The empty tomb and the crucifix.
The Easter tale is bookended by both of these Religious emblems. One represents Jesus’ terrible execution, while the other stands for Christian belief in his resurrection and the assertion that he and his followers are still alive today.
Most people will hear some form of this Easter message as millions of Americans celebrate the most important day in the Christian calendar on Sunday – discovering fresh life in unexpected places.
But, same message might also be used to make an unexpected prognosis regarding the state of Christianity in the US.
Christians are dying in America, say critics and church leaders for years. According to some, the American church is prepared to follow the example set by churches in Western Europe, which feature soaring Gothic cathedrals with empty pews, shuttered churches that have been turned into skate parks and nightclubs, and a secularised culture where, according to one theologian, Christianity as a norm is “probably gone for good — or at least for the next 100 years.”
Nevertheless, when CNN recently inquired about the future of Christianity in the US, several of the country’s finest religious historians and experts had a different take.
They said that one key factor—the waves of Christians migrating to the US—will lead to the American church seeing a resurgence.
They also claimed that the church’s capacity to accommodate this movement will pose the biggest threat to the future of Christianity in America rather than dwindling numbers.
People have been predicting the end of Christianity in the US for more than two centuries, according to historian and assistant professor of religion Joseph P. Slaughter of Wesleyan University in Connecticut.
He cited Thomas Jefferson, one of the country’s founding fathers, who foresaw the demise of Christianity in the US in the 1820s and the rise of a more progressive religion that rejected the divinity of Jesus and miracles.
Instead, a succession of revivals, such as the Second Great Awakening, which swept over America and restored Christianity as the dominating force in American life, followed Jefferson’s predictions.
American Religion, especially evangelicalism, and its capacity to adapt and continue to play a key role in forming American culture are two things that Slaughter says she would never wager against.
The worst-case scenario for the church is what is occurring in Europe.
The numbers alone make Slaughter’s optimism seem misplaced. Almost all recent polls on Christianity in America have been negative for its adherents.
Today, 64% of Americans identify as Christians. According to a 2020 Pew Research Center research, although that number may seem high today, it was 90% fifty years ago. The Christian majority in the US may vanish by 2070, according to the same report.
The American church suffered from the Covid-19 pandemic as well. Although it has recently increased, church attendance is still significantly below pre-pandemic levels. Another depressing statistic for Christians was revealed by a 2021 Gallup poll: church attendance in the US has for the first time dropped below 50%.
The Southern Baptist Convention and Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandals, the rise of White Christian nationalism, and the notion that the church oppresses LGBTQ persons are a few other recent stories that have damaged the church’s reputation.
Church leaders in the US have also expressed concern over the increase in “nones.” When asked about their religious affiliation, these persons reply “nothing in particular,” “atheist,” or “agnostic.”
According to Tina Wray, a professor of religious and theological studies at Salve Regina University in Rhode Island, the rise of nones will change the nation’s religious and political environment. Nowadays, 30% of Americans identify as nones.
In just a few years, according to Wray, “the interests of the nones will far outweigh those of the religious right.” “Nones will cast a single vote and will have a considerable amount of influence. The unaffiliated will soon surpass white evangelicals in popularity.
Those who are hopeful for the future of the American church, according to Wray, undervalue how rapidly Christianity can lose its sway, even in a region where it formerly flourished. She makes reference to what occurred in the heavily Catholic Republic of Ireland.
According to Wray, author of “What the Bible Really Tells Us: The Essential Guide to Biblical Literacy,” the Catholic Church forbade divorce and formerly held such sway in Ireland that the nation didn’t legally offer its residents the right to one until 1995. Wray nevertheless adds that she just visited Ireland where she learned that many of the locals no longer practise their religion. She claims that churches are closing and being converted into apartment buildings.
Those who regularly attended mass stopped doing so, she claims. “There is a cultural Catholic identity, but when it comes to actual religious practise, it is simply vanishing. That was all it took, a generation. It simply shocks me.
Why the future of the American church may differ from that of the European church Most of the religious experts CNN spoke to suggested that the American church may find salvation in a different demographic trend: the rapid growth of Christianity in the so-called “Global South,” which includes Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
For instance, the biggest megachurch in the world is not located in the US. The place is South Korea. There are roughly 600,000 members of the Yoido Full Gospel Church that attend services every week.
When Perry Hamalis was a Fulbright Scholar, he lived in South Korea and saw firsthand the thriving Christian church in the Global South.
According to him, the church is seen as a tool of freedom rather than of oppression in South Korea. The church stood alongside Koreans in opposition to Japanese colonisation of South Korea in the early 20th century.
According to Hamalis, a religion professor at North Central College in Illinois, “Christianity was not seen as a religion of empire and of the colonisers, but as the religion of the anti-colonial movement and of pro-democracy.”
