Posted on 12/03/2012 7:22:06 AM PST by Alex Murphy
A new study has found that Catholics now have the lowest proportion of "strongly affiliated" followers among America's major religious traditions, while evangelicals are growing stronger in their devotion to their faith.
Philip Schwadel, a sociologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, whose findings rely on a survey conducted among a cross-section of Americans on an annual or bi-annual basis since 1974, notes that from about a 5-percentage-point difference in the 1970s in how strongly Catholics and evangelicals felt about their religion, it has increased to around 20 percentage points today.
Roughly 56 per cent of evangelicals now say they're strongly affiliated with their religion, as opposed to 35 per cent of Catholics who say the same. Mainline Protestants also have a higher level of religious devotion (39 per cent) than Catholics.
"Sociologists have been writing about declines in mainline Protestantism for the last few decades," Schwadel is quoted as saying in the Autumn 2012 issue of the journal Sociology of Religion.
"The tremendous decline in Catholics' strength of affiliation, though, was somewhat surprising."
However, the change took place gradually over time, Schwadel says. "When it's that rapid and not really generationally motivated, it may be possible to reverse people's views."
Mass attendance by younger Catholics remains unaffected, he adds. "That could be seen as good news and bad news for the Catholic Church. Younger Catholics are not being driven away from going to church, but they do still feel less strongly committed to their religion than they did a few decades ago."
Schwadel analysed about 40,000 responses over the decades.
The study did not attempt to know why their devotion had increased or decreased, but Schwadel says priest sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church could have been a factor. On the other hand, he adds, evangelicals became more visible during the 1990s, as well as more politicised. It's possible that their role in the public square encouraged more people to identify strongly with the faith, he suggests.
The study also shows that the total number of strongly affiliated people has remained at around 37 per cent, with a brief rise to 43 per cent in the mid-1980s. Schwadel also found that African-American Protestants reported almost the same level of religious intensity (57 per cent) as white evangelicals in 2010.
"Sociologists have been writing about declines in mainline Protestantism for the last few decades," [Philip Schwadel, a sociologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln] is quoted as saying in the Autumn 2012 issue of the journal Sociology of Religion. "The tremendous decline in Catholics' strength of affiliation, though, was somewhat surprising"....
....The study also shows that the total number of strongly affiliated people has remained at around 37 per cent, with a brief rise to 43 per cent in the mid-1980s. Schwadel also found that African-American Protestants reported almost the same level of religious intensity (57 per cent) as white evangelicals in 2010.
The half that are “devoted” are still the largest affiliated Christian group.
The “Non-denominationals”, aren’t “affiliated”.
Consider the past election results. Many Catholics are Democrats first and Catholics second.
They are apostate socialists first and Catholic second. That does not work in God’s construct. According to His they are lukewarm or non-fruitful both conditions where one is expelled from His presence.
It doesn’t help when their bishops are running conservative Catholics like me out of the pew with their Dream Act nonsense. I didn’t leave my church, my church left me.
Pray for Pope Benedict, for he is selecting Bishops with a spine.
I know that back in the 1960 era many liberal Bishops were named, but they are retiring now, so have hope. And come back!
Numbers have been dwindling in all Christian denominations. Somehow, we don’t get the stories about the loss of Methodists, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Presbyterians etc.
**African-American Protestants reported almost the same level of religious intensity (57 per cent) as white evangelicals in 2010.**
YEP, AND 95% PERCENT of them (Black Protestants) voted for Obama. Where is the story about them?
White Americans have been fleeing the Catholic church for years, that is why the immigration of millions of Catholics doesn’t change the percentage of the Catholic population.
That’s very nice of you to urge me to return and I appreciate it. I was actually seriously considering it before the election, but then was astonished by the fact that 60 percent of Catholics voted for Obama...AGAIN. It completely deflated me. It defies logic, after he lied to Cardinal Dolan’s face about Obamacare.
Liberalism and socialism are cancers in the Catholic Church. I wish Catholics would realize that and make a stand. There’s nothing Christ-like about forcibly taking things from those who earned it to give to others who did not.
May the peace of Christ be with you.
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