c. 1996 Religion News Service

(Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.)

(RNS)-A new report by the U.S. Census Bureau offers powerful evidence that America is undergoing a profound demographic shift, which promises to transform not only the social, political and economic landscape, but religious communities as well.

Today, more than 73 percent of our population is white, but in 50 years, according to the report, their numbers will shrink to 52 percent of the population. As a group, white Americans will be significantly older than the Asians, Hispanics and blacks who will comprise nearly half the population.

Hispanics will register the sharpest increase in the next five decades, from 10.2 percent to just under a quarter of the U.S. population. The Asian population will expand from the current 3.3 percent to 8.2 percent. The number of black Americans will grow much more slowly; from 12 percent to 13.8 percent.

The Census Bureau report is one more indication that the United States is a multi-religious, multi-racial and multi-ethnic society. And this diversity will introduce some interesting changes.

-Islam and Asian religions will receive much greater attention in the media and in the workplace. Observances of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the birthday of the Buddha will now join Christmas, Passover, Easter, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in public awareness.

-The current emphasis on the Ten Commandments of the Hebrew Bible as the primary source of public and private morality will be expanded to include other sacred scriptures, including the Islamic Koran, the Hindu Vedas and the Upanishads, and the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama-the Buddha.

-A new growth industry in religious studies will soon develop as courses in comparative religion proliferate in colleges and universities. And teachers of such subjects will be in great demand. Career counselors, take note!

Other ramifications of the nation’s growing religious diversity are more nuanced.

Because most Hispanics stem from a Catholic background, the census report seems good news at first glance for the Roman Catholic Church. But things are not always what they seem. Large numbers of Hispanics have abandoned their ancestral faith for Pentecostal or evangelical Protestant congregations. This is especially true in urban areas, where storefront churches are attracting many Hispanic Catholics.

Concern over this trend has prompted some Catholic clergy to take intensive courses in the Spanish language so they can better reach the burgeoning Hispanic population. And in a strange twist of history, Catholic seminaries, which only recently dropped Latin from their curriculum, may soon be compelled to introduce Spanish as a second language for their students.

America’s burgeoning ethnic diversity renders descriptions of this country as a”Judeo-Christian”nation less accurate with every passing year.

While there certainly are strong Jewish and Christian religious traditions in the United States, we must acknowledge that the term”Judeo-Christian”effectively excludes millions of Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists and members of countless other religions.

Thus political leaders and others will have to seek substitutes for this well-worn phrase, which tends to come trippingly off the tongue as they seek some kind of benign, inclusive spiritual ID tag for their constituents.

And those who ignore the prefix”Judeo”and insist that America is simply a Christian nation must also grapple with the question of how a democracy makes room for all citizens, regardless of their beliefs.

Some Christians and Jews will welcome these changes in our nation’s religious landscape. They will find it enriching and exciting, even as they search their own traditions for spiritual sustenance. But for others the looming change is a threat to traditional beliefs about America’s past and its future.

However we deal with these changes, one concept must remain central in our shared vision as a nation. Where religion is concerned, no one should be made to feel an outcast in his or her own land.

MJP END RUDIN