New Age spiritual group Eckankar will soon have its first new leader in 44 years

(RNS) — This weekend (Oct. 25) marks 60 years since the founding of Eckankar, a New Age American faith movement.

The Temple of ECK, the home of Eckankar, is located in Chanhassen, MN, and is open to the public for visits, tours, and spiritual events. Photo courtesy Eckankar

Richa Karmarkar
October 24, 2025
RNS


(RNS) — In 1970s New England, then-25-year-old Sharon Kunin, a pastor’s daughter, was full of out-of-the-box questions her Presbyterian upbringing didn’t quite answer — a typical countercultural shift seen in her generation.

“I had my own little truth detector,” Kunin told RNS. “I looked at so many different paths, and then I’d come to, like, a cul-de-sac where it would end, or there was something that wasn’t quite fitting.”

But everything changed when Kunin found a book by Paul Twitchell, the founder of the 1965-born American new religious movement Eckankar, also known as the Path of Spiritual Freedom. Inspired by Eastern mysticism, Eckankar, which means “coworker with God,” is a Western spiritual path that teaches that each unique soul can connect directly with God through personal experience — a belief, Kunin said, that can coexist with any religion

“I actually started trembling because I was thinking, ‘Oh, my God, these are my thoughts,'” she said. “This is what I think, they’re addressing the very questions that I have. And I thought, ‘I have found it.'”

Sharon Kunin speaks on the theme of “Connect with the God Current” at a spiritual event at the Temple of ECK, home of Eckankar, in July 2025. Photo courtesy Eckankar

A few years later, Kunin moved to be near the Temple of ECK in rural Minnesota, the headquarters for thousands of what are known as ECKists worldwide. She is now a senior cleric and spiritual educator. In her role, Kunin facilitates workshops to help ECKists connect with God through chanting the sacred mantra HU (pronounced “hyoo”), analyzing dreams and “soul travel,” or one’s consciousness moving beyond the physical plane into higher spiritual realms.

“All kinds of people come here, and they want to talk about a spiritual experience that they had — an awakening, a dream, some miraculous coincidence, something that changed them,” she said. “They are so grateful that they can share their journey with people in Eckankar who just nod and smile and say, ‘yeah.’ What we offer is understanding, openness, acceptance and validation.”

This Saturday (Oct. 25), some of the world’s ECKists, who reside in more than 120 countries, predominately in Europe and Africa, will converge at the temple for their annual Worldwide Soul Adventure seminar. This year, they will also celebrate 60 years since Eckankar’s founding and ring in a new spiritual year, themed “the year of light and sound.”

But this year’s gathering is significant for another reason: Sri Harold Klemp, the living ECK master, will formally introduce his successor, marking the first transition in Eckankar’s leadership in more than four decades. An unknown male considered to be part of Klemp’s spiritual lineage, to be announced at the event, is to carry the group into the next 60-year cycle.

The transition lining up at the 60-year mark is pure “divine coincidence,” Kunin said, decided between the Mahanta, another name for the leader, and God.

“This transition doesn’t happen until that’s what’s needed for the consciousness of the worlds to take another step, which isn’t something necessarily visible to human eyes, ears, hearts or understanding,” said Kunin, who has worked closely with the 83-year-old Klemp. “But no matter what happens in the world or around us, there is always a path to inner peace and purpose and the rightness of life and living, and it’s waiting to be awakened. The living ECK master’s job is to awaken that love and knowledge for the divine things that are already in the beating human heart.”

RELATED: Reincarnating religion: Are the nones all that different from their parents?

Paul Twitchell, modern-day founder of Eckankar, in the late 1960s. Photo courtesy Eckankar

Kentucky-born Twitchell, who wrote that he studied with Indian spiritual teachers before forming his own group, is said to have been influenced by Sant Mat, a 19th-century Indian spiritual movement that blended elements of Sikh and Hindu mysticism. Like Sant Mat and other Dharmic traditions, Eckankar uses Sanskrit terminology, emphasizing karma, reincarnation, guru-student relationships and divine sound chanting, which the group believes links the soul to God.

