Oklahoma is known as part of the “Bible Belt,” where people cling to their faith, especially during times of struggle.

Barrett Zuskind’s faith helped him get through some tough family circumstances. His parents went through a nasty divorce four years ago, and Zuskind, a petroleum engineering junior, said his church friends were like lifesavers.

Even now, when things in his life are going well, he continues to go to church every week. He is friends with everyone at the student ministry where he works, including the leaders.

“I want to stay connected with God and my religion — it makes me a better person,” Zuskind said.

Zuskind’s fiancée, Amanda Black, said her faith helped her get through an obstacle, too. Her older brother developed brain tumors last year, and Black, an advertising junior, said her family couldn’t have handled it without sticking together.

“I don’t know what I would have done without God and my faith,” Black said.

But people like Zuskind and Black appear to be increasingly rare in today’s society, even in the Sooner State.

According to the American Religious Identification Survey, more Americans are rejecting the Christian religion than in the past.

The survey shows 75 percent of Americans consider themselves Christian, an 11 percent drop since 1990.

Mark Carter, staff member at Student Mobilization (StuMo), the college life group at Generation Church on Lindsey Street, said the results of the survey are not especially surprising to him.

Across the U.S., about 90 percent of college students won’t set foot in any church throughout their college careers, Carter said.

Zuskind volunteers at StuMo, and said although many freshmen walk through the doors every week, he’s noticed a decline in membership over the years.

Eventually, the number will level off until about only half of Americans will consider themselves Christian, Zuskind predicted.

Carter said Christianity is declining on college campuses, and some students’ hearts are not in the right place to begin with.

Young Americans are turning to negative outlets such as drugs to help ease their problems, but in reality these choices are making things worse, Carter said.

College students seem especially tired of hypocritical leaders, Carter said, and those who remain faithful tend to prefer places of worship that are authentic and straightforward.

He said the recent economic turmoil is contributing to disillusionment.

“The system in America is broken,” Carter said. “Many people are struggling, and the United States is becoming one of the most economically depressed countries in the world.”

Although Oklahoma is not completely immune from the national trend moving away from Christianity, Carter said many people in the state have developed a different understanding of what being a Christian means.

Charles Kimball, head of OU’s religious studies program, said he believes the national survey focused on the big picture, rather than on specific branches of the religion, such as Baptism or Catholicism.

Kimball said although older traditional churches are seeing a decline in numbers, larger mainstream churches, or “mega-churches,” are increasing in popularity.

Linguistics senior Kelsey Snapp volunteered with the Journey Church youth program for two-and-a-half years, and said he thinks fewer people are going to church than in the past.

Snapp said there are several reasons for this, but a major factor is modern culture.

“Once you get to the point of trying to explain the unexplainable, people turn to science and stop relying on faith,” Snapp said.

Although there has been a decline, Oklahomans still are attending church more than people from other states, Snapp said.

Some people are turning to a different form of spirituality, Kimball said.

Evangelicals, or born-again Christians, are very common across certain parts of the U.S., including Oklahoma, he said.

“I think in that sense, Oklahoma is the proverbial buckle of the Bible Belt in a very real way,” Kimball said.