Posted on 02/26/2008 10:44:25 AM PST by Between the Lines
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."
Those who leave Catholicism mostly either drop out of church entirely or join Pentecostal or evangelical Protestant churches, Pew Forum director Luis Lugo said. One out of every 10 evangelicals is a former Catholic, he said, with Hispanic Catholics leaving at higher rates; 20 percent of them end up in evangelical or Pentecostal churches.
"It's a desire for a closer experience of God," he said. "It's not so much disenchantment with the teachings of the Catholic Church but the pull of what they see in Pentecostalism."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
I watch EWTN on occasion. I believe too that they help spread the Catholic faith.
On the other hand, channels like TBN and the ilk that is on there, like Benny Hinn, is more apt to drive people from the Protestant faith.
Sounds like a great church.
Mine is second — we do everything on your list, except for the Latin Mass.
In fact, we had 130 attending an adult education night talk by our priest on the subject of Purgatory. It was a straight across the board — do the work now — so you don’t end up there! And with the Biblical backups from both the old and new testament!
During Lent we have soup and bread. So tonight we had beef and vegetable, lentil tomato meatless, turkey noodle and broccoli and chees soups.
How did your church come out in this survey?
That's crazy. I'm a Reformed Evangelical. There is a resurgence of Reformed theology within the SBC. This poll would have misinterpreted that.
You may disagree, but I see, in many ways, a chance to separate the wheat from the chaff. With the cafeteria and "cultural Catholics" leaving, it leaves a solid core to work to spread the faith.
However, as a one time "insider" now very much and "outsider", I must say that both the Catholic Left and Right are wrong in their approaches towards rebuilding the faith, neither creating the Church of What's Happening Now, nor going back 70 years to the days of insular, parish-based communities will work. I think PJPII (a great man, even to us non-believers, btw) was onto something in terms of engaging the contemporary world while offering the faith undiluted and with strength. Unfortunately, he had the stubborn oxen in the Orders to deal with.
You are correct. This poll misinterprets a lot of data about a lot of different denominations.
The Problem with Counting Christians - Christianity Today 2/26/2008
So it’s impossible for me to gloat whether you church is gaining or losing members?
Let’s try that again:
So its impossible for me to gloat whether your church is gaining or losing members?
there are more chinese than any other nationality....that makes them right??
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