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Hannah Oxendine
Professor Malcolm Campbell
UWRT 1103
6 October 2015
The Rise of the Nones and the Decline of Christianity in the Post-Modern Age
Introduction/Overview
I will be examining the correlation of the decline in Christianity and the rise of the
nones in this post-modern society. The first question that must be answered to better
understand this topic is What is a None? According to Danielle Kurtzleben of NPR, the
nones are a growing group of American adults who do not identify with any religion. More
than one-in-five American adults say so now, the highest in U.S. history.
Many people today do not realize that the nones even exist, especially older
generations in the south. The idea of the nones is rather new, and secularism has been at its
root. Churches, who claim that they desire to spread the message of Jesus Christ To everyone,
often ignore this group. They refuse to believe that a post-Christian culture could ever become
a reality, and therefore, do nothing to stop it. The few churches that are attempting to reach the
nones are the ones that are obtaining the most growth today; however, within the Christian
community, very few people have looked in depth as to why the nones have become so
prevalent in our society and why church attendance has decreased. One of the most expansive
recorded observations (and one of the only ones) upon the nones was written in 2014 by Dr.
James Emery White and it is titled The Rise of the Nones.
White gives statistics to help better show who this group is and what they believe.
1. Male: 56%.

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2. Young: 33% under 30 years old.

3. White: 71%.
4. Not necessarily atheist. 68% have a vague sense of God.
5. Not very religious. 72% are not engaged in religion.
6. Democrats. 75%.
7. In favor of abortion and same-sex marriage. 72%-73%.
8. Liberal to moderate; 75%.
9. Not hostile to religious institutions.
10. Westerners. Most in the West, least in the South.
Furthermore, White defines the Nones as spiritual but not religious. He says, They have gone
from I believe, to Maybe, to Who knows?
This trend is big, broad, and spreading. The nones now make up the worlds third
largest religion. The total number of mainline adults dropped by 5 million from 41 million in
2007 to 36 million in 2014. Among the larger Christian bodies, only the historically black
Protestant church- counted separately from mainline churches- have held steady through the
years of change at nearly 16 million adults.

Initial Inquiry Question(s)

Why has the none population become increasingly prevalent in this post-modern age? What
are Christian churches doing to push people towards this decision to be a none? What can
Christian churches do to effectively combat this? What are they doing currently? What is
working, and what is not? How have Christian church attendances dropped as a result of the

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nones. Which types of churches have seen the most and least growth and drops in relation to
the nones?
My Interest in this Topic
I am interested in the rise of the none population because, growing up in the church
that I attend, my pastor has been at the forefront, fighting this trend. Since the beginning of
our church, he has made one of our church's core missions to make church accessible and
desirable for the unchurched, otherwise known as, the nones. He has shaped our church, its
staff, and its members to take a different view on bring non-believers to Christianity. Rather than
preaching at people and telling them they are going to hell in a handbasket with the rest of this
generation, he makes the love of Jesus something exciting and something you want to be a part
of. He takes an intelligent standpoint on it, and makes people realize that a relationship with
Christ is the best decision that they will ever make. I know some things that my pastor has taught
me. I know a few of the common reasons that people want to be nones, such as simply
growing apathetic to all religion because of its constant controversy and its difficulty to follow. I
hope to learn more of the reasons that people specifically leave Christianity to be nones.
Next Steps
I want to read James Emery Whites book Rise of the Nones, find more scholarly articles
through the libraries resources, and maybe talk to some of the religious studies professors at
UNC- Charlotte. In addition, I will be looking at news articles that have been published in
reliable places such as CNN, Fox, and the Huffington Post.