Fewer Virginians identifying themselves as Christian, survey finds

Fewer Virginians call themselves Christians, while the number of residents claiming no religion has doubled since 1990.

Those findings were part of the recently released American Religious Identification Survey, a project of Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.

Virginia's results are in line with religious changes nationwide.

"To me, the biggest surprise was how completely representative Virginia is in relation to the national trends," said Diana Butler Bass, author of seven books on American Protestantism, including "A People's History of Christianity."

The study found 76 percent of Americans identifying themselves as some form of Christian in 2008, compared with 86 percent in 1990. Americans who say they have no religion climbed from 8 percent to 15 percent during the same period.

In Virginia, the percentage of Christians declined to 76 percent last year from 88 percent in 1990. Residents claiming no religion, identified as "nones" in the study, jumped to 15 percent from 7 percent during the same period.

"In other words, Virginia isn't distinctly Southern in its religious outlook any longer; Virginia is very American," said Bass, senior fellow at the Cathedral College of the Washington National Cathedral and an Alexandria resident.

"We have become a religious bellwether, and that has implications for Virginia politics as well as its churches."

Robert Benne, director of the Roanoke College Center for Religion and Society, said, "The population is much more cosmopolitan, which brings with it more unaffiliated people. Many give up the religions of their homeplace when they move here; others have never been affiliated."

He also attributed nondenominational Christian growth to an aversion to formality.

"Individualists want to 'be themselves' and the nondenominational churches" tend to be informal, Benne said.

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Michael Fletcher of Chesterfield County, who describes himself as an interdenominational evangelical, said historic mainline churches and denominations experienced the steepest declines because they "have left their foundational teachings."

"They've softened the Gospel into some sort of watered-down love relationship that doesn't require anyone to step outside their comfort zone," he said.

But Bob Fuller, author of "Spiritual, But Not Religious: Understanding Unchurched America," said the decline started in the 1960s when children of mainline Protestant denominations went to college and were "introduced . . . to science, modern philosophy and the academic study of the Bible and world religions, all of which tend to undermine that any one religion has a monopoly on truth."

Bill Leonard, dean of the Wake Forest University School of Divinity, said, "Evangelicals and Catholics should not be smug about this survey in attributing the decline to so-called 'mainline denominations.'

"They are the canary in the mine for Protestants and Catholics in the U.S. The Southern Baptist Convention -- conservative, doctrinaire, evangelistic -- is a case study in the fact that such groups can be impacted by demographics and pluralism as strongly as liberal groups."

. . .

The survey collected answers from 54,461 respondents who were questioned in English and Spanish.

Other findings were:

The shift in religious identification must be understood in relation to larger cultural patterns, Bass said.

"A few generations ago, people had no choice. . . . If you were born a Catholic or a Methodist, that's what you were for your whole life. In the last two decades, the United States has moved away from being a culture of inherited faith to a culture where individuals must negotiate their spiritual beliefs and practices," she said.

. . .

The only group that grew in every state since a 2001 survey was people saying they had no religion.

Bart D. Ehrman, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of 20 books including "Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible," said that many people consider themselves spiritual but not religious, "meaning that they have a private, individual spirituality which is not governed by a creed or a church organization."

The survey findings don't alarm the Rev. D. Wallace Adams-Riley, rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church.

"Some churches are known as an outreach church. That never made sense to me. You should be faith in action. . . . I am encouraged to get out there and share the love of God and help people feel welcome in a way they never felt welcome before," he said.

Churches and culture are driving the changes in religious identification, said Fritz Kling, president of Kling Philanthropy Group and founder and chairman of the Richmond Christian Leadership Institute.

"Society discourages us from making value judgments about what is or is not bad behavior, and much that is good has been lost in the process," said Kling, who is writing a book on how Christian churches around the world adapt to changing societies.

"The coarsening of society affects all faiths," and churches have been slow to respond to societal trends.

The church's role as "an improver" of society also has diminished, Kling said.

"Christians should be Richmond's best citizens -- always giving, loving and serving. Maybe we Christians aren't acting that way, or if we are, the message isn't getting out."

Contact Robin Farmer at (804) 649-6312 or rfarmer@timesdispatch.com.