Religion in Kansas

Review Essay Series RELIGION IN KANSAS Gary R. Entz n his 1902 essay on religion in Kansas, EDITORS’INTRODUCTION Ernest Hamlin Abbott compared reli- Few would deny the centrali- gious convictions in the state to those ty of spiritual or religious beliefs, found in other parts of the Southwest or the lack thereof, to the essence Iand commented, “In Kansas religious life is of who we are as human beings. marked by dogmatism also; but it is not doc- Our motivation, conduct, values, trinal, but moral.” Abbott held that Kansans indeed our entire world view, al- expressed their strongest religious feelings in ways have been determined in moral legislation rather than religious doc- large part by what we profess in this regard. Nevertheless, for a trine. Political scientist James A. Morone con- variety of reasons historians, with veys a similar sentiment regarding religion in a few notable exceptions, have America at large with the quip that nothing been reluctant to deal seriously “stirs the people or grows their government with the religious history of like a pulpit-thumping moral crusade against Kansas and the West; and yet reli- malevolent dastards.” One need look no fur- gion was and continues to be, per- ther than journalist Thomas Frank’s What’s haps more than ever, a critical fac- the Matter with Kansas? to realize that Mo- tor in the political, social, and rone’s idea of a moral crusade, what Frank cultural life of our state. Thus, calls the “Great Backlash,” is alive and well Gary R. Entz’s assessment of the among Kansas evangelicals.1 state of the state’s religious histo- While the irascible political mores of the evangelical subculture may be ry is especially significant and timely. among the most recent manifestations of religion in Kansas, the stream of reli- Spirituality was, of course, a gious thought in the state runs significantly deeper and is far more nuanced. central feature in the lives of the region’s indigenous peoples cen- turies before they made first con- Gary R. Entz earned his Ph.D. in American history from the University of Utah and teaches history at McPherson College. He studies extensively the many colonies that settled in Kansas. His “Zion Valley: The Mor- tact with Europeans, who brought mon Origins of St. John, Kansas” appeared in the summer 2001 issue of Kansas History. with them very different ideas The author is grateful to reader Ocie Kilgus and thanks Ray Santee, Susan Taylor, and the staff of about the here and now as well as McPherson College’s Miller Library. the hereafter. All too often this 1. Ernest Hamlin Abbott, “Religious Life in America VIII–Kansas,” Outlook 70 (April 19, 1902): was a source of conflict—be- 968–69; James A. Morone, Hellfire Nation: The Politics of Sin in American History (New Haven: Yale Uni- tween non-Christians and Chris- versity Press, 2003), 3; Thomas Frank, What’s the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2004), 5. tians, or among Christians of dif- Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains 28 (Summer 2005): 120–145. 120 KANSAS HISTORY Religion has always played an important role in Kansas. Here members of the First Episcopal Church in Wichita gather outside their primitive structure, ca. 1869. Whether conservative or progressive, traditional or new similar investigations of religion remain relegated to the age, religion is ubiquitous in the American West. Whether periphery. Historian Ferenc M. Szasz believes that religious visually manifest as a rural church built in the prairie goth- pluralism is the primary reason for the marginalization of ic style, an urban synagogue, or the sacred space of Native religion. According to Szasz, “While the other dimensions America, religion and religious imagery permeates the of the Western experience share a universal quality, that of physical and cultural landscape of Kansas. Religion pre- religion clings stubbornly to sectarian boundaries.”2 dated the arrival of peoples of European descent, played a Szasz’s observations hold for Kansas. Many local and de- major role in the political formation of the state, and has re- tained a significant influence over private and public spheres. Nevertheless, while historians of the American 2. Ferenc M. Szasz, “Religion in the American West: An Introduc- West routinely analyze questions of race, class, and gender, tion,” Journal of the West 23 (January 1984): 3–4. RELIGION IN KANSAS 121 fering faith backgrounds. From nominational histories are extant, but a comprehensive synthesis of the state’s re- those earlier times to the present, ligious history has never been written. religion has been a driving force Apart from the predominant influence of Mormonism in Utah and Catholi- in Kansas society, for good and cism in New Mexico, religious diversity in Kansas resembles many other parts of sometimes for ill. “One need look the West. Kansas is the easternmost of the western states and shares a number of no further than journalist