Posted on 03/21/2008 1:47:24 PM PDT by Grig
Quite puzzling finally is the denomination labelling itself as Christian, dominating in central Illinois and Indiana. I thought they all were. Christian, that is
Campbellite restorationist would be my guess.
Thee are several "denominations" that use this name.
The non-instrumental Christian church doesn't believe you should use any form of musical instrument not named in the New Testament ~ which is why they sing a'capella.
Every time this question is brought up we find various Freepers who do or do not include the non-instrumental congregations in the Restoration circle.
Article said: Most of the other counties have Catholics as the most numerous congregation, leading to a somewhat misleading map. Catholicism very often is the biggest denomination by default, owing to the fact that their institutional unity boosts market share but at the same time masks differences between different wings of the Roman church that are as great as between denominations of Protestantism that have separated over theological differences.
Um...that’s BS.
I see small islands of Lutherans in the South. These are the places that you will find the best coffee before and after services.
It is a well known fact that Lutherans have the best coffee.
t is a well known fact that Lutherans have the best coffee.
Might be an ethnic thing. I saw a map of world coffee usage once. IIRC, the really, really heavy, swimming in a brown aromatic sea coffee users are Scandinavian.
Good reference ~ someone with some knowledge of the Restoration belief made sure to show the connection (via dotted line) back to the time of the Christian congregation in Jerusalem.
Was at a funeral last month, in one of the yellow counties on that map. Turned out to be a Church of Christ. The dedication stone said "Founded by Jesus Christ in AD 33". It was all very happy-clappy evangelical, except for one passing comment by the presiding minister that, if you were paying attention, pointed to their belief in necessity of baptism for salvation. It didn't seem the time or place to raise a ruckus about it.
I'm not sure how useful the map is. According to it, we should be tripping over Roman Catholics here. They are there, but so's most everybody else. Driving down the street, you're far more likely to see a mainline Protestant church or one of these generic non- (or weakly) denominational evangelical churches.
Do Protestant and non-mainline churches count people who have left their congregation in the minus column ? Can anyone answer that for us ?
It varies. Southron Baptists, for instance, are notorious for having far higher membership numbers than attendance numbers.
The map is from 2000 is there a 2007/2008 ? Thanks!
Hurray for orange and yellow! I’m shocked how little there is of orange and yellow, and how much red there is. I’m not sure I know what “reformed” is. But there sure is alot of that too.
I was somewhat intrigued with this map ever since I did an intense survey of the Rand McNally religious survey map 30 years ago. At that time Indiana was the only state that reported having no counties with a majority composed of members of a single denomination.
Now, it has such a county, and some of those earlier reported as highly mixed are now shown to be 50% or more Catholic.
I suspect what we have here is useless for planning purposes! Or, the Catholics have been making striking gains.
Religious Adherents
Church Bodies
Catholic
Baptist
Methodist
Lutheran
Lutheran Groups
ELCA
LCMS
WELS
Jewish
Pentecostal
Latter-Day Saints (Mormon)
Christian Presbyterian Episcopal United Church of Christ Muslim Eastern Orthodox Church of the Nazarene Reformed Mennonite Amish Unitarian Congregational Friends (Quaker) |
And the most important map of them all:
US Counties With High Percentages of Unclaimed/Unchurched (sorry pdf file only)
You are wrong about the Catholic Church counting by baptism. The Church takes a census a couple times a year. Certainly when it performs the Biblically mandated Baptism of babies they are counted in that families participation in the census if the family is active.
Im not sure I know what reformed is. But there sure is alot of that too.
Reformed would be Reformed Church in America (one of the oldest bodies in NA), and a few smaller churches. Where these are at (west Michigan and Iowa), I'm guessing Christian Reformed Church. Theologically, ideally, they should be lumped together with Presbyterians, who are now classified as "other", as the major differences between them have to do with country of origin.
"Other", noted as grey. A few counties out west, and most of Alaska. Is there a blessed (but chilly) Presbyterian Shangri-La out there somewhere? Probably not. That "strangers and sojourners in this world" thing.
Sure thing. I have been a Catholic my entire life and have filled out the little piece of paper every year since I reached adulthood and was off on my own, even during the 20+ years I was in military service.
If that’s not good enough for you, I am sure you are perfectly capable of doing your own research without me having to hold your hand. Google is always a good place to start:
http://www.google.com/search?q=catholic+church+census&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en-us&start=10&sa=N
Other than that, I don’t really care whether you believe it or not because, as they say, it is what it is, and doesn’t really mean anything one way or another (denomination membership or trends that is) anyways.
(NOTE: the fastest growing religion in the world is Islam (might be the largest too...don’t remember)..does that mean it’s the best or true religion? I hardly think so.)
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