Study: U.S. Remains Overwhelmingly Christian Nation
According to the study, 78.4% of Americans are Christians, about 5% belong to other faith traditions and 16.1% are unaffiliated with any particular religion.
Evangelicals make up the nation’s single-largest tradition, followed by Catholics. The survey also notes many Americans have changed religious affiliations or dropped ties to a specific faith.
February 26, 2008
America remains an overwhelmingly Christian country, but the nation’s religious life also shows great fluidity, with many adults switching religious affiliations or abandoning ties to organized denominations altogether, according to a new survey released today.
The study also suggests that, in the near future, Protestants may no longer make up a majority of Americans.
Barely 51% of Americans are Protestants, and among people between the ages of 18 and 29, just 43% identify with this branch of Christianity, according to the study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
More than four in 10 adults, or 44%, have switched religious affiliations, moved from being unaffiliated with any faith tradition to affiliated, or abandoned any ties to a specific religion altogether, according to the study. But the study also found that Americans who identify themselves as Christians has remained constant — nearly 8 in 10.
Today’s 148-page study, made public at a teleconference from Washington, D.C., is the first report of the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, a project in the works for more than a year. The interviews were conducted from May 8 to Aug. 13 in 2007. The study was based on interviews in English and Spanish with a representative sample of more than 35,000 adults.
The study is available at www.pewforum.org.
“The presumption of a Protestant framework for understanding the American character is now a thing of the past,” said Richard J. Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena.
“We are an increasingly pluralistic society, and we Protestants now have to think much about how we can contribute to the common good as simply just one more voice in the American choir,” he said in an e-mail.
But Jerry Campbell, president of the Claremont School of Theology, a United Methodist seminary in Claremont, questioned whether the United States ever was a Protestant nation.
“Early on, Europeans came to America at least in part so that they could enjoy religious freedom,” he said in an e-mail. “Thus they adopted the principle of the separation of church and state. So, technically, one would not say that this was ever a Protestant nation, rather it was a nation made up primarily of individuals who professed to be Protestants.”
According to the study, 78.4% of Americans are Christians, about 5% belong to other faith traditions and 16.1% are unaffiliated with any particular religion.
Secular unaffiliated Americans account for 6.3% of the population; religious unaffiliated, 5.8%; atheists, 1.4% and agnostics, 2.4%.
At 1.7% of the population, Jews make up the largest group of any other religion. Buddhists are 0.7% of the population; Muslims 0.6%; and Hindus and New Age followers, both 0.4%
The study categorized Protestants as members of mainline denominations, such as Methodist and Presbyterian, and Evangelical, which includes Southern Baptists, Pentecostals and historic black churches.
The study noted that Protestantism is characterized by significant internal diversity and fragmentation, encompassing hundreds of different denominations loosely grouped around three “fairly distinct” religious traditions — evangelical Protestant churches (26.3%), mainline Protestants (18.1%) and historically black Protestant churches (6.9%).
Evangelicals make up the nation’s single-largest religious tradition, followed by Catholics, who make up about a quarter of Americans.
But Catholics also lost more adherents than any other single religious group in the United States, with one in three adults who were raised as Catholics no longer in that church, the study said. Roughly 10% of Americans are former Catholics.
“These losses would have been even more pronounced were it not for the offsetting impact of immigration,” the study said.
Immigrants to the United States are twice as likely as native-born Americans to identify with the Catholic church. One in three adult Catholics is Latino.
Researchers in the study found the fluidity of religious affiliation most striking.
“Americans are ready, willing and able to change their religious affiliation,” said Gregory Smith, a research fellow who worked on the study. “That the United States is a dynamic marketplace when it comes to religion isn’t that surprising. But to see the hard numbers, to see just how common an occurrence religious change was, was quite striking to me and to other researchers.”
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February 25th, 2008 at 10:59 pmSecular unaffiliated Americans account for 6.3% of the population; religious unaffiliated, 5.8%; atheists, 1.4% and agnostics, 2.4%
And it’s all these that run the media, own the news papers and keep America under their thumb, telling us constantly what we are allowed to think.
The comment about changing churches or affiliations is equal to moving to another state, happens all the time.
If America ever wakes up to what it means to be a Christian nation, look out world.
February 25th, 2008 at 11:38 pmWell there is nothing wrong with that. that is one label i wear with pride
February 26th, 2008 at 3:28 am…….
O Lord, I’ve never lived where churches grow;
I love creation better as it stood
That day You finished it so long ago
And looked upon Your work and called it good.
I know that others find You in the light
That’s sifted down through tinted window-panes,
And yet, I seem to feel You near tonight
In this dim, quiet starlight, on the plains.
I thank You, Lord, that I am placed so well ;
That You have made my freedom so complete;
That I’m no slave of whistle, clock or bell,
Or weak-eyed prisoner of wall and street.
Just let me live my life as I’ve begun,
And give me work that’s open to the sky ;
Make me a pardner of the wind and sun
And I won’t ask for a life that’s soft or high.
Let me be easy on the man that’s down,
And make me square and generous with all ;
I’m careless sometimes, Lord, when I’m in town,
But never let them say I’m mean or small,
Make me as wide and open as the plains,
As honest as the horse between my knees,
Clean as the wind that blows behind the rains,
Free as the hawk that circles down the breeze.
Forgive me, Lord, when sometimes I forget ;
You know about the reasons that are hid,
You know about the things that gall and fret,
You know me better than my mother did.
Just keep an eye on all that’s done and said,
Just right me sometimes when I turn aside,
And guide me on the long, dim trail ahead,
That stretches upwards toward the Great Divide.
………..
