Posted on 03/10/2018 12:55:25 PM PST by Altura Ct.
Charmaine Pruitt wrote the names of 12 churches on a sheet of paper, tore the paper into 12 strips, and dropped them into a Ziploc bag. It was Sunday morning and time to pick which church to attend.
This time of the week two years earlier, there would have been no question. Ms. Pruitt, 46, would have been getting ready for her regular Saturday afternoon worship service, at a former grocery store overhauled into a state-of-the-art, 760-seat sanctuary. In the darkened hall, where it would have been hard to tell she was one of the few black people in the room, she would have listened to the soaring anthems of the praise bands. She would have watched, on three giant screens, a sermon that over the course of a weekend would reach one of the largest congregations in the country.
But Ms. Pruitt has not been to that church since the fall of 2016. That was when she concluded that it was not, ultimately, meant for people like her. She has not been to any church regularly since.
Ms. Pruitt pulled one of the slips out of the Ziploc bag. Mount Olive Fort Worth. O.K. That was where she would go that day.
In the last couple of decades, there had been signs, however modest, that eleven o’clock on Sunday morning might cease to be the most segregated hour in America. “Racial reconciliation” was the talk of conferences and the subject of formal resolutions. Large Christian ministries were dedicated to the aim of integration, and many black Christians decided to join white-majority congregations. Some went as missionaries, called by God to integrate. Others were simply drawn to a different worship style — short, conveniently timed services that emphasized a personal connection to God
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Excellent observation.
It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.
Just doing the work illegal immigrants won't do.
Because Bob Dylan said so: Gotta Serve Somebody
Blacks leaving churches
I made the mistake of clicking the link! My hope for a reasoned article quickly faded. All racism, all the time for the old gray lady. What a crock of crap!
I’m not interested in the 3-screen megachurches with praise bands and I’m not black.
This seems to be about as good a place as any to post these stats (links worked when I complied these, but not all do now) relevant to the article.
Non-Hispanic whites now account for smaller shares of evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and Catholics than they did seven years earlier, while Hispanics have grown as a share of all three religious groups. Racial and ethnic minorities now make up 41% of Catholics (up from 35% in 2007), 24% of evangelical Protestants (up from 19%) and 14% of mainline Protestants (up from 9%).
the size of the historically black Protestant tradition – which includes the National Baptist Convention, the Church of God in Christ, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Progressive Baptist Convention and others – has remained relatively stable in recent years, at nearly 16 million adults.
More than six-in-ten people in the historically black Protestant tradition identify with Baptist denominations, including 22% who identify with the National Baptist Convention, the largest denomination within the historically black Protestant tradition.
Fully 36% of young Millennials (those between the ages of 18 and 24) are religiously unaffiliated, as are 34% of older Millennials (ages 25-33). And fewer than six-in-ten Millennials identify with any branch of Christianity, compared with seven-in-ten or more among older generations, including Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers. Just 16% of Millennials are Catholic, and only 11% identify with mainline Protestantism. Roughly one-in-five are evangelical Protestants.
Both the mainline and historically black Protestant traditions have lost more members than they have gained through religious switching, but within Christianity the greatest net losses, by far, have been experienced by Catholics. Nearly one-third of American adults (31.7%) say they were raised Catholic. Among that group, fully 41% no longer identify with Catholicism. This means that 12.9% of American adults are former Catholics, while just 2% of U.S. adults have converted to Catholicism from another religious tradition.
While the mainline Protestant share of the population is significantly smaller today than it was in 2007, the evangelical Protestant share of the population has remained comparatively stable (ticking downward slightly from 26.3% to 25.4% of the population). As a result, evangelicals now constitute a clear majority (55%) of all U.S. Protestants. In 2007, roughly half of Protestants (51%) identified with evangelical churches.
Whites continue to be more likely than both blacks and Hispanics to identify as religiously unaffiliated; 24% of whites say they have no religion, compared with 20% of Hispanics and 18% of blacks. But the religiously unaffiliated have grown (and Christians have declined) as a share of the population within all three of these racial and ethnic groups.
The share of the public identifying with religions other than Christianity has grown from 4.7% in 2007 to 5.9% in 2014. Gains were most pronounced among Muslims (who accounted for 0.4% of respondents in the 2007 Religious Landscape Study and 0.9% in 2014) and Hindus (0.4% in 2007 vs. 0.7% in 2014).12 http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/
we have the fairly standard figure of approx. 80 million Evangelicals (26% of a 313 million U.S. population) in America (though others range from have an est 60-100 million), making up 26% of Prot. churches, which make up 51% of all churches in the US.
Then we have the standard figure of approx. 75 million Catholics which make up 24% of all churches in the US.
Then we have the standard figure of approx. 75 million Catholics which make up 51% of all churches in the US.