The movement was once estimated to include 50,000 students. And although exact figures are unknown, over the last 60 years, even after the initial boom of Eastern philosophies in America, many are still involved in weekly services, discussion groups and classes geared toward all ages, Kunin said.

Longtime ECKist Rodney Jones, a decorated jazz guitarist and Juilliard School professor who once played alongside musician Dizzy Gillespie and on “The Rosie O’Donnell Show,” said whoever is named the new master, “whatever his approach is, and whatever his particular way of sharing it is, my work is the same.”

“The work is to be in service to all life, to make contact consciously with the divine spirit, to be a channel for that, to be a good neighbor, to be someone who honors other people’s pasts, and to see the good in everyone,” Jones told RNS. “(One’s) soul is on a journey to unfold and to experience more of God’s love, and to ultimately become a conduit and a vehicle for that love for others. The purpose of life is to learn to give and receive this love to that end.”

Like Kunin, Jones was raised by a Christian minister, Lawrence Jones, who served as the dean of Howard University’s divinity school for over a decade. Jones was initiated into Eckankar in 1978, after coming across an ECK book that resonated with him. However, he has not abandoned the faith of his upbringing. “The heart of God flows through many different rivers,” Jones said. “You don’t fit yourself to the teachings of Eckankar. You fit them to you.”

“I know for a fact that God is in the church, God is at an ECK seminar, God is at a temple, God is in a mosque, God is in a field and God is in a pet store, and I don’t put a separation on that,” he said. “What does make a difference is (asking), what is the channel through which divine spirit is working with me and helping me to unfold and serve life as best I can? And that’s an individual choice that’s sacred for every person.”

Rodney Jones performs at the 2019 Eckankar Worldwide Seminar in Minneapolis. Photo courtesy Eckankar

And through music, which is essential to the Eckankar tradition, Jones said God has designated his soul’s unique purpose to create a “doorway, portal and beautiful canvas” for others to “find their next step in whatever way that is, or maybe just have a sense of peace.”

Sam Woodward, a 28-year-old Maine native, was born and raised in a 30-person Eckankar congregation near his home, thanks to his father, who found the local branch in the 1980s. Though Woodward left the faith in 2019 after his father died, the teachings of Eckankar, Woodward said, undoubtedly shaped his moral compass as a young person.

“A lot of the teachings just have to do with caring for other people and understanding that what you see on the surface isn’t actually the reality of the way that people are thinking about you,” he said. “All of the people were just truly, insanely kind. Some of them had a lot, and some of them had nothing, but they all had just a very deep sense of compassion.”

Unlike institutional religions, he said, there are no strict rules in the Eckankar community, and most of the time ECKists spend together is in sharing and confiding in one another about their lives and meditating on HU. And though he is unsure if a wave of young people will revive Eckankar in this age — partially due to its open-door, rather than recruitment, policy — Woodward said the tradition is a possible spiritual answer today’s youth seem to be seeking.

“I think that any sort of community that gives people hope and that looks for something more than what is physically in front of us can have beneficial effects on people because I think that being nihilistic is hard for your mental well-being,” he said.

Nonreligious Americans might not be as spiritual as we thought

 Opinion

Nonreligious Americans might not be as spiritual as we thought

(RNS) — Our research shows that nonreligious Americans report being significantly less spiritual than people who identify with established traditions such as Christianity, Judaism or Islam.

(Photo by Helena Lopes/Pexels/Creative Commons)

Ryan Burge and Tony Jones

October 2, 2025

(RNS) — When French intellectual Alexis de Tocqueville toured the United States in the early 19th century, he was struck by how religious Americans were. He linked that religiosity with the success of our young democracy, observing that “religion is the first of the political institutions in that country,” for “it facilitates the use of liberty.” Religion, he argued, provided a moral foundation – a lingua franca – that allowed liberty to flourish.

