U.S. Protestant population seen losing majority status

Washington Times ^ | Wednesday, July 20, 2004 | By Joyce Howard Price

[JohnHuang2]

The United States will lose its historic status as a majority-Protestant nation as early as this year, according to a national survey released yesterday.

Between 1993 and 2002, the proportion of Americans who said they were Protestants fell from 63 percent to 52 percent after decades of stability, according to the study released by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

[Cronos]

hmmm... catholics are nearly 25%

[Ken522]

... catholics are nearly 25% ...

Just think: If they all went to Mass, chapels would be bursting at the seams every Sunday!

[nathanbedford]

This is the end my friend, the end of America whose death throes began in the '60s. Its passing is much to be mourned.

Would God that there is someone else on this forum who has the scratch to say so.

Protestantism is a noble state and one which every culture would do well to emulate.

[wildandcrazyrussian]

I think this survey and others like it are absolutely worthless, as shown by comparing the following two quotes:

Americans who said they belonged to religions other than Christianity or Judaism rose from 3 percent to 7 percent between 1993 and 2002. Other religions included Islam, Orthodox Christianity, Buddhism and other Eastern faiths, and those who describe themselves as inter-denominational.

and

The NORC survey identifies Protestants as "any post-Reformation Christian denomination," including some groups, such as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) and Jehovah's Witnesses, although their theologies differ substantially from those of most Christians and they are not universally viewed as Protestant.

Any survey group that thinks that Orthodox CHRISTIANITY is "other than Christianity" while thinking that NON-CHRISTIAN religions like Mormonism are Christian is hopelessly confused and dangerous.

There are over 200,000,000 Christians in the historically Orthodox nations of Russia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East (where the communities date from the time of Jesus Christ), and this past century has seen the loss of the greatest holocaust in human history: 100,000,000 Orthodox CHRISTIANS deaths due to Communism, Nazism, Islamism, and every other tyranny known to man.

I only mention this to indicate that the supposedly precise measurements of Protestant membership are examples of "false precision" which are ultimately meaningless, if they lump Mormon theology (being gods of your own polytheistic world, Jesus being Satan's brother, etc) in with Christianity teaches (one God in the Trinity, one Savior and Redeemer, one baptism, one faith) and the way of life brought about by this faith

[pctech]

I agree with you entirely. When Protestantism goes, so does the heart and soul of America. I know I will get flamed for this, but when America ceases to be Protestant, it ceases to be christian.

[HamiltonJay]

Well "protestants" as a combination of many different churches yes, but the single biggest church in america is still the Catholic Church, in fact, not only are there more practicing catholics than any other church single church, there are also more "non practicing catholics" in the United States than there are members of any other single Church.

[Logophile]

I only mention this to indicate that the supposedly precise measurements of Protestant membership are examples of "false precision" which are ultimately meaningless, if they lump Mormon theology (being gods of your own polytheistic world, Jesus being Satan's brother, etc) in with Christianity teaches (one God in the Trinity, one Savior and Redeemer, one baptism, one faith) and the way of life brought about by this faith.

I agree with you that it makes no sense to include the Orthodox Christians in the "Other" category. Nor would I classify the LDS as Protestants.

However, your description of Mormonism also leaves much to be desired.