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Annotated Bibliography

The Rise of the Nones and the Decline of Christianity in the Post-Modern Age

Hannah Oxendine
Professor Malcolm Campbell
English 1103
27 October 2015

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Annotated Bibliography
Grossman, Cathy Lynn. "Christians in Decline, Nones on the Rise." Christiancentury.org. The
Christian Century, 13 May 2015. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.
In this news article from Christiancentury.org, Cathy Lynn Grossman compares the
statistical data from 2007 and 2014 to show the decline in Christianity and the rise of the
religious Nones. Grossman states that at 71% of the American population, Christianity
remains the most common religion; however, all sub-groups of Christianity, save
traditionally African American Protestant churches, have lost relative and absolute
numbers. She states that Protestant Christianity has lost approximately 5 million members
and that the overall number of people who describe themselves as Christians has dropped
about 8 percentage points. Grossman then discusses what religious group (or lack
thereof) these former Christians are seemingly moving towards. That group would be the
Nones. She states that Nones currently make up 22.8% of the American population
(which is up 16% from 8 years prior). While many of the Nones are agnostic and atheists,
39% Nones simply do not find religion important. She then quotes Mike Hout who says,
Traditionally, we thought religion was the mover and politics were the consequence, he
said, Today, its the opposite. He says that many who become Nones really want to
avoid being associated with the conservative political agenda. Considering that the
source is from a Christian website, it seems that it would likely be biased. However,
Grossman does an admirable job of keeping faith-based opinions out of the article.
Though there are a couple biased statements, Grossman mainly uses reliable quotes and
impartial statistics to build her case. I plan to use this source to show the very real and,

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most importantly, statistical rising of the None population and the statistical decline of
Christianity.
Kosmin, Barry A., Ariela Keysar, Ryan Cragun, and Juhem Navarro-Rivera. American
Nones: The Profile of the No Religion Population, A Report Based on the American
Religious Identification Survey 2008. Rep. Trinity College, 1 Sept. 2009. Web. 21 Oct.
2015.
This article contains facts and statistics (as well as charts and graphs) that I would like to
use in my project. Though the report is 23 pages long, it is essentially the data of the
types of people that comprise the None population. The report speaks to gender, age,
race, marital status, income, and education as some of the key point in defining the None
population. My favorite part of this report, and the part I am most likely to use, talks
about what most Nones specifically say to qualify themselves as such. There was a poll
that had American adult Nones give their specific reason. The reasons were: there is no
such thing, there is no way to know, Im not sure, there is a higher power but no personal
God, there is a personal God, and of course, dont know or refused to answer. All of these
reasons are very intriguing and they give good insight to the reasons people have for
moving away from religion, or for never being a part of it at all. One part of this article
that I will not use is a figure that showed the religious backgrounds of Nones and U.S.
Adults. They used the age of 12 to mark the age of an early decision of religion. This
seems like an unfair statistic to me since most 12 year olds do not, scientifically, have the
capacity to fully understand concepts as in depth as religion.
Linker, Damon. "Do Secular Americans Secretly Pine for Religion?" Do Secular
Americans Secretly Pine for Religion? N.p., 14 Oct. 2015. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.

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In this article of The Week, Linker first notes the difference between modern day
Europeans and modern day Americans. Though he doesnt explain this, I am aware of the
difference he means. Europeans are considered more secular in their belief system than
America. Linker then uses the rest of the article to explain why polling data over the last
few years has been showing rapidly declining religious belief and practice in the United
States. It seems that some are beginning to wonder is secularism might be the modern
fate after all, and that we were just slower to get there than the Europeans. The middle of
this article is rather irrelevant to my topic, hes just using an example of this woman, Lisa
Chase, talking to her deceased friend, Peter Kaplan, through a medium. All in all, hes
saying that this is growing to be a more common phenomenon and that it represents
Americas stride towards a secular belief system. Most of this article includes valid
material for research, but parts of Linkers article contain clear bias. For example, he
states that he is skeptical of Chases interaction with the deceased. However, he states that
he is aware of his bias when he says ...I realize that such tales are common enough that
they shouldnt be cavalierly dismissed. Furthermore, he only reveals this bias briefly,
then goes on to state more facts. He contrasts the providences in which other religions
have, and then explains that the thing in common between these religions is that they do
indeed all have a providence, whether it be one god, many gods, or some kind of
impersonal force. He then refers to Socrates suggestion that death is one of two things:
Its either a dreamless sleep that never ends or a journey to a place thats pretty much
exactly life life, with no divine rewards or punishments of any kind. Linker then
suggests that maybe Americas secularism is catching up to Plato, and point out that this
is completely on the contrary to modern day religions. This is a source I will use to show

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how and why people seem to be moving away from Christianity at this point in history. It
gives a lot of insight into what people are moving towards instead of monotheistic
religions, while most articles try and give introspective reasons as to why people are
moving away from Christianity.
White, James Emery. The Rise of the Nones: Understanding and Reaching the Religiously
Unaffiliated. N.p.: Baker, n.d. Print.
Dr. Whites book could not have come at a better time as the Nones - the fastest-growing
religious group of our day - are certainly on the rise. Dr. White tells that currently one-infive Americans identify themselves as having no religious affiliation. Dr. White's book
first explores exactly who the Nones are. Not hostile atheists, but rather apatheists who
are ambivalent about religion (26-27). White says, Many of them are not opposed to the
idea of God in general, but are turned off by a church full of lawyers (power), guns
(politics), and money (money). He then explores what caused and continues to cause
this dramatic shift in today's culture, and most importantly, what churches can do (or not
do) to reach these people. So what are some of the marks of churches that reach Nones?
For one thing, Dr. White says we need to move past the if you build it they will come
mentality (88). Nones might enjoy coffee, but they respond to a cause like poverty
reduction (100), and they are far more likely to come into a community that invites them
to one. For Nones its Cause > Community > Christ in order of interest. When they
do come, they need to experience grace and truth or, rather, the uniquely powerful truth
of grace (121) that sets apart the message of the gospel from all others. This source is
absolutely one I will use. Dr. White is the founder and senior pastor of Mecklenburg
Community Church, giving him some obvious bias, but in having a doctorate and

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founding a church that grows rapidly, not of the previously churched, but of the
previously unchurched, his book is a great source for me to use to explain my topic.