 191 Denominational Examination 194 Church Leadership 196 v Decreasing Membership 198 Decreasing Evangelical Belief 199 Reasons for Decreasing Membership Numbers 201 Evolving Views of Higher Education and Anemic Biblical Higher Education 206 Southern Baptists And Education Attainment 207 Loss of Evangelistic Zeal 208 Chapter Summary 216 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 219 BIBLIOGRAPHY 226 vi TABLES 2.1 Founding State Constitutional Statements Regarding Religion 54 2.2 Growth in Number of New England Churches 70 2.3 Denominational Growth 1740-1790 71 2.4 Denominational Growth 1850 80 2.5 Number of Missionaries Compared to Population Growth 1900-2010 104 4.1 Stability of the Moderately Religious 158 4.2 Reasons Young Adults are Dropping out of Church 160 vii ILLUSTRATIONS Fig 3.1 Religious Preference Timeline 134 Fig 4.1 U.S. Fertility Rates as measured by the CDC 204 Fig 4.2 Total Fertility Rates - Religiously Affiliated vs. Unaffiliated, 2015-2020 205 Fig 4.3 Number of SBC Churches vs Baptisms per Year (1883-2016) 210 viii ecclesia reformata sed semper reformanda—“a church reformed but always needing reformation.” “And the Church must be forever building and always decaying, and always being restored.” T.S. Elliot CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION As this project is being written, the third largest “religion” in the world has become no religion at all. More importantly, the most recent national survey reports suggest the largest religious category in the United States is now the religion of Nones, those that identify as having no religious affiliation.1 The number of those who self-identify as having no religious affiliation has hit an all-time high in America since Pew Research Center has been measuring this metric. The recent rapid increase of those who have been called religious “Nones” in America has been consistently evidenced in data in all major national polls. In a nation that has for so long self- identified as a “Christian” society, this seismic shift in the American religious landscape has been called by Time Magazine one of the ten most significant trends changing American society.2 Some contend America is on the same trajectory of religious decline as major European countries.3 The 1960s and 1970s was a moment, especially in Europe where there was an 1 “The 2017 study, polling 3,000 Americans, found that 34 percent of Americans now identify as 'nones': atheists, agnostics or 'nothing in particular', overtaking Protestants (33 per cent) and Catholics (21 per cent) as a social group.” See Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at Brigham Young University. “National Survey Examines Marriage, Family, Immigration, Health care and Technology in the Age of Trump,” Deseret News, 2017. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-survey-examines-marriage-family-immigration-health- care-and-technology-in-the-age-of-trump-300557068.html (Accessed February 25, 2019). 2 Amy Sullivan, “The Rise of the Nones,” in 10 Ideas That Are Changing Your Life,. Time Magazine, March 12, 2012. http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2108054,00.html Accessed February 20, 2019). 3 Simon Brauer, “The Surprising Predictable Decline of Religion in the United States.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (2018): 0:1–22. 1 acceleration of the numbers of people choosing to disaffiliate from religion. This is significant given the latest survey data in the UK suggesting a less than one percent religious service attendance in the Church of England and a greater than fifty percent of the population self- identifying as religiously unaffiliated.4 The religiously unaffiliated population in the UK has surpassed the population that identifies as Christian to become the majority religious identity in the country. Overall, global levels of religious affiliation declined during the Twentieth Century,5 with some suggesting this trend appears to be slowing and global religion is experiencing a significant season of growth.6 Though it can be argued there is a global resurgence of Christianity specifically7 and a resurgence of Evangelical expressions of Christianity is certainly not the case in the United States. As such, this project focuses entirely on the American religious context. Currently, there are a handful of countries where religiously unaffiliated are the majority “religion.”8 China has the largest population, per capita, of religious Nones. Britain is not far 4 Now, the Church of England churches are no longer required to hold religious services on Sunday. Commenting on the change of the over 400 year old law, the Reverend Rose Hudson-Wilkin stated, “Times are changing- it is not just about a shortage of clergy but also the fact that people work on Sunday.” See, “Churches no longer have to hold Sunday services,” BBC News, February 22, 2019. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-47326993 (Accessed February 27, 2019). 5 According to the World Christian Database, nearly one hundred percent of the global population identified with a religion in 1910. This number has fallen to eighty seven percent in 2010. 6 Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project, “The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections 2010-2050,” April 2, 2015. http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp- content/uploads/sites/11/2015/03/PF_15.04.02_ProjectionsFullReport.pdf (Accessed January 2, 2019). 7 The World Christian Database reports the global population of those identifying with no religion declining by three percent by 2050 and the global population of those identifying as Christian as growing by approximately three percent by 2050. https://www.worldchristiandatabase.org/wcd/#/results/1747 (Accessed February 20, 2019). 8 See “The Global Religious Landscape,” Pew Research Center December 18, 2012, https://www.pewforum.org/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-unaffiliated/ (Accessed August 29, 2019). “The largest populations of the religiously unaffiliated outside China are in Japan (6% of all unaffiliated), the United States (5%), Vietnam (2%) and Russia (2%). There are six countries where the religiously unaffiliated make up a 2 behind with half of the nation’s population identifying as religiously unaffiliated. Importantly now, thirty four percent of Americans reported no religious affiliation9 in the 2017 American Family Value Survey and only twenty eight percent reported
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