Religion Journalism

Religion in America

Why should religion be part of the news budget? There are a variety of arguments here. First, in the case of the United States, religion is a very prominent feature of public and private life. The place of religion shifted across the course of the twentieth century. Earlier, religion was largely a feature of various so-called religious establishments, most prominently the “Protestant Establishment” that held sway until mid-century, and an emerging presence of Catholicism in American culture. The early years of the century saw as well the emergence of another, “third” force in American religion: Christian Fundamentalism. Fundamentalist and Pentecostal movements were, at the beginning, barely a blip on the public radar screen. As the century progressed, though, they grew and developed, gradually moving beyond their roots in rural, southern, and western states and in lower socioeconomic contexts.

By the middle of the twentieth century, establishment religions were fading, leading to an assumption by some that that religion itself was diminishing, something that had been long predicted by social theorists. This process of “secularization” was predicted to gradually erode the presence and importance of religion in both public and private life. Instead, other religions were emerging. First and foremost, what had been known as “Fundamentalism” by mid-century began to diversify into an older, more conservative form and a newer form, which was called “Evangelicalism” by its leaders, the most prominent of whom was the Evangelist Billy Graham. This new movement came to have important and long-lasting effects on American society and politics by 1976, when a self-avowed Evangelical, Jimmy Carter, was elected President. Well before that, prominent Evangelical broadcasters burst onto both radio and television. One of these “televangelists,” Pat Robertson, made a brief run for the presidency in 1988.

Pentecostalism followed a similar trajectory, and by the end of the century was the fastest-growing branch of Christianity worldwide. Other movements such as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) also grew during the same period, and immigration brought increasing numbers of Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus to the United States. The indigenous Muslim movement, the Nation of Islam, also expanded during this time. Contrary to predictions, furthermore, the story of the more formal and historic faith groups, did not end. New kinds of religion and spirituality arose alongside existing denominations, with such things as the so-called new age movement finding religious and spiritual meaning and motivation in new places and from new sources.

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