Thus the numbers between the two parties are close, but we have not worked at determining how many of each are pro life. In so doing it would be easiest to start by restricting each to whites, not because I am racist or seek to promote that (I myself am a minority where I live) but because Blacks and Latinos typically vote liberal.
Not counting blacks would eliminate 6% of evangelicals (15% of blacks), and 5% of Catholics.
(Also, a 2010 study showed 12.5% of Protestant churches and 27% of other Christian churches (Catholic/Orthodox) were multiracial - http://hirr.hartsem.edu/research/fastfacts/fast_facts.html#multiracial)
53% of black evangelicals and 35% of black Catholics say that abortion should be illegal.
Blacks constituted approx. 13% of the electorate in 2012. Black Protestants were 9% of the electorate, and Hispanic Catholics 5%
Latinos make up an est. 15% of evangelicals, and 32% of Catholics. 51% of Hispanic Catholics and 70% of Latino evangelicals say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases
Latinos account for 11% of the nation’s eligible electorate [2012], with 57% being Catholic.
Getting down to white Catholics and white evangelicals, 54% of the former and 64% of the latter say [2011-2012] abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.
Among all Catholics and evangelicals (racial stats not given) who attend services weekly or more, 58% of Catholics and 73% of evangelicals say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.
Also, what 2013 polling shows is that only 51% of adult Hispanics say abortion should be illegal in most or all cases" even while being family oriented (i am sure there are differences btwn nat.origins though). Other surveys have prochoice Hispanics even higher, and none were lower.
In addition, only a slight majority of 53% of Hispanic Catholics say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, similar to white Catholics at 54%, which only matches the general public.
Moreover, Hispanics make up at least 32% of Catholics, and 47% of Catholics btwn 18-29, thus foretelling its future voting
In contrast, Hispanics make up 15% of evangelicals, and 70% of Hispanic evangelicals say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases
Overall, white Evangelicals (23% of the electorate) voted 79%/20% Romney/Obama; Protestants overall (53% of the electorate) voted 57%/42%; black Protestants (9% of the electorate) and other Christian voted 5%/95%; Catholics overall (25% of the electorate) voted 48%/50%; white Catholics (18% of the electorate) voted 59%/40%; and Hispanic Catholics (5% of the electorate) voted 21%/75% Romney/Obama http://www.pewforum.org/Politics-and-Elections/How-the-Faithful-Voted-2012-Preliminary-Exit-Poll-Analysis.aspx
Correction: ignore the second statement, “Then we have the standard figure of approx. 75 million Catholics which make up 51% of all churches in the US,” as the prior one is the correct one (24%).
Indeed. It is typically mainly about getting your blessing, with Christ being a means to the end, while He and being like Christ is typical not emphasized.
And in voting, money/welfare and race (in that order) trumps profession.
Last week the NYT was concerned about a gnostic "Christian" sect members not being allowed to immigrate while evangelicals could.
Churches should be about equipping the people of God for the work of the ministry, not tickling itching ears by hearing about their favorite social justice peeve.
And of course, non-Christians and atheists would never even think of trying to do that, would they?
Showing again the observation that Catholics are the first to make it personal when exposed.
If they can’t contest the comment, then they attack the messenger.
That any Catholic anywhere should think of being able to point fingers in condemnation at the antics of another church’s clergy is beyond ludicrous.
Yes and no. As a religious person I cannot stomach a church that does not stand against abortion, homosexual “marriage” and other blatant sin. To the extent that those issues are also political I mix religion and politics.
But since the problem of sexual impropriety existed within Catholicism long before the Protestant Reformation, it's not hard to figure out the source.
St. Peter Damian's Book of Gomorrah: Homosexual Situation Graver than Damian's Time
NY Times takes its orders from Podesta and the DNC, and they will do everything to divide Americans, and destroy or at least depower religions.
The Dems are Soviet Communists who did this exact thing.
The NY Times is Pravda.
Those who forget the mistakes of the past are condemned to repeat them.
How things are where you live isn't a "favorite social justice peeve," and addressing it may be part of the "work of the ministry."
Would you really expect churches not to talk about drug addiction and gang violence if they were problems in the surrounding community?
The need is what’s going on in people’s lives that lead them to drug addiction and gangs.
You cannot solve the brokenness in someone’s life by addressing the symptoms.
The root causes of those problems need to be addressed and that is by investing in people’s lives by those who know how to minister healing to others one on one.
Yeah, it’s a slow process but without changing the people and their hearts, then the problems that are manifesting are not going to go away.
And for people to be able to minster to others, THEY need to be mature in their faith first.
You figure that out all by yourself?
Or that more white men are killed by police than black men, period. As in 3X’s as many.
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