Evangelicals Winning!
It's enough to make me want to change sides, since my disposition is to root for the underdog, but in the recent Pew Foundation studies on the changes in religious ties, it looks like the Evangelicals are trouncing the Catholics in the competition for butts in pews. Clip follows:
Article published Feb 26, 2008
Catholic tradition fading in U.S.
Flocking to Pentecostal and evangelical churches..
By Julia Duin
WASHINGTON TIMES -- Evangelical Christianity has become the largest religious tradition in this country, supplanting Roman Catholicism, which is slowly bleeding members, according to a survey released yesterday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Evangelical Protestants outnumber Catholics by 26.3 percent (59 million) to 24 percent (54 million) of the population, according to the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, a massive 45-question poll conducted last summer of more than 35,000 American adults.
"There is no question that the demographic balance has shifted in past few decades toward evangelical churches," said Greg Smith, a research fellow at the Pew Forum. "They are now the mainline of American Protestantism."
The traditional mainline Protestant churches, which in 1957 constituted about 66 percent of the populace, now count just 18 percent as adherents.
Although one in three Americans are raised Roman Catholic, only one in four adults describe themselves as such, despite the huge numbers of immigrants swelling American churches, researchers said.
"Immigration is what is keeping them afloat," said John Green, a Pew senior fellow. "If everyone who was raised Catholic stayed Catholic, it'd be a third of the country."
Article published Feb 26, 2008
Catholic tradition fading in U.S.
Flocking to Pentecostal and evangelical churches..
By Julia Duin
WASHINGTON TIMES -- Evangelical Christianity has become the largest religious tradition in this country, supplanting Roman Catholicism, which is slowly bleeding members, according to a survey released yesterday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Evangelical Protestants outnumber Catholics by 26.3 percent (59 million) to 24 percent (54 million) of the population, according to the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, a massive 45-question poll conducted last summer of more than 35,000 American adults.
"There is no question that the demographic balance has shifted in past few decades toward evangelical churches," said Greg Smith, a research fellow at the Pew Forum. "They are now the mainline of American Protestantism."
The traditional mainline Protestant churches, which in 1957 constituted about 66 percent of the populace, now count just 18 percent as adherents.
Although one in three Americans are raised Roman Catholic, only one in four adults describe themselves as such, despite the huge numbers of immigrants swelling American churches, researchers said.
"Immigration is what is keeping them afloat," said John Green, a Pew senior fellow. "If everyone who was raised Catholic stayed Catholic, it'd be a third of the country."
posted by Rick Broussard at 3:54 PM
2 Comments:
I guess it depends on what you mean by winning... And beyond that... from my perspective, however hard it may be to be a Catholic some days, it seems reasonable to me that if there is a "true" religion that gets closest to reflecting the mysterious and ineffable intentions of God, it wouldn't be a perfect match for what I'd like my lifestyle to be. Despite that, Americans don't like to be told what to do, regardless whose doing the telling. We like to pick things that "fit" us, and reject dogmas until we find ones that please us. Which seems as though it would argue for a movement by our countrymen toward a system (or set of systems) more fluidly adaptable to the needs and cultures of the adherents. And in the case of evangelicals (if this is the case), it would seem the very range and variety of practices and beliefs within that grouping would preclude one being able to measure it as a single denomination against Roman Catholicism. I may be wrong (I am certainly no expert) -- in which case correct me -- but it seems that I recall even you mentioning that it would be a mistake to look at all evangelicals as a single block as there is so much disparity in practice, modes belief, orthodoxy, etc. Yes, no? Thoughts?
I think you are right about that. In fact, I can't find a thing to disagree with in your response to my post.
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