As of today, California no longer has a “white majority.” Latin@s have been the fastest growing segment of the population for a while now and it is estimated that by 2030 “there will be 7.2 million Latinos under the age of 25 compared to 3.8 million whites,” which means that there isn’t going to be a white majority in California any time in the foreseeable future. Currently, whites are wealthier, but that will change over time as well. Once Latinos are the majority, and as a community Latin@s obtain a greater share of the State’s assets, there will be major changes.
I graduated from a seminary in California (Western Seminary, San Jose Campus). While seminaries present themselves as representing a particular doctrinal perspective their identity is only partially shaped by the propositions listed in their Statement of Faith (or a similar document). Seminaries (and divinity schools) thrive, survive, or disappear depending on income. Currently, most of the people with the financial resources needed to attract the attention of seminary administration are white people. This means that (consciously or unconsciously) seminaries usually elect a white President, white deans, mostly white faculty, especially when it comes to teaching biblical literature and/or systematic theology courses. According to Anthony Bradley, among evangelical institutions accredited by the Association of Theological Schools (ATS), only Regent University (Dr. Carlos Campos) and Fresno Pacific University (Dr. Pete Menjaris) have non-white presidents (both Latino). [1]
While there are many factors preventing Blacks, Latin@s, and other groups from enrolling in evangelical institutions of higher learning one of the major factors remains the lack of familiar faces in the administration and faculty. [2] This tells me something that many evangelical seminaries in California may not want to hear, but which remains true: if the culture of your institution is attractive and accommodating to white students only, or even mostly–where a Black or Latin@ student has to spend three to four years wondering why no one with his/her cultural background is employed at your institution (other than the occasional adjunct position for “specialty classes”)– then there is a strong chance that your institution could struggle to survive in the upcoming decades.
I’m not interested in debating whether an institution ought to diversify (I think this should be a goal for an institution that wants to be effective). Instead, I am saying institutions in places like California need to diversify. If your administration, faculty, and student body are monochromatic and monocultural, catering to what has been the majority culture, then the very approach that helped secure the most funding and student enrollment may be the very thing that has the equal and opposite result in the near future.
Let me recommend Aliens in the Promised Land: Why Minority Leadership Is Overlooked in White Christian Churches and Institutions (P&R Publishing, 2013), edited by Anthony B. Bradley, to board members, presidents, administration, and faculty members of institutions in places like California. This book contains eight insightful essays from Asian, Black, and Latino scholars on topics like this one. If you want to govern an institution that represents its local community well then there is a lot to learn from these essays. I know I have been challenged by them. As an evangelical whose home is California it is from the bottom of my heart that advocate for more awareness regarding dynamics of race and ethnicity as they relate to institutional growth and planning.
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[1] Bradley, Anthony B. (2013-05-06). Aliens in the Promised Land: Why Minority Leadership Is Overlooked in White Christian Churches and Institutions (Kindle Locations 237-246). P&R Publishing. Kindle Edition.
[2] See Harold Dean Trulear, “Blacks and Latinos in Theological Education as Professors and Administrators” from the aforementioned volume edited by Anthony B. Bradley.
the archives near Emmaus 
It will be interesting to see what happens when non-Hispanic whites dwindle to a small minority in California.
I’m confident that California has a bright future. If we can get back to California my children and grandchildren will be part of the majority population, and I’m confident that they’ll contribute to the growth, development, and sustaining of that beautiful land.
“I’m confident that California has a bright future.”
I’m not seeing it. My crystal ball has an increasingly two-tiered society, with a (mostly) white elite concentrated in the urban centers and a much larger (mostly) Hispanic underclass filling the rest of the state, which is the pattern of the typical Latin American country. As socioeconomic conditions continue to deteriorate (along with the environment), look for the formation of disgruntled mobs that occasionally break out into chaotic riots as in the Middle East.
Now, this scenario may not happen, but it’s the one that the politics of our post-war era is slowly creating, which also means that it’s the one most likely to be realized barring some catastrophic event.
That’s unfortunate.
True. But watching false hopes and dreams come crashing down is unfortunate too.
Well, I guess we’ll have to wait to see if your doomsday scenario takes place. As I said, I don’t share your pessimism. I anticipate an exciting future for California. That said, that’s not quite the topic of this blog post, but thank you for your adjacent thoughts.
I don’t know if I’d call it a doomsday scenario, more like the sad aftermath of a slow-moving train crash. It didn’t have to be this way. Regardless, a mostly Hispanic California is more than capable of having a great future, but that will never happen under the current politics.
“That said, that’s not quite the topic of this blog post, but thank you for your adjacent thoughts.”
Understood.
Thing is, almost all Hispanic believers are Catholics. I know some personally who are Prots, but, it’s rare and they live in Mexico, San Luis Potosi. So, the pool of applicants for Hispanics is going to be miniscule in a Prot. seminary.
Black folks and Asians I think have large % of Prots. among their believers.
True, but (1) even if a majority remain Catholic as the Latino population begins to represent more and more of California’s overall population there will be more Protestant/evangelical Latinos by default. (2) This statistic may not be static, i.e., younger Latinos (which are the ones who will represent the first generation of Latinos to find themselves in the majority since the United States took California from Mexico) may shift toward evangelicalism. (3) Also, don’t forget Pentecostalism is considered by many to be a form of Protestantism/evangelicalism and there are many Latino Pentecostals.