Evangelicals see declining influence in United States

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Are  evangelicals losing their influence on America?

A new poll from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life seems to say just that, with the vast majority—82 percent—of U.S. evangelical leaders saying their influence on the country is declining.

At the same time, their counterparts in Africa, Asia and Latin America are far more optimistic.

“There’s both a huge optimism gap and a huge influence gap in terms of the way these folks perceive things,” said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum.

Researchers surveyed more than 2,000 leaders invited to attend the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Cape Town, South Africa, last year.

Douglas Birdsall, executive chair of the Lausanne Movement, which worked with Pew on the survey, said American pessimism is rooted in a changed culture where Billy Graham has withdrawn from public life and government-sponsored prayer has been banned from public schools for more than a generation.

“There was a time when there was a Ten Commandments in every classroom, there were prayers in public places,” he said. “So having gone from that position of considerable influence, even though we might actually have more influence than churches in … other parts of the world, the sense is that it’s slipping from our hands.”

The perception of declining influence comes as the nation has become both more pluralistic and more secular. The vast majority of American leaders surveyed—92 percent—called secularism a major threat to evangelical Christianity.

Some evangelical denominations are starting to acknowledge pluralism in hopes of increasing their numbers. The Southern Baptist Convention, which drew the smallest attendance since World War II at a recent meeting in Phoenix, and is grappling with declining baptism rates, has launched a plan to diversify its leadership.

Evangelist Billy Graham’s withdrawal from public life has served to fuel pessimism about the influence of evangelicals on American culture. (RNS FILE PHOTO/Michael Falco)

Researchers also found evangelicals are far more pessimistic than their Global South counterparts about the current and future state of evangelicalism.

About half (53 percent ) of leaders in the United States said the state of evangelicalism is worse than it was five years ago, and nearly as many (48 percent) said they expect it to grow worse in the next five years.

Randall Balmer, a historian of American evangelicals at Barnard College, said leaders of the Religious Right—from the late Jerry Falwell to broadcaster Pat Robertson—promoted a “cult of victimization among evangelicals” that may have worked at the voting booth but hurt them in the larger culture.

“I think there is some waning of cultural influence,” he said, pointing to the politicizing of the movement as the reason for both greater visibility but also cultural decline.

“Like it or not, when you become politically active, you become associated with the politicians you support,” Balmer said, alluding to many evangelicals’ embrace of the GOP. “Once you begin to covet political power and influence, you lose the proph-etic voice.”

Researchers found just 18 percent of U.S. Lausanne representatives surveyed said religious leaders should stay out of political issues, compared to 78 percent who said they should express their political views.

Historian Mark Noll said a certain level of influence was taken for granted by evangelicals in past decades, with Graham’s prominence and fewer concerns about political involvement.

“Big churches in medium, small places knew that they were important,” said Noll, a historian of American religion at the University of Notre Dame. “And now big churches in big and medium and small places, they may not have that same sense.”

Successful congregations and ministries continue to thrive in parts of the country, especially locally, but “that local and individual strength doesn’t show up on the evening news,” Noll said.

Birdsall agreed evangelical influence may have changed, but said it still exists, although perhaps in a different form.

“Though we are losing influence, it doesn’t mean that we are pessimistic about our churches and their role in society,” he said. “They’re having influence in homes. They’re having influence in caring for those who are marginalized, those who are the poor, the oppressed. It may not be as public.”

American evangelical leaders’ sense of influence and optimism contrasted sharply with leaders of the Global South in a number of ways:

• Evangelicals in your country losing influence: U.S. 82 percent; Global South 39 percent.

• State of evangelicalism worse today than five years ago: U.S. 53 percent, Global South 27 percent.

• State of evangelicalism in your country will be worse in five years: U.S. 48 percent; Global South 12 percent.