Djupe, Paul A.

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Djupe, Paul

Denison University

Denison University Denison Digital Commons Faculty Publications 2023 Religion on Campus: A Minority Are Religious And With a Foot Out the Door Paul Djupe Denison University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.denison.edu/facultypubs  Part of the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Djupe, Paul, "Religion on Campus: A Minority Are Religious And With a Foot Out the Door" (2023). Faculty Publications. 1785. https://digitalcommons.denison.edu/facultypubs/1785 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Denison Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Denison Digital Commons. For more information, please contact eresources@denison.edu.                        Religion on Campus: A Minority Are Religious And With aFoot Out the DoorPaul A. Djupe December 11, 2023By Paul A. Djupe, Director of Data for Political ResearchIn 2023, for the first time in its history, the majority of Denison students (54-55 percent)identified as some sort of religious none. With “nothing in particular” leading the way, the nextbiggest religious group didn’t come close in our spring survey (Protestants at 15 percent), butthe second biggest group in the fall survey was Agnostic (with 18 percent), just 6 percentagepoints behind the nothing in particulars (24 percent). These are some of the new findingsfrom an ongoing survey effort in the Data for Political Research program that receives about500 responses (out of 2,300 students) each semester; we use these data in our classes andfor public writing.While Denison stands out in many regards, this is not one of them. A look at Gen Z in 2022in the American population found that 48 percent were nones using the same questionwording as the Denison survey. We don’t have access to huge datasets yet for 2023, butpreliminary evidence from other data I have suggests that the youngest of Gen Z are right inline with what we’re seeing at Denison.A natural reaction is to think that views toward religion among the young are changingbecause of the growth of the nones. As that argument might go, the more nones there are,the more that students will see little place for religion in society or go so far as to see religion1/5                      as a divisive force in the world. This is not an unreasonable belief. Except the data do notsupport that view.First, let’s take a look at the responses to three questions about Christianity and religion ingeneral. It is no surprise to see that a majority of students (nearly two-thirds) see Christiansas a divisive force in the US today. Only 11 percent disagree. And an even greater numberagree that “Christians seem to want the US to be a Christian nation” (65 percent agree; only9 percent disagree).One surprising thing is that students do not completely generalize views about Christians toreligion as a whole. A slim majority (51 percent) agree that the “US would be better offwithout so much religion in public life” (here 20 percent disagree).These are sizable majorities with dim views of American Christians and there have to besome religious students who agree with those statements. So, why would they believe it? Ofcourse, one reason is that they are religious nones or non-Christians. So, let’s look at thatevidence in the figure below. I’ve superimposed a band (dashed lines) to show groupsaveraging agreement with the statement. It’s no surprise that Atheists, Jews, and Agnosticslead the way in each category, with the nothing in particulars just behind. But it’s notable thatChristians do not disagree, on average. In fact, Protestants (and other Christians) agreethat Christians are a divisive force and that they want a Christian nation. Catholics are a bitless likely to agree, but not much more. And Muslims, of all groups, are the least likely toagree with these sentiments. They are by far the least likely to agree that the US would bebetter off without so much religion — they are the only group that disagrees.2/5                Another explanation advanced for these sorts of beliefs by academic researchers, includingme, is that people, young and old, are paying attention to modern American politics. And ifthey are, they’re highly likely to run across American Christians espousing very conservative,often unpopular stances on public policy, about diverse groups in the US and world, andabout democracy itself. Often grouped under the worldview labeled Christian nationalism,these views are an explicit rejection of a pluralist America that is looking and thinking morelike Gen Z every day.We can find evidence that simply witnessing American politics helps drive negative viewsabout American Christians. Among the extremely interested in politics, there is almost nodaylight between the nones and the religious – 71/72 percent agree that Christians want theUS to be a Christian nation. From there as political interest wanes the two groups separate,but among both groups, agreement with the Christian nationalist aims of Christians drops. Itdrops 20 percent among the religious and 10-20 percent among the nones. There is clearlysomething to the attention thesis.3/5            To be sure, critics might argue that not all Christians are Christian nationalists. That’s true, ofcourse, but not nearly to the extent one might think. The following figure shows thedistribution of a widely used Christian nationalism index (drawn from Baylor Religion Surveyitems put together by sociologists Whitehead and Perry). Median lines show that Christiansscore above average on these items (and not all items are pro-Christian, some are just pro-religion). But even that doesn’t quite convey how concentrated Christian nationalistsentiments are. Fully 85 percent of evangelicals score above 0.5 on this scale as do 67percent of Black Protestants, 65 percent of Catholics, and even 59 percent of mainlineProtestants. Even if there were sizable concentrations of non-Christian nationalists out there,what matters most is exposure to them and that is less than likely. The representativesmaking claims linked to religion are highly likely to be from more conservative groups thathave greater Christian nationalist sentiments, especially now that the media has a well-studied, stable concept and some definitions to work with.4/5                     Denison students, in my experience, are very smart, tolerant, and open to people withdiverse races, cultures, and views. They do not, however, have much patience forintolerance itself. And this is just what they have witnessed from the most overtly identifiedChristians in American politics over their lifetimes. While we could go back to when currentstudents were 3 and Christian Republicans were pushing ballot measures to ban same-sexmarriage, we clearly don’t have to look back very far for prominent examples from theSupreme Court banning abortion, the new Speaker of the House claiming a divine mandate,the former President labeling the 2024 election the end times against the “vermin” of the left,and an army of elites and interest groups attempting to make hay before the 2024 election.Take conservative Christian Jenny Donnelly, founder of Her Voice Movement, who RollingStone quotes as saying, “I just believe what the Bible says…We’re supposed to go onto theEarth; we’re supposed to dominate.” With this sort of language in wide circulation, is it anywonder that many young people have left Christianity and the ones with a lingering identityare poised to leave their religious faith behind?Professor Paul A. Djupe directs the Data for Political Research program at DenisonUniversity, is an affiliated scholar with PRRI, the series editor of Religious Engagement inDemocratic Politics (Temple), and co-creator of religioninpublic.blog. Further informationabout his work can be found on his website and on TwiX.5/5

Religion on Campus: A Minority Are Religious And With a Foot Out the Door

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Religion on Campus: A Minority Are Religious And With a Foot Out the Door

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