February 26th, 2008 at 5:10 am“And it’s all these that run the media, own the news papers and keep America under their thumb, telling us constantly what we are allowed to think.”
Also known as Powers, Principalities, Thrones & Dominions.
The left loves to use ‘em.
February 26th, 2008 at 5:16 am“And it’s all these that run the media, own the news papers and keep America under their thumb, telling us constantly what we are allowed to think.”
Also known as Powers, Principalities, Thrones & Dominions.
The left really loves to use ‘em.
February 26th, 2008 at 5:19 amYes, but even among Evangelicals, there are Anglican, Gospel Assemblies, Evangelical Lutherans … I could go on. So, even though members of those different denominations would not affiliate themselves with each other, this study does … It’s hard for me to understand how so many different interpretations of the same Book can all be “correct.”
February 26th, 2008 at 6:37 amSteve in NC, thank you.
February 26th, 2008 at 6:47 amBut what about Orthodox Christians? Where the heck are they at this point? Don’t tell me they’re less than .01%. Again, the media tells us what denominations and religions are preferred. Or maybe Orthodoxy IS the best kept secret in America.
February 26th, 2008 at 8:46 am@ trustme1013
The difference is Liturgical. Man is inherently flawed. Man created denominations. Some people love the “service” and all it’s man made trappings. It’s a routine, something they grew up with. That’s “religion”. If you read the book you will see The Lord doesn’t care a fig about “religion”. Religion is man’s attempt to reach God, Jesus is God’s attempt to reach man. Get into the Book. He’s the way - not Allah, Budda, Tom Cruise…
February 26th, 2008 at 10:09 amThis is my point exactly. If man is inherently flawed (which we agree on) how can each person reach his or her own “understanding” of the same Book and have it be accurate? The Bible tells us some things in absolutes — and yet these are the things that are bandied about and create this 10,000-different-denomination sort of quagmire we have. It frustrates me, because you see a lot of Christians running around and it rings false with me, because of these issues. We can’t all be right.
I guess I should be happy with the fact that almost 80% of us believe in Christ, which is pretty astronomical in and of itself, considering our culture. I agree with Mark Tanberg. Watch out world, should we ever act on what we are called to do by our ‘common’ faith.
February 26th, 2008 at 11:02 amI’ll probably be laughed off this website, but here goes.
For the past 15 years my calling has been in Christian demonology and exorcism. I deal with people who’ve played with Ouija boards, various forms of magic, ritualism, etc., only to have opened themselves up to the “dark side.” I’ve attended two exorcisms, interacted with and photographed so-called “spirit phenomena” in various stages of manifestation, and dealt with everything from one woman who was processing childhood sexual abuse to another person who’s mother was a former satanic high priestess who had consecrated them to the devil in what is called a “blood dedication.” From my insight, and for what it’s worth, here’s my take on your questions.
I have only been in one church where I can honestly say — with my background — I saw the power of God at work, and that’s because its pastor had the spiritual maturity to realize that God was quite capable of bringing specialists (like myself) into his congregation, like “joints in the Body of Christ,” to create a “body” for Him to reach out with His Love and Compassion. And, that it was the pastor’s job to discern God’s movement within the congregation and to facilitate that movement as God so chose, instead of argue with and quote doctrinal points to God.
In short, God was in charge and the pastor fully yielded to what God wished to do. The result was that the church became a kind of “spiritual hospital,” in that as the oppressed came through the door I would be called upon to stabilize them, and then the pastor would hand them off to someone who was gifted in visitation or exhortation, to help begin feeding them the Word and build them up. And on it would go until those people God brought into the church could then take their place along side of us and help the next wave coming through the door.
Why are we saddled with gazillions of denominations? Because it will always be easier to “walk by sight, rather than by faith.” People seem to like rules so they can have a gold star stuck by their name, or brag about how well they obey the rules. Or maybe they been stuck in “church mode” for so long they’ve never thought to question if there’s something bigger than Sunday worship and Wednesday evening Bible study.
What’s it like to come face-to-face with the spirit realm? The men and women here who’ve served will recognize it: You are part of a team in which you are dependent upon one another, only on this team some of your teammates don’t register on your five physical senses. You are never the quarterback; that role is the Holy Spirit’s. However, your role is important otherwise you wouldn’t be on the team. Your #1 Job is to keep yourself in a state where you can inwardly hear from God, as are your other teammates, so when you get your cue you can act on it as they do.
Why don’t we see more miracles? The military folks understand. They push and push to master new skills. Fighting skills. Survival skills. Acquiring that “winning attitude.” And then they reach within themselves to push and push to refine and sharpen those skills until they are razor-sharp. And then they train and drill and train some more, to maintain that edge. Until they become — and remain — the deadliest of weapons. And all for a call that may never come.
It’s called “self-discipline.” Also called “dedication to cause.” To keep picking yourself up from the mat so God can encourage you use His strength to go farther on the next round. It is IMO the “price of admission” for serving the Most High. And why you don’t see any more power than you do.
I’ll close with a few comments on Iraq. IMO this is an archetypal exorcism, with President Bush as the exorcist and our military as his assistants. Radical Islam is the closest thing to a “religion of the devil” and whose Achille’s Heel is competition for the heart and soul. The brilliance of this mission is in helping Iraq become a “shining nation” in the ME, so that others in darkness over there will see the Light coming from Iraq and want it for themselves and their families.
In short, giving people a reason to live, a hope for their children and future, rather than an empty desire to die. That is America’s place in the world. Why we’ve been “blessed to be a blessing.” It’s why God has caused us to overcome and triumph this long, despite all the crap and problems the Devil has thrown our way since 1776. And it is why we will ultimately triumph over radical Islam.
February 26th, 2008 at 2:12 pm