Two centuries after de Tocqueville’s visit, the American experiment has entered a new chapter. The biggest story in American religion in the last three decades is the increasing number of Americans who report they have no religious affiliation, commonly called “nones.” According to the General Social Survey, nones made up 5% of the country in 1991. By 2022, they comprised nearly one-third of the adult population. Over the same period, the share of people who said they never attend religious services rose from 12% to 33%. We are just beginning to see how these changes will affect our democracy.

In the wake of this seismic shift in the religious landscape, countless commentators have argued that many nones are replacing traditional practices like church attendance and prayer with spiritual alternatives such as yoga, meditation, astrology or even spin classes. The implication is that while 100 million Americans have abandoned organized religion, they are still people of faith, so de Tocqueville’s thesis still holds.

But in spite of the ubiquity of the phrase, “I’m spiritual but not religious,” our research has found that most American nones have not replaced religion with alternative spiritual practices. Through a grant from the John Templeton Foundation, we conducted a survey of over 12,000 Americans who identify as atheist, agnostic or nothing-in-particular to determine just how spiritual they are and what types of spiritual activities they engage in.

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RELATED: Americans may be going to church less, but most are still open to religion, spirituality

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We found nonreligious Americans report being significantly less spiritual than people who identify with established traditions such as Christianity, Judaism or Islam. Among religious respondents, 62% said spirituality was “very important” to them compared with only 24% of nones. In contrast, 27% of the nonreligious said spirituality was “not at all important,” while just 4% of religious respondents said the same. In short, the religious are far more likely to report a deep well of spirituality than the nones.

That point was reinforced when we asked respondents to check boxes next to spiritual activities they engaged in over the prior month. Whether it be yoga, meditation, astrology, crystals or saging their home, we found no instance where nones were more likely to engage in an alternative spiritual practice than the religious control group in our sample. In fact, we found that 55% of nonreligious respondents selected none of eight possible spiritual activities. That’s a huge group of nones – over 50 million Americans – who don’t have a regular spiritual practice of any sort, our research shows.

Our data shows that 27% of nones said they practiced meditation in the last few weeks, and 15% had done yoga or astrology during the same time period. And the survey data reveals that while a lot of attention has been paid to alternative practices like using crystals and ingesting psychedelics for enlightenment, real engagement in those areas is actually rare: Less than 10% of nones engaged in either of those practices.

The conclusion that emerges from our survey is that a growing number of Americans who have walked away from churches, mosques and synagogues have not used their newfound freedom from religion to seek out new spiritual practices. In essence, they have traded religion for nothing at all.

But they don’t seem to be worse for it. For many religious Americans, there is a deeply held conviction that those who are neither religious nor spiritual must be living unsatisfied, meaningless lives. But our survey data strongly challenges that assumption. Among Protestants, 48% report being very satisfied with life — only slightly higher than the 46% among respondents who expressed no inclination toward religion or spirituality.

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RELATED: Patricia Crowther, pioneering Wiccan priestess, is dead at 97

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These results challenge assumptions about the future of American religious institutions. If nearly half of the nonreligious report high life satisfaction, the belief that faith is the only path to fulfillment becomes harder to defend. This raises difficult questions for religious leaders and believers. Tens of millions of Americans center their entire worldview on the conviction that an encounter with the divine gives life meaning and purpose. But when these true believers try to convince their friends and neighbors to join them in this way of thinking, they are met with little more than a shrug of the shoulders.

But this seismic shift in American life will change our democracy. Our research reveals a philosophical divide between people for whom faith is at the very heart of life and those who hardly think about it at all. And as Americans no longer share the lingua franca of religion — a widely held set of beliefs and a common language to articulate them — it becomes incumbent on our political and cultural leaders to find other areas of commonality to stabilize our democracy and reinforce our liberty before we sink further into polarization.