Thomas religious traits with both the West and Midwest. Historian D. Michael Quinn Frank’s [recent] What’s the Matter wrote, in comparison to the rest of the nation, “the West as a region has the low- with Kansas?” writes Professor est attendance (36 percent) in church or synagogue.” In looking at Kansas as part Entz of McPherson College, to re- of the Midwest, theology professor Philip Barlow added that “44 percent of the alize that the traditional Kansas population of Kansas is religiously unaffiliated—by far the highest proportion of idea of a moral crusade, “what all the Plains states.” The sheer number of unchurched within the state would Frank calls the ‘Great Backlash,’ is seem to contradict the simplistic image of Kansas as a land peopled by religious alive and well among Kansas evangelicals”—throughout the ideologues. However, the story is not so easily unsnarled because many twentieth century Kansans ex- unchurched are believers too. Quinn cited a Gallup poll stating, “In fact, with a pressed their strongest religious few variations, the unchurched claim the same turf as the churched—except they feelings in moral legislation rather are not attending, supporting, or belonging to a congregation of the visible than religious doctrine. church.” Historian Brian Dippie affirmed that any study of religion in the West Today it seems that the “polit- would reveal an underlying culture of conservatism.3 Kansas is no exception. ical mores” of this “evangelical Whether churched or unchurched, many modern Kansans openly embrace the subculture” are the primary “man- austere Protestant ethics of evangelistic holiness sects. These so-called rural mid- ifestations of religion in Kansas,” dle-class values encourage conformity through a simple, thrifty lifestyle, denial of but “the stream of religious luxuries and pleasure, and a judicious, common-sense approach to life. thought in the state runs signifi- Nevertheless, since Kansas is located at a historic crossroads where North- cantly deeper and is far more nu- erners, Southerners, immigrants, and Native Americans found access to the West, anced. Whether conservative or progressive, traditional or new it is difficult to religiously pigeonhole the state. Philip Barlow noted that in the age, religion is ubiquitous in the neighboring states of Missouri and Oklahoma, Southern Baptists traditionally American West.” And it is past have maintained a dominant presence. In the Northern Plains, Lutheranism is time for historians to move it from among the predominant religions. In Kansas Southern Baptists represent a ma- the periphery to a more central po- jority only in Montgomery County, and overall 12 percent of Kansans claiming sition in their efforts to better in- church affiliation find solace in the Baptist Church. The Lutheran dominion ends terpret our past. “The religious in Nebraska and only McPherson, Russell, and Smith Counties count the Luther- history of Kansas is incomplete,” an Church as the leading denomination. In the remainder of the state’s counties Entz concludes, and it “will be the Methodist Church is either the largest or second largest denomination. fully understood only after histori- Methodists account for 14 percent of residents aligned with a formal religious ans examine all of its variegated body. Kansas has a lower percentage of Roman Catholics than the entire Midwest patterns.” His thorough and effec- as a region, yet Barlow still finds that 27 percent of religiously affiliated adherents tive contribution to Kansas Histo- ry’s review essay series certainly in the state are Catholic. There are more Anabaptist, Mormon, and Pentecostal enhances our understanding of groups in Kansas than in other parts of the Midwest but fewer Muslim, Jewish, the historiographical issues and and Reformed groups. Kansas holds a strong African American religious her- makes a significant contribution to itage, several independent megachurches, and a small percentage of Eastern reli- the literature in its own right. It gious faiths.4 should serve as an effective call to scholars in search of a fertile, vital- ly important field of study. 3. D. Michael Quinn, “Religion in the American West,” in Under an Open Sky: Rethinking America’s _____________ Western Past, ed. William Cronon, George Miles, and Jay Gitlin (New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1992), 158–59; Philip Barlow, “A Demographic Portrait: America Writ Small?” in Religion and Public Virgil W. Dean Life in the Midwest: America’s Common Denominator? ed. Philip Barlow and Mark Silk (Walnut Creek, Kansas State Historical Society Calif.: AltaMira Press, 2004), 39; Brian W. Dippie, “American Wests: Historiographical Perspectives,” Rita G. Napier in Trails: Toward a New Western History, ed. Patricia Nelson Limerick, Clyde A. Milner II, and Charles E. Rankin (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1991), 121. University of Kansas 4.

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