By J. Brent Walker, BJC Executive Director
The recently released American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS, 2008) confirms what we have long known about religion in the United States: we are far less denominational than we used to be, religious diversity is on the rise, and an increasing proportion of the population claims no religious affiliation at all.
These results come in the midst of a Baptist Joint Committee strategic planning effort-our third since 1998-casting a vision for our mission over the next five years.
The timing of the survey’s release is propitious since the manner in which the Baptist Joint Committee performs its ministry must be informed by the religious, cultural and political context in which we work.
According to the ARIS, Christianity continues to be the majority religion embraced by 76 percent of the population. (But this is a decline from a 1990 ARIS that found 86 percent.) Baptists comprise 15.8 percent of the population, the largest religious group after Catholics. Those claiming to be Christian, however, are far less inclined to embrace a particular denomination. They are more likely simply to say they are “Christian” or “evangelical/born again” or “non-denominational Christian.”
Significantly, religious pluralism, outside traditional Catholic/ mainline Protestant communities, is on the rise, too. Mormons, Muslims, those who embrace a variety of Eastern religions, like Buddhism and Hinduism, and adherents of “new religious movements,” including Wiccans, spiritualists and pagans, are growing fast.
Finally, the so-called “nones” – a category embodying atheists, agnostics, secularists, humanists and people who say they have “no religion”- are at 15 percent. This is up from 8.2 percent in 1990.
These religious and cultural demographics have influenced and will continue to inform the Baptist Joint Committee’s strategic planning process. Along with a review of our core values, beliefs and assumptions, we spent a lot of time thinking about how the landscape had changed since the last strategic plan was adopted five years ago.
First of all, we unabashedly affirm our Baptist heritage. Even as we recognize the decline in denominational affiliation and, for many, relevance, the strategic planning committee understands we are who we are. The historic Baptist advocacy of religious liberty and church-state separation is a message that must be proclaimed today – particularly in an increasingly pluralistic and secular culture. The label “Baptist” may not be sacrosanct, but what the Baptist Joint Committee stands for surely is.
Secondly, we embrace in this strategic plan the Baptist Joint Committee’s historic practice of working in coalition with other groups, including minority religions. America’s increasing religious diversity demands that we be all the more assiduous in upholding the protections for the free exercise of religion embodied in the First Amendment. Our brothers and sisters in the Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and other minority traditions deserve and expect the second largest religious group in America – Baptists!- to stand up for and with them. The Baptist Joint Committee is committed to do just that.
Third, we have long said and continue to affirm that freedom of religion implies freedom from religion – at least freedom from state-sponsored religion. In a sense, if the Free Exercise Clause protects religious minorities, the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause protects non-religious minorities. For religion to be vital it must be voluntary; no governmentally endorsed religion can be allowed. Compelled religion is an oxymoron.
It’s important to remember that “nones” are a sizable segment of the American population – 15 percent of those surveyed. Of the various categories of the ARIS, that group comes in third, behind Catholics and Baptists. Indeed, “nones” are more numerous, according to the survey, than “mainline Protestants.” They must be allowed to say no to religion without having their status as good citizens impugned.
Our strategic planning effort will continue for the next several months. We shall continue to be faithful to our heritage while preparing ourselves to advocate for the importance of religious liberty to an increasingly variegated, and sometimes apathetic, audience. That message will be grounded in our Baptist tradition but, hopefully, proclaimed in a way that is relevant to contemporary culture and understood by modern ears.