(Ryan Burge is a professor of practice at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University and author, most recently, of “The American Religious Landscape: Facts, Trends, and the Future.” Tony Jones, a theologian and outdoorsman, is the author of “The God of Wild Places.” They co-direct the Making Meaning in a Post-Religious America Project. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of RNS.)

Religion

Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, Pew study says

June 10, 20251
By Fiona André

NPR/RNS

A Muslim pilgrim reads a copy of the Quran at the Grand Mosque during the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.Amr Nabil/AP

Muslims are the fastest-growing faith group, followed by the religiously unaffiliated, according to a new Pew Research Center study measuring the evolution of the global religious population between 2010 and 2020.

Christianity grew by 122 million members in that decade, but declined as an overall slice of the world's population. Still, Christianity remains the world's largest religion, with 2.3 billion believers — nearly 29% of the world's population.

Pew's Global Religious Landscape study, released on Monday (June 9), is the second edition of a demographic report of religious groups, started in 2010.

"We look at the demographic characteristics of these groups, their age structure, how many children they're having, how much education they have, because these demographic characteristics affect the future size of the religious groups," Conrad Hackett, a senior demographer at Pew Research Center, told RNS.

The report reveals how religious disaffiliation and population growth influenced the global religious landscape.

The world's Muslim population increased by 347 million people over 10 years — more than all the other religions combined — primarily due to natural demographic growth.

"Muslims are having children at a greater number than Muslims are dying," Hackett said. "Very little of the change in Muslim population size is a result of people becoming Muslim as adults or leaving Islam as adults."

Researchers relied on 2,700 data sources, including national censuses, demographic surveys, population surveys and population registers, to document the religious affiliations of 100,000 people across 201 countries. While questions varied from one survey to another, most participants were asked about the religion with which they identified.

The study also analyzed religious data in conjunction with data on fertility and mortality rates and age distribution to measure demographic changes between 2010 and 2020. It also noted delays in the collection of data caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Muslims are largely concentrated in regions with high population growth, like the Middle East-North Africa region, where they represent 94.2% of the population, and sub-Saharan Africa, where they represent 33%. The Muslim population grew the most in the Asia Pacific region, which is home to the largest Muslim population, increasing by 16.2% between 2010 and 2020.

Meanwhile, Christianity declined by 1.8%, mainly due to larger population growth among non-Christians. It steadily declined in Europe, North America, the Americas, Australia and New Zealand.

Christianity remains the majority faith around the globe, with the exception of the Asia-Pacific and Middle East-North Africa regions. It's now the most geographically dispersed religious group, the study shows.

Religiously unaffiliated people are now the third largest group behind Christians and Muslims, with 24.2% identifying as such.

"This pattern is common in European and North American countries, as well as in Australia and New Zealand, where many people who were raised Christian no longer claim any religious affiliation," reads the report.

Those leaving religion greatly impacted the proportion of the world's Christian population. "Christians are seeing a lot of people who are raised in the faith changing as adults to people who don't identify with any religion," Hackett said.

The study marks the first time Pew has tracked religious switching patterns, aggregating data from 117 countries of people ages 18 to 54 regarding the faith they were born into and the religion they identify with as adults.

In North America, the religiously unaffiliated population increased by 13 percentage points between 2010 and 2020, reaching 30.2%. Nones grew by 4.1 percentage points in Latin America-Caribbean over the same period, and by 6.6 percentage points in Europe, reaching 25.3%.

Asia Pacific is home to the largest religiously unaffiliated population, with 78% of the nones population living in the region. The majority of the world's nones population, 67%, lives in China. However, Hackett noted the difficulty of capturing the complexity of religiosity in China, on which Pew has conducted research.

