One of my guilty statistical pleasures is the data collected by the Public Religion Research Institute. For the most part church folk are not much about numbers. It\u2019s about faith, not the number of people in the room. It\u2019s about the experience of the divine and not the money in the plate. It\u2019s about individual faith journey and not a building. It\u2019s about social justice and not the light bill. I tried to be an academic and am more of a pastor at heart, but I still like looking at the numbers.<\/p>\n
The American religious landscape is becoming more and more diverse. White Christians are no longer the majority in 19 states. In 13 states those who claim \u201cno affiliation\u201d (often called nones) are in the majority. White evangelical Protestants are the majority group in 15 states, (mostly southern states). In Ohio and Virginia white evangelical Protestants are tied with the nones as the largest groups. Catholics are in the majority in 17 states. North Dakota and Iowa are the only two states which have a majority of white mainline Protestants, and Utah is 56% Mormon.<\/p>\n
On our campus the categories that we count are defined somewhat differently. We have a clear Christian majority with a large diversity of Christian flavors. The list below shows religious affiliation of our students as they self-identified.<\/p>\n
Agnostic 25
\nApostolic 7
\nAssembly of God 11
\nBaptist 329
\nBuddhist 5
\nChurch of Christ 11
\nChristian 435
\nChristian\/DOC 31
\nChurch of God 9
\nEpiscopal 57
\nGreek Orthodox 6
\nIslamic 8
\nJewish 23
\nLutheran 42
\nMethodist 122
\nLDS 5
\nNo Preference 246
\nOther 41
\nProtestant-General 30
\nPentecostal 17
\nPresbyterian 51
\nRoman Catholic 261
\nSeventh-Day Adventist 8
\nUnknown 90<\/p>\n
Please take the list as an approximation since our collection for this data has layers of complications, but it is helpful to have a snapshot of who we are.<\/p>\n
Lynchburg College continues to be affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) as it has been since \u201ca group of Christian businessmen\u201d founded Virginia Christian College, but true to that affiliation we also continue to celebrate our diversity and the opportunity for dialogue with those of other traditions. I am a third, maybe fourth, generation Disciples preacher, so I am very proud that the Disciples continue to prioritize higher education and diversity and that we live that out here at LC. With more than a dozen fellowship groups on campus, more than a dozen Bible Studies, three weekly worship services and bi-weekly Shabbat, you just might find our community a bit more religious than most places.<\/p>\n
Blessings, Stephanie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of my guilty statistical pleasures is the data collected by the Public Religion Research Institute. For the most part church folk are not much about numbers. It\u2019s about faith, not the number of people in the room. It\u2019s about …<\/p>\n