The Nativity Story and American Faith

Stories and polls ostensibly illustrating that America is more secular and that only 80 year old gun-owning Republican white men are seriously Christian are common fare. The latest, just in time for Christmas, is from Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), claims most Americans prefer “Happy Holidays” to “Merry Christmas” and that far fewer believe in the Nativity story, etc.

As always, the key is in the phrasing of the questions. The first PRRI question asks: “Do you think stores and businesses should greet their customers with ‘Happy Holidays’ or ‘Seasons Greetings’ instead of ‘Merry Christmas’ out of respect for people of different faiths, or not?”

I put the key phrase in bold because almost certainly it influenced some respondents, who understandably don’t want to show disrespect to persons of different faiths. Forty nine percent sided with “holidays” versus 43 percent for “Christmas.” The question might have gotten a different result had it noted that polls show large numbers of adherents of other organized faiths, who collectively account for less than 5 percent of the population, also say they celebrate Christmas. This PRRI poll showed 90 percent of Americans celebrating Christmas, including 6 percent who also celebrate other holidays at this time.

The other question asked: “Do you believe the story of Christmas—that is, the Virgin birth, the angelic proclamation to the Shepherds, the Star of Bethlehem, and the Wise Men from the East—is historically accurate, or is it a theological story to affirm faith in Jesus Christ?” Forty nine percent said yes to historically accurate, while 40 percent said it was a theological story. PPRI pointed out this poll evinced an 18 percent drop in belief in the history, from 67 percent in 2004.

Interestingly, a new Pew Research poll shows 73 percent affirming belief in the Virgin Birth, a poll result largely unchanged in recent years. So do most Americans believe the Virgin Birth while skeptical of the Wise Men, Shepherds, Star, and angels? Or was PRRI’s question somewhat confusing, since the Christmas story is both history and theology?

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat has an as always thoughtful column on the meaning of the Nativity story as perceived in American culture. He writes that the “biblical world picture is increasingly losing market share to what you might call the spiritual world picture, which keeps the theological outlines suggested by the manger scene — the divine is active in human affairs, every person is precious in God’s sight — but doesn’t sweat the details.” He cites Joel Osteen, Oprah Winfrey, civil religion, and syncretistic ideas about angels visiting anybody.

Douthat’s recent book, Bad Religion, argues that America is as spiritual as ever but less and less orthodox Christian. There’s truth there. But I think he, as many both conservatives and liberals commonly do, overestimates the piety and orthodoxy of the past, while maybe under counting the orthodox faith of the present. Much of the issue, which Douthat cites in his book, is the collapse of the historic Protestant denominations in favor of decentralized evangelical Christianity.

Alexis de Tocqueville noted 180 years ago that American Christianity was not creedal but practical. He noticed in all his cross country travels that the clergy preached about morals not doctrine. For better or for worse, America has never been strong on the specifics of orthodox Christianity. Revivalists of every generation dating to the 1600s have been exasperated by uninformed and faithless audiences. I think Osteen and Oprah would have been as popular in the 19th Century as they are today, maybe more so.
And oddly enough, many of Osteen’s and Oprah’s followers adhere to a variant of Christian orthodoxy. It may be mushy, often unintelligible, but still there. What did Jesus say about faith the size of a mustard seed?

Would polls of Americans 100 or 200 years ago, when America was far LESS church going, have shown greater numbers affirming the Virgin Birth or other aspects of Christian orthodoxy? Probably not.

Although not reflected in our largely secular elite institutions, America is about as religious, and confusedly Christian, as it ever has been. Immigration and birthrates (the religious have more children than the non-religious) will likely keep it so, unlike secularized Europe, but like most of the rest of the world.