Buddhists are another group impacted by religious disaffiliation in the East-Asian region, with more people leaving the faith than joining between 2010 and 2020. It is the only religious group that has fewer members in 2020 than in 2010, having declined by 19 million people, according to the data.

However, the study notes that the Buddhist population estimates don't fully capture the influence of the faith, as many Buddhist respondents may not identify as Buddhist even though they engage in Buddhist practices.

Hindus, representing 14.9% of the world's population, are the fourth largest group in the world. The majority of Hindus live in India (95%). And between 2010 and 2020, the number of Hindus increased by 62% in the Middle East-North Africa region, mostly due to migration. In North America, the Hindu population increased by 55%.

The world's Jewish population, the smallest religious group analyzed in the report, grew by 6% between 2010 and 2020, from about 14 million to 15 million people. Jews represent 0.2% of the global population, which remained stagnant over 10 years, and 45.9% of Jews live in Israel — the highest percentage in any country.

This story was produced through a collaboration between NPR and Religion News Service.

Beliefs in spirits, afterlife are popular across religiously diverse countries, new study finds

(RNS) — The survey marks the first time Pew Research Center asked people outside the United States and Asian countries about practices related to Buddhism, Asian folk religions and New Age spirituality.

(Image courtesy Pixabay/Creative Commons)

Fiona André

May 8, 2025

(RNS) — A first-of-its-kind Pew Research Center study of religious practices and spiritual beliefs in more than 30 countries shows beliefs in spirits and life after death are common around the world.

The study, published on Tuesday (May 6), polled 50,000 people across 36 countries about their beliefs in the afterlife, spells, curses, and spirit ancestors. The survey also asked respondents about whether they carried religious items, consulted fortune tellers, and lit candles or incense for spiritual reasons.

According to the study, most adults (64% median across countries) believe in life after death. Eighty-five percent of respondents in Indonesia said there is “definitely or probably life after death,” the highest percentage worldwide, followed by Turkey and Kenya, where 84% and 80% agreed, respectively. Seventy percent of Americans indicated belief in the afterlife. In Sweden, only 38% agreed, the lowest recorded.

Researchers tried to capture precisely what it means to be religious or spiritual, and what aspects of spirituality people connect with most, said Jonathan Evans, a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center.

“We wanted to see in people’s lived experiences, what do they believe? What do they practice?” he said. “Potentially, sometimes they believe or practice things that are not considered by some folks as orthodox to their tradition.”

The survey marked the first time Pew asked respondents across six continents at the same time about practices related to Buddhism, Asian folk religions, and New Age spirituality. These new questions cover a “wide set of dimensions of religion and spirituality,” Evans said, where previous surveys were more focused on the beliefs and practices particular to specific regions.

RELATED: Who are the ‘nones’? New Pew study debunks myths about America’s nonreligious.

The study shows beliefs in animals having spirits are fairly common across countries (62% median), with minimal differences based on the country’s religious majority. In India, which is predominantly Hindu, 83% said they believed animals “can have spirits or spiritual energies,” the highest of any countries. In Hinduism, several animals are considered sacred, such as cows, elephants and monkeys. Next was Greece, where 82% agreed animals have spirits, and 81% in Muslim-majority Turkey, according to the survey. In the U.S., 57% agreed.

A majority of respondents said they believe nature, mountains, rivers or trees have spirits (56% median). In Thailand, which is predominantly Buddhist, 73% agreed, and 57% in Indonesia, which is primarily Muslim, agreed.

Even in countries where people were less religious, a majority of respondents said they believe in spirits and life after death, the survey found. For example, in Sweden and Japan, only 7% said religion is very important to them, but 65% and 69%, respectively, believe animals and nature could have spiritual energies.

The study also shows generational differences shift when considering spiritual beliefs compared with traditional religious beliefs and related practices such as service attendance and prayer. Adults over age 50 were more likely to say religion was very important in their lives, according to past Pew research, compared with younger adults (ages 18 to 34). Likewise, younger adults are less likely to identify with any religion. This study confirmed that’s true in most countries.

