Our Place in Walla Walla #8: Religion

Like many aspects of our place, religious life is multifaceted—sometimes-visible and sometimes hidden—and rarely straightforward. (For instance, BestPlaces.com asserts “Walla Walla, located in Washington State’s Walla Walla County, is a small city with a rich religious history … ” However, Dwellics only gives us a score of 24.3 out of 100 on their Religion Diversity scale … )

The start of December—a month filled with religious and spiritual holidays—offers an opportunity to explore this aspect of the Walla Walla Valley.

To get us started, Interfaith Chaplain Adam Kirtley shared with me that “The Pacific Northwest has long been identified as one of the least religiously affiliated places in the US, though religious affiliation has been on sharp decline in the whole of the U.S. for the last several years. Walla Walla, though, has many expressions of Christianity with close to 20 churches within one mile of campus.” The Whitman College website lists many places of worship—Christian and otherwise—that are located within about an hour drive of campus.

Whitman College, of course, has ties to this regional history. The Founder of Whitman College, Cushing Eells, also established First Congregational Church just around the corner from campus.

Professor of Religion Emeritus Rogers Miles is familiar with Rev. Eells, having both taught about him in some of his classes about religion in this region (including a cross-listed community-based learning course in the Anthropology Department on “Spiritual Soundscapes” where he and Professor of Anthropology Jason Pribilsky took their students to several local sacred spaces to learn about connection between worship and aurality). Miles also portrayed Eells in Fort Walla Walla Museum’s Living History initiative.

Chaplain Kirtley noted that the Walla Walla area is home to a large Seventh-day Adventist population, and Walla Walla University (WWU) is one of the denomination’s flagship higher ed institutions. While Adventism now has well-established ministries all over the world, the tradition was born about 200 years ago in the U.S. as part of the Second Great Awakening, a time of tremendous growth and spread of evangelical Christianity in the U.S. (and a time of deep reforms and splintering of Protestant traditions).

Seventh-day Adventism is a Protestant denomination with more than 21 million members worldwide  (with only about 6–7% in North America). According to the President for Diversity and Professor of Biblical Studies at Walla Walla University Pedrito Maynard-Reid Adventism prioritizes health and education and has the largest medical system and university system in the world after Catholics, with more than 7,000 colleges and universities around the globe, with 15 in the United States, including Walla Walla University in our community. He also said that the Whitman community might be interested to learn that his denomination runs the Adventist Development and Relief Agency Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), a global humanitarian organization. WWU’s Center for Humanitarian Engagement, which is a frequent partner with Whitman’s Career and Community Engagement Center, is a local connection to these global priorities of health, education and active compassion.

Catholics also have deep roots in the valley and comprise a sizable portion of the local faith community.

Jeanine Gordon, enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and Whitman’s Special Assistant to the President for Native American Outreach, suggested this resource to learn more about Indian religious and spiritual beliefs. Jeanine encouraged Whitman community members to gain insight from Wilson Wewa, a drummer from the Warm Springs reservation, and who in April 2022 led the closing ceremony of kwalk ineet– the Long Tent, who suggests “’spirituality’ as a better way to describe Washat ‘because it’s about honoring the Creator in everything we do.’”

For students interested in sampling the religious life of Walla Walla, Miles recommends first reading “How To Be a Perfect Stranger: The Essential Religious Etiquette Handbook” by Stuart M. Matlins and Arthur J. Magida. Another useful resource is “Handbook of Denominations in the United States” by Roger E. Olson, Frank S. Mead, Samuel S. Hill and Craig D. Atwood.

As I’ve done throughout this semester, I reached out to AI for some suggestions about this topic. I asked Bing what Whitman students might be interested in learning about religion in Walla Walla. Here’s some of what came back:

“Whitman students should know that religion in the Walla Walla community is diverse and complex, reflecting the history and culture of the area. Here are some facts that might be interesting or useful for them to learn:

• Walla Walla is also home to many Christian denominations, such as Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Church of Jesus Christ, and others. According to a 2009 survey, 41.3% of the people in Walla Walla were religious, with 11.8% being Catholic and 16.2% following another Christian faith.
• There are also some minority religious groups in Walla Walla, such as Judaism, Eastern faiths, and Islam. However, they represent less than 1% of the total religious adherents in the county. Some of these groups may face challenges or discrimination due to their beliefs or practices, especially in a predominantly Christian community. Therefore, it is important for Whitman students to be respectful and tolerant of different religious views and expressions, and to learn more about the diverse faith traditions and cultures that exist in Walla Walla.”

And so, with that AI-generated plea for an open heart and open mind, I close up this year’s Our Place in Walla Walla series. I wish everyone a successful completion of this semester and a peaceful and restorative break. See you in January!