That article pretty much answers my basic questions, but I am surprised, I didn’t know that they had such a dominate place among the world’s religions.
My interest is nothing special, just some surprise, it would be nice if the media would do a better job of telling us about the world. It is a little like people not knowing that the Southern Baptists (aside from the other Baptists)alone are the second largest religion in America, not just a little group of right wing fundamentalists, or that evangelical includes members of all Christian faiths, including Catholics.
After 9/11/01 many people were shocked to find out that Christianity was the largest religion on earth instead of just a white man’s, European faith.
“In Christian terms, the late 20th century will probably come to be known as the era of the “Pentecostal Explosion.” From less than six percent in the mid-1970s, Pentecostals finished the century representing almost 20 percent of world Christianity, according to a 2006 study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life called Spirit and Power. Combining organized Pentecostal denominations such as the Assemblies of God and the Church of Christ, plus the vast galaxy of independent churches around the world with a Pentecostal flavor, such as the African Zionists, the Spiritual Baptists in the Caribbean, and the True Jesus Church in China, brings the total worldwide number of Pentecostals to around 380 million. That would make Pentecostalism the second-largest Christian “denomination” on earth, lagging behind only Roman Catholicism. There are more Pentecostals today than all the Orthodox, Anglicans, and Lutherans put together.”
I also hadn't realized the large number. Our media does a poor job reporting on news of any kind.