More immigrants reside in the US than any other nation. The vast majority of immigrants to the US today are from South America and Asia, and many of them are bringing their fervent religious beliefs with them.
The “Browning of America,” a term used to describe the demographic change that will make White people the minority in the US by 2045, is a result of this movement.
According to experts, those who forecast the demise of the American church frequently fail to take into account how the influx of Christians from the Global South will rejuvenate the nation’s religious landscape. If White Christians accept this one change, they assert, Christianity may flourish in America.
The New York Times columnist Tish Harrison Warren has noted that Latino evangelicals are currently the fastest-growing segment of the evangelical community in the US.
As long as there are fewer white people in the future of America, Warren argued, “We cannot expect that America will become more secular.”
The rise of a White Christian nationalist movement, which maintains falsely that the US was created as a White, Christian nation, clashes with the influx of Black and brown Christians from regions like Latin America and Asia. It is opposed to immigrants who are not White.
According to Hamalis, some churches may find that Jesus’ instruction to welcome the outsider conflicts with how they define patriotism.
Many churches are unaware of how much of their Christian identity is entwined with a (Christian) nationalist narrative, according to Hamalis. Although there is nothing wrong with loving one’s country, from a Christian perspective, this should always take a back seat to the task of edifying the church and spreading the gospel to all peoples.
How Christianity may regain the upper hand
Some claim that there are more, less obvious causes that support the survival of Christianity.
For starters, a decline in church membership does not necessarily mean a decline in influence.
Examine a few significant recent occurrences. White evangelicals were crucial in helping elect the former president Trump. Recent state laws restricting LGBTQ rights were passed in large part because to the efforts of conservative Religious organisations. Also, many conservative Christians celebrated a major win when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.
However, atheism is still frowned upon in American politics. Candidates that profess or allude to Religious views continue to be more popular with American voters, including presidents Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden.
At Centre College in Kentucky, associate professor of religion Lee M. Jefferson asserts that “Christianity still controls a lot of capital in this society.”
A common misconception, according to Jefferson, is that a religious community’s power or influence is correlated with its membership and attendance. “Religion will still maintain some strong relevance in certain settings in the US, even if there is sufficient space in cathedrals.”
Even the growing number of Americans who identify as “nones,” or those who say they don’t care about religion, is not as dangerous for the church as some early reports suggest, according to scholars.
Despite the fact that an increasing number of Americans no longer identify as Christians, Hans Gustafson, the author of “Everyday Wisdom: Interreligious Studies for a Pluralistic World,” claims that many of them still have a strong interest in spirituality.
Gustafson, director of the Jay Phillips Institute for Interreligious Studies at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, believes that just because more Americans are leaving institutionalised religion, most notably Christian traditions, does not always mean that people are becoming less religious.
“Many still engage in spiritual practises like prayer and meditation… and occasionally even routinely visit places of worship,” he claims.
According to Gustafson, among Americans who do not identify as religious, some still pray every day and believe that religion has a significant role in their lives.
He makes reference to a startling result from a 2018 Pew Research Center research on religion in Western Europe. According to the report, Americans are “far more likely” than Europeans to pray and believe in God, according to Neha Sahgal, vice president of research at Pew.
In fact, according to some of these accepted standards of religiosity, Americans who identify as “nones” are just as devout as or more so than Christians in a number of European nations, such as France, Germany, and the UK, Sahgal said.
Why Easter’s message contains a message of hope
Although many religious experts are optimistic, it still appears that Christianity in America has a bleak future. It is impossible to dismiss poll results showing a drop in religion in the US, as well as something more ephemeral like human nature’s flaws.
What if the US experiences a new wave of xenophobia and restricts the immigration of non-White Christians?
What if liberal Christians turn out to be hesitant to support immigrants who are more conservative on matters of sexuality and gender than White immigrants?
And what if some Christians continue to hold fast to the notion that America is primarily a White Christian country, even if this presumption leads them to refuse entry to non-White immigrants who may otherwise be their only hope for salvation?
If that occurs, empty pews rather than an empty tomb will serve as an Easter morning symbol in American churches.
Yet, Hamalis, a professor of religion who witnessed the growth of Christianity in South Korea, advises Christians who worry about this kind of future to find comfort in the Easter message.
According to the Christian faith, there is nothing to be afraid of because even death has been vanquished, says Hamalis. “When we are freed from that fear, we can accept people who are different from us, whether they are from a different culture or speak a different language. In contrast to simply being fearful, we may put ourselves out there.
He and other academics have the same outlook on the future of Christianity in the US as New York Times columnist Warren:
Neither white progressivism nor white evangelicalism is the future of American Christianity, according to Warren. “A multiethnic community that is predominately headed by immigrants and immigrants’ offspring appears to be the future of American Christianity right now.”
The American church will have had its own resurrection if it can accept this future and stop losing members.
