Anderson Cooper once called Ryan Burge “one of the leading data analysts of religions and politics in the United States.” The political scientist, American Baptist Church pastor, and writer has been widely published, authoring or co-authoring four books. The book that, in many ways, put Burge on the map, was The Nones: Where They Came From, Who They Are, and Where They Are Going.
His most recent, written with Jim Davis and Michael Graham, is The Great Dechurching: Who’s Leaving, Why Are They Going, and What Will It Take to Bring Them Back?
“Ninety percent of Americans used to identify as Christians in 1972,” Burge told Judy Woodruff for the PBS NewsHour two weeks ago. “It’s about 65% today. And the share of Americans who are white Christians is now below half. The nones have gone from — N-O-N-E-S — have gone from 5% of America in 1972 to almost 30% of America today.”
Among young people, he noted, that number is actually over 40%.
“We’re facing an entirely different religious landscape today than we did even 30 years ago,” he told Woodruff.
Burge will be closing out the Week Three Interfaith Lecture Series theme of “Ethics and Meaning-Making Beyond Faith” at 2 p.m. today in the Hall of Philosophy. His take isn’t so much how to make meaning beyond faith, but what happens when more and more of the American public seek meaning without faith — and where that happens.
In a 2021 opinion piece for The New York Times, Burge made the case that the term “evangelical” is now more associated with conservative politics than it is with theology.
But liberals are leaving their faith traditions, too, and Burge’s work shows that non-religious voters are a growing force in American politics. At the nonprofit, interfaith organization Faith Counts, Burge serves as research director; Faith Counts’ mission is to promote the value of religion to the American public.
“I think a lot of (why people are leaving the church) is that Americans are anti-institutional now,” he told Woodruff. “And if you look at data and trust in institutions, we don’t trust anything today as much as we trusted it 40 years ago, whether it be banks or unions or the media or religion. They’re not seeing the value that religion plays in people’s lives. And they’re also thinking — and I think this is the thing that I push back against the most — that religion is only about belief. Religion is also a social enterprise.”
