Posted on 05/02/2012 8:50:07 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
A decennial census of U.S. religions in America was released Tuesday by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB). The results show a dramatic increase in the number of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, and Muslims, a modest increase in the number of evangelical Protestants, and a drop in the number of Catholics and mainline Protestants.
Muslims saw the greatest growth rate among the five main religious groups studied. Their numbers increased by 66.7 percent in the 2010 census from a decade earlier. Latter-day Saints saw the next highest growth at 45.5 percent, followed by evangelical Protestants at only 1.7 percent. The number of Catholics decreased by five percent and the number of mainline Protestants decreased by 12.8 percent.
Notably, when combined, nondenominational and independent churches are now the largest faith group, with over 12 million adherents, according to the report.
Evangelical Protestants and Latter-day Saints saw their greatest growth in the nine most populated metropolitan areas. These areas each have over 5 million people. Evangelical Christians increased their numbers by 12.3 percent and Latter-day Saints increased their numbers by 66.9 percent in these areas. Muslims, by contrast, grew at a faster rate outside of the major metropolitan areas.
The census also shows an increase in religious diversity in the United States. In the 2000 census, at least one non-Christian religious congregation was found in 21 percent of America's counties. In the 2010 census, that had risen to 31 percent, a nearly 50 percent increase.
ASARB's U.S. Religion Census is the most thorough study of its kind. County-level data is collected for 236 different religious groups. The first census was taken in 1952, to be followed up in 1971, 1980, 1990, 2000 and, now, 2010.
"With 236 participating bodies, the 2010 US Religion Census is the most comprehensive local-level analysis of U.S. religious adherents and attendance in more than 60 years," said Clifford Grammich, the chairman of the ASARB operations committee for the study, in a statement. "We are especially pleased to have increased participation for several independent and non-Christian bodies."
At the study's website you can view graphical representations of the wealth of data the census provides. One can select their own denomination or religious group, for instance, and view a map of how its numbers have changed, by county, over the previous decade.
No mention of the suspect, at best, methodology employed to reach these “results”.
I’m not totally sure how they get this data since the U.S. census doesn’t ask you your religion (and my answer would be NOYDB if they asked) but it sounds like they are counting churches and church sizes. I don’t know if that produces accurate results.
What I find is that churches grow when their members are energized to make new members. If there’s no zeal in your faith, that faith will not attract new members. Where there is vibrancy, more will be attracted to it regardless of whether it is doctrinally sound or not.
I wonder in which category the “mega-churches” fall under? Non-denominational, I suppose. Those seem to be flourishing the most around here, although I don’t equate that with the soundness of their message.
An inevitable result of a screwed-up immigration policy which allows jihadi fifth columnists to flow over our borders unchecked.
Spot on. The biggest decliners are the mainline Protestant sects, the ELCA being a prime, but by no means, only example which have adopted the PC feelgood approach of watered down Christianity.
Many former members who can't buy into that approach have flocked to the mega-churches.
I'd classify most mega-churches as Evangelical Protestant who only take on the nondenominational label because they want to appeal to new converts from those leaving mainline Protestant sects, regardless of the particular sect.
I've attended services at one not far from where I live and can see the appeal as the doctrines are quite familiar to most mainline Protestants before their sects went PC. While I enjoy the pageantry, the mega-church experience just isn't my cup of tea for a long term home.
RE: the mega-church experience just isn’t my cup of tea for a long term home.
Does the Pastor get to know you personally?
Well, I am curious about this so called “decrease” in the number of Catholics and even some mainline Protestant denominations like the Episcopalians.
Unlike Evangelical Churches, which count membership based on baptism upon conversion, Catholics and mainline Protestants include membership based on INFANT baptism.
I know of a lot of atheists who were baptized in the Catholic church after they were born. Are they still “counted” as Catholics? Does the church “track” them? ( for that matter, this applies to protestant and evangelical churches as well ).
Just asking....
I personally know Catholics who in recent years have become reticent to tell strangers out there that they are Catholic.
“Somebody out there is making a list” is what they tell me.
Looks like Protestants are leaving the denominations and joining Evangelical churches in response to the widespread support for the ordination of queers and so forth in the “mainline” churches. That’s more like a bus transfer than a change of faith.
I'm not knocking the mega-church experience as it evidently appeals to a lot of people and, with those kind of resources, they can put on awesome programs for Easter, Christmas and other special events.
I'm just saying that, for myself, when it comes to day-to-day scriptural study, I prefer a smaller group with a more intimate setting.
Probably for the same reason that I prefer a small boutique sized Jazz venue to a stadium sized Rock concert.
Latter-day Saints saw the next highest growth at 45.5 percent
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Actually this is only 20%
It seems the Mormons had fudged their books
Oh Noez
They wouldnt lie would they ???
Good. Hopefully the evangelicals and Muslims get the CINOs
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