In previous decades Pepperdine maintained both a high academic standing and a religious identity because the country was chock-full of white middle-class Christian conservatives. Today however that formula is no longer enough. The demographics of America are changing in a way that is deadly for the university as it exists today. A Pepperdine ice-age is on the way.
John Meacham of Newsweek describes how the Judeo-Christian consensus of the last millennium has given way a “Post-Christian America”. This is not to say that Christianity is dead but that it is less of a force in American culture than at any other time in recent memory. The 2009 American Religious Identification Survey shows that the number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation has nearly doubled since 1990 rising from 8 to 15 percent. These non-affiliated people are more apt to call themselves “spiritual” rather than “religious”. The percentage of self-identified Christians has fallen 10 percentage points since 1990. Meanwhile the number of people willing to describe themselves as atheist or agnostic has increased about fourfold from 1990 to 2009 from 1 million to about 3.6 million. (That is about double the number of say Episcopalians in the United States.) Two thirds of the public (68 percent) now say religion is “losing influence” in American society while just 19 percent say religion’s influence is on the rise. The proportion of Americans who think religion “can answer all or most of today’s problems” is now at a historic low of 48 percent.
Specifically the Church of Christ is in decline. 21st Century Christian reported in February 2009 that there are only 12629 Churches of Christ with 1578281 adherents nationwide. Those figures represent 526 fewer churches and 78436 fewer people in the pews than just six years ago. There is no more traction left to the primitivist dream of uniting all Christians under non-denominational Christianity. Flavil Yeakley director of the Harding Center said “This decline reflects the ‘graying of the pew.” Some of the forces involved are: the decrease in birth rates urbanization and migration away from the traditional base of the Churches of Christ population growth from Hispanics and Asians and the post-Christian era. These trends are unlikely to give much reprieve in this century. As a result Pepperdine’s quotas for Church of Christ students and faculty will continue to chase a smaller and weaker talent pool. We simply cannot afford to align the university to a dwindling white nonurban America that is awash in self-pity as the country hurtles into the 21st century and leaves them behind.Nick Berg Seaver Alumnus 2001