In July, America will have fun its 250th anniversary.
I distinctly bear in mind our final nationwide milestone, the Bicentennial celebration of turning 200 in 1976. I used to be 14 years previous, on the point of enter my freshman 12 months of highschool. It was a giant deal, and the degrees of nationwide pleasure and celebration had been palpable.
It doesn’t fairly really feel the identical this time round.
Not simply due to our deep divisions over ideology and politics. Not simply due to tradition wars. Not simply due to rising oil costs or the struggle with Iran.
It’s as a result of it’s only a very totally different America spiritually.
Simply Google one thing like “faith in America in 1976,” and also you’ll shortly uncover that in 1976, faith in America was experiencing a notable resurgence, with Gallup reporting the primary enhance in church attendance in practically 20 years.
1976 was additionally marked by excessive ranges of perception, with 94% of Individuals believing in God. A robust sense of “civil faith” existed, with many viewing the Bicentennial as a time for nationwide non secular renewal and reflection on America as a “nation underneath God.”
Whereas Protestant denominations had been the biggest group, they started experiencing membership declines, and evangelical affect was rising. It was typically known as the “Yr of the Evangelical” attributable to Jimmy Carter’s presidential marketing campaign. Many famous the rise of the “born-again motion.” About 34% of Individuals recognized as “born once more,” and round half of all Protestants recognized as such.
Fifty years later?
Solely 81% of Individuals imagine in God. The biggest and fastest-growing non secular group is the “nones.” Solely 30% or so attend church frequently. And whereas as many as 45% imagine that America ought to be a Christian nation, solely 30% or so imagine it really is.
Pew Analysis Heart lately launched a comparability of 2026 to 1976.
They discovered that:
U.S. society has modified profoundly since then. Over the previous 5 a long time, the U.S. inhabitants has aged considerably, with the share of individuals 65 and older practically doubling. The nation has additionally change into extra racially and ethnically various, as rising shares of individuals establish as Asian or Hispanic. And following greater than 70 million immigrant arrivals, the share of foreign-born folks within the inhabitants has greater than tripled.
Individuals are additionally much less prone to be married than ever earlier than. Girls – who now have much more choices exterior of the house than they did in 1976 – have contributed to a increase in greater schooling and helped increase the workforce. And though many Individuals are financially higher off than they had been 50 years in the past, financial gaps have widened.
However they not noted the true headline of what has actually modified.
We’re now not that huge into being “one nation underneath God.”
James Emery White
Sources
“The US at 250: How the Nation Has Modified within the Previous 50 Years,” Pew Analysis Heart, March 25, 2026, learn on-line.
