wfn.org | New NCC Yearbook examines religious impact of immigration

["Philip Jenks" <pjenks@ncccusa.org>]

2010 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches

examines the impact of the New Immigrant Church

See also: www.ncccusa.org/news/100204yearbook2010.html

New York, February 12, 2010 -- Forty-five years after President Lyndon  B. Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the  profound impact of the "new immigration" on the religious landscape of  the United States is still being measured.

A substantial number of immigrants since 1965 -- perhaps a majority --  have been Christians. Their influx into the United States and Canada,  writes the Rev. Dr. Eileen W. Lindner, "has altered not only the  demographic composition of Christianity in America but ... has expanded  the variety of expressions of the faith itself."

Writing in the National Council of Churches' 2010 Yearbook of American &  Canadian Churches, which she edits, Lindner suggests that the increasing  religious pluralism resulting from new immigration patterns may alter  the views of the faith community on a variety of public issues.

"With the racial, ethnic and cultural diversity of the immigrant  communities more diverse and nuanced views of matters ranging from  abortion to aid and trade policy as well as immigration policy may find  voice as these churches enter into civic engagement in their new  culture," Linder writes. "As they do, a new fault line in Christian  theology and practice may open within the American religious landscape."

The Yearbook, a highly regarded chronicler of growth and financial  trends of religious institutions, reports on 227 national church bodies,  including their membership and financial trends, and includes a  directory  of 234 U.S. local and regional ecumenical bodies with  program and contact information and provides listings of theological  seminaries and bible schools, religious periodicals and guides to  religious research including church archive listings.

Each year the Yearbook provides a snap shot of the religious topology in  the U.S. and Canada, through charts and essays by Lindner, including her  examination of "The New Immigrant Church."

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, Lindner points out, shifted  the ethnic balance of immigrants from Western Europe to Eastern Europe  and Asia.

"In an era in which we have come to expect the inevitable advance of  secularism in the U.S., the influx of robust Christian communities among  new immigrants once again amends the topographical map of the religious  landscape," she writes.

>Lindner's conclusions:

1. The potential changes to the American religious landscape occasioned  by the in-migration of new immigrant churches over the last forty years  has been obscured by greater emphasis to increasing religious pluralism  and will require closer attention of both secular and church related  scholars. 

2. Several ethnographic studies have provided deep and rich information  about the religious practices and social organization of particular  congregations. Institutional and organizational quantitative studies  that analyze large samples of immigrant churches with measures of member  characteristics, organizational structure, religious practices and  institutional resources. While ethnographic studies offer more detailed  insight, large quantitative studies will yield greater  generalizability. 

3. Future research might well undertake an examination of the forms of  assimilation-both forced and voluntary-that immigrant churches undergo  in the North American context. Cultural exchange is a two-way street and  researchers need to be attentive to the ways in which some of the  religious beliefs and practices of immigrant churches may be adopted by  longstanding religious groups. 

4. In late 2010, a long delayed national public policy debate is  expected related to immigration reform. In anticipation of that debate  various national denominations and religious coalitions have begun to  signal their respective stances regarding the direction and scope of  such reform. Longstanding religious organizations in America approach  the immigrant churches and immigrant communities with a multifaceted  agenda. It is likely that this issue may provide an occasion for a  realignment of religious bodies as each seeks to exercise moral  authority. Catholics and mainline Protestants have long been advocates  of less restrictive immigration law. More recently the evangelical  community has demonstrated a less monolithic perspective on the question  of immigration policy.

For more information or to order a yearbook, go to:  www.ncccusa.org/pdfs/2010yearbookorder.pdf

NCC News contact:  Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228 (office),  646-853-4212 (cell) , pjenks@ncccusa.org