“Majorities in most countries surveyed say animals can have spirits” (Graphic courtesy of Pew Research Center)

“Many Indonesians believe in an afterlife” (Graphic courtesy of Pew Research Center)

However, younger adults are more likely to say they believe in spirits and spiritual energies across countries. The widest gaps were in Colombia, where 80% of those between 18 and 34 said they believed in spirits and spiritual energies, and 56% of those 50 and older agreed.

“This is the opposite pattern that we’ve seen from around the world on people who say they pray daily,” Evans said.

The study also highlights the wide array of beliefs held by religiously unaffiliated adults, often referred to as “nones,” across countries. Though nones were less likely to engage in most religious practices, in some countries they tended to adopt some beliefs often embraced by religious groups. For example, in Mexico, 61% of the religiously unaffiliated said they believed in something spiritual beyond the natural world, compared to 63% of Christians.

The study also shows beliefs in spells, curses and magic were broadly held across the four African countries surveyed: Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. More than 50% of adults in Latin American countries surveyed shared those beliefs, as did 30% in the U.S.

Generally, people who said religion was very important in their lives were more likely to believe in curses, spells or magic.

Though less than a quarter of respondents in most countries said they consulted a fortune teller, horoscope or other ways to see their futures, women were more likely to do so than men. Women were also more likely than men to carry religious items, according to the study.

The study also explores connections between a country’s wealth and attitudes toward spiritual ideas. Though wealthy countries usually present a lower level of religiosity, the study’s questions on spiritual practices show those beliefs are less connected to a country’s wealth.

“In the U.S. and Ghana, 9 in 10 Christians say there is something spiritual beyond the natural world” (Graphic courtesy of Pew Research Center)
“In many European countries, women are more likely than men to consult a fortune teller or horoscope” (Graphic courtesy of Pew Research Center)

Though respondents in rich countries were less likely than those in developing countries to believe in spells, curses and magic, the gap narrowed between respondents in wealthy and developing countries on whether they believed in spirit ancestors’ abilities to harm them.

The study also establishes links between one’s likelihood of lighting incense and candles for spiritual and religious reasons and respondents’ level of education. In Greece, 57% of adults who were less educated lit candles for spiritual reasons, as opposed to 36% among the more educated. And in Nigeria, 50% of the less educated lit candles for spiritual reasons, and 30% of the more educated did.

In five countries, a majority of respondents indicated they light candles or incense for spiritual or religious reasons: India (91%), Thailand (73%), Sri Lanka (70%), the Philippines (65%) and South Africa (63%). In America, only 20% did.


RELATED: Decline in American Christian observance has slowed, Pew study finds

Responses were gathered by Pew during phone and in-person interviews from January through May 2024. Data on American adults was pulled from the center’s recent Religious Landscape and American Trends Panel studies.

For some countries, some questions were removed and adapted to align with the respective cultural context, according to Pew. In Tunisia, some were removed to guarantee pollsters’ and respondents’ safety.

Does a lack of faith lead to suicide? One study says yes. Scholars of secularism say no.

(RNS) — A new study by a Christian scholar found higher rates of suicide and campus sexual assault in states where more nonbelievers live. But others who study secularism say correlation doesn't prove the case.

(Photo by Akhil Nath/Unsplash/Creative Commons)
Bob Smietana
January 3, 2025


(RNS) — As an evangelical Christian, Philip Truscott is dismayed at the decline of religion in America, saying it is bad for the country’s soul.

As a social scientist, he says he has proof.

In a paper in the Journal of Sociology and Christianity, Truscott draws on data tracking crime on college campus and religious affiliation surveys to show that states with higher percentages of so-called “nones” — people who claim no religious affiliation in surveys — have higher rates of sexual assault on campus as well as higher suicide rates overall.

