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 ...
Immigrants?
The Catholic Church’s numbers would grow if they embraced real Catholicism, and not this liberation theology crap. The last two Pope’s have tried to do just that, but liberal toadies like the Jesuits are fighting it tooth, nail, and devil’s cloven hoof.
How come I never got a "sorry bout your Broