Nebraska Wesleyan University

The Changing Religious Landscape of Lincoln, Nebraska, 2001-2002

Rita Lester, Ph.D.

The capital city of Lincoln, Nebraska, is a community of 215,928 people and is the home of Nebraska Wesleyan University (www.nebrwesleyan.edu). Experiencing a rapid growth in immigration in the last decades of the 20th century, Lincoln expects to add 100,000 new residents by 2015. Though historically a Euro-American Christian population (see charts of Christian denominations: 1890 and 1990), significant changes are occurring in the religious landscape of Lincoln that reflect national trends of increasing religious diversity. In response to these findings on religious diversity in Lincoln and the U.S., Nebraska Wesleyan University offers two new courses, Religious Diversity in the U.S. and a liberal arts seminar on Religious Diversity in Lincoln.

This project documents the religious landscape of Lincoln with special attention to the presence of Buddhists, Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus, as well as Christian denominations of post-1965 immigrant communities such as Eastern Orthodox and Vietnamese Christians. This project provides an opportunity to discuss not only template questions written by the Pluralism Project, but to explore patterns of intrafaith and interfaith involvement among religious traditions and faith communities in Lincoln. Though most of our researchers are undergraduate students in religion, this project also benefited from the expertise of Reverend. Dr. Bill Draper Finlaw (Nebraska Wesleyan professor and chaplain), Bob Reeves (religion journalist of the Lincoln Journal Star), the Information and Technology Services at Nebraska Wesleyan University, and the Lincoln Interfaith Council (www.lincolninterfaith.org).

If you have questions, comments or suggestions about this work, these courses, or the religion program at Nebraska Wesleyan University, please contact Rita Lester, Assistant Professor of Religion.

Communities and Organizations
Baha'i
First Presbyterian Church
Hindu
Jewel Heart Buddhist
Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist
Sikh
Islamic Foundation of Lincoln (Sunni)
Our lady of the Sign (Orthodox)
St. John of Kronstadt Orthodox Church of America
Three Heirarchs Ukranian Orthodox Church
Vietnamese Christian Missionary Alliance
Lincoln Action Program
Lincoln Interfaith Council
 
Related Courses at Nebraska Wesleyan University
Religion 134: Religious Diversity in the U.S. (spring 2002)
Liberal Arts Seminar (fall 2003)
Toronto Winter Term (winter 2003)

Website designed by Erin Benham and James Baldus

Research project conducted at Nebraska Wesleyan University
in association with the Harvard Pluralism Project 2001-2002.