Truscott did most of the work on the study, entitled “Rape, Suicide, and the Rise of Religious Nones” while a professor of sociology at Southwest Baptist University in Missouri. He was inspired by previous research he had done that showed that the higher the percentage of nones in a state, the higher the suicide rate. That research, based on data from the 2014 Pew Religious Landscape report, also showed that the higher the percentage of evangelicals in a state, the lower the rate of sexual assaults on its college campuses.
RELATED: Who are the ‘nones’? New Pew study debunks myths about America’s nonreligious.

Truscott followed up on those findings by examining similar data from the Public Religion Research Institute and reported the results in a paper in the Journal of Sociology and Christianity in October. Truscott argues that the decline in religion can be tied to a loss of self-control and correlates that with more suicides and assaults.

Philip Truscott. (Photo via Southwest Baptist University)

While he falls short of claiming that loss of religion causes more suicides and assaults, Truscott has subsequently argued that his findings prove the need for more state vouchers for private schools, most of which are religious. Families that choose religious schools for their kids can play a role in reversing the decline of religion in America, Truscott told RNS in an interview, which he argues will reduce the rate of suicide and campus sexual assaults.

“That really helps everyone,” he said.

His fellow sociologists, particularly those who study the nones, are skeptical, saying Truscott’s study is flawed and that his conclusions don’t fit the evidence.

Ryan Cragun, a sociology professor at the University of Tampa, reviewed Prescott’s paper and said that, while it does show a correlation between the share of nones and rates of suicide and sexual assault, Truscott fails to prove that disbelief causes those higher rates. Cragun also said the paper ignores other data, such as that showing that states with higher murder rates are correlated to higher per-capita populations of evangelicals.

“If I were to use his logic, then I should be able to argue that evangelicals are more likely to kill people,” said Cragun, co-author with Jesse M. Smith of “Goodbye Religion: The Causes and Consequences of Secularization.”

Cragun also was skeptical of the argument that religion creates more self-control or that a lack of self-control can explain why suicides or sexual assaults happen, saying that the causes of both are more complicated.

David Speed, a Canadian scholar who studies the connection between atheism and health, said Truscott is asking an important question about the social effects of the decline of religion. But Speed, a professor of psychology at the University of New Brunswick in St. John, Canada, said Truscott failed to prove his claims.

David Speed. (Photo via The Religious Studies Project)

While Truscott did show that both secularism and campus sexual assault were on the rise in some states, said Speed, he did not show that one caused the other.

“It’s kind of damning by association,” said Speed, who is also working on his own research project about the effects of secularism on suicide rates.

Speed said it is common in the social sciences to find two unrelated topics that seem to track together over time. He pointed to a website called “Spurious Correlations,” which collects such convergences, including graphs that show, for instance, that as the name William has become less popular, the number of burglaries in South Carolina has declined. The first, Speed said, does not explain the second.

Proving a causal link between the loss of religion and rise in suicide rates or assaults, said Speed, would require a great deal more data and analysis. So far, he added, no other studies have suggested that atheists or other nonbelievers are more likely to take their own lives or to commit crimes like sexual assault. Truscott’s critics also argue there’s no evidence for his claim that more faith-based schools would lead to fewer suicides.

They also say these flaws in his reasoning explain why it took so long, as Truscott has said, for his paper to find a publisher. Truscott blames a liberal bias in academic journals.

In an interview, he claimed that if his research had linked greater incidences of suicide or sexual assault to more widespread religious belief, journals would have flocked to publish his study. “The social science journals, they lean to the left politically,” Truscott said. “They are very anti-religious.”

Truscott said that he is glad the paper is getting attention, even if it’s negative attention, and hopes it leads to more study about the social implications of the decline of religion.

To critics he simply says, “Prove that I am wrong.”

119th Congress adds 2 Hindus, 2 nones, remains mostly Christian

MORMONS ARE NOT CHRISTIANS

(RNS) — Despite America's shifting religious landscape, the faith of the country's representatives has changed little.

"The religious makeup of the 119th Congress" (Graphic courtesy Pew Research Center)

Fiona André

January 3, 2025

(RNS) — A new Pew Research Center report on the religious composition of the 119th session of Congress, convening today for the first time, reveals that the majority of its members are Christian.

The “Faith on the Hill” report draws on data gathered by CQ Roll Call, a publication that compiles congressional data and provides legislative tracking. For every new session, the website sends questionnaires to new members and follows up with reelected members on their religious affiliation.

“Christians will make up 87% of voting members in the Senate and House of Representatives, combined, in the 2025-27 congressional session,” reads the report.

Though the share of Christian members of Congress slightly decreased since the last session, 88%, and from a decade ago, 92%, the House and Senate are still significantly more Christian than the American public, which has dropped below two-thirds Christian (62%).  

“In 119th Congress, 87% are Christian” (Graphic courtesy Pew Research Center)

Less than 1% of Congress members identify as religiously unaffiliated, also called “nones,” though they account for 28% of the American population. Three Congress members reported being religiously unaffiliated, two more than in the previous session.

The new session will include 71 non-Christian members — six more than the 118th Congress — including 32 Jews, four Muslims, four Hindus, three Unitarian Universalists, three Buddhists, three unaffiliated and one Humanist. All but five of the non-Christian members are Democrats.

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RELATED: Congress’ new class has much higher percentage of Christians than American public

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The new Congress will have a total of 461 Christian members, including 295 members who identify as Protestant. As in previous sessions, Baptists are the most represented denomination, with 75 Baptist members, eight more than in the last session. The report doesn’t specify which Baptist group members affiliate with. The other most represented Protestant denominations are Methodists and Presbyterians, with 26 members each; Episcopalians, with 22 members; and Lutherans, with 19 members.

These four denominations have had dwindling memberships in recent decades and have also seen their share shrink in Congress. The report’s first edition, published in 2011 for the 112th Congress, counted 51 Methodists, 45 Presbyterians, 41 Episcopalians and 26 Lutherans.

The share of Baptists is slightly higher in the House, 15%, than in the Senate, 12%. Catholics, too, will be more present in the House than in the Senate, respectively 29% and 24%; whereas, there is a higher percentage of Presbyterians, Episcopalians and Lutherans in the Senate than the House. 

Among the 295 Protestant members, 101 didn’t specify which denomination they affiliated with. The report noted that many gave “broad or vague answers” like “Protestant” or “evangelical Protestant.” Over the last decade, more members of Congress have given similar answers. In 2015, when the 114th session of Congress started, only 58 members reported being “just Christian” without specifying a denomination. 

Of the 218 Republican representatives and senators, 98% identified as Christians. Only five Republican members are not Christians — three are Jewish, one is religiously unaffiliated and one person responded “refused/don’t know.” While congressional Christians on either side of the aisle are more likely to be Protestant than Catholic, Democrats have a higher percentage of Catholics (32%) than Republicans have (25%).

Congressional Democrats are significantly more religiously diverse than Republicans. Though three-quarters are Christian, there are also 29 Jews, three Buddhists, four Muslims, four Hindus, three Unitarian Universalists, one Humanist and two unaffiliated. Twenty congressional Democrats responded “refused/don’t know.”

The 119th session includes 166 non-Protestant Christians — 150 Catholics, nine members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, all Republicans, and six Orthodox Christians. One Congress member, a Republican, identifies as a Messianic Jew.

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The religious affiliation of 21 members remains unknown, as they either declined to disclose it or couldn’t be reached. 

The analysis didn’t take into consideration Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, who will become vice president on Jan. 20, Representative Matt Gaetz, who resigned amid sexual misconduct allegations, and Representative Michael Waltz, who announced he would resign on Jan. 20 to serve in the Trump administration as a national security adviser. They all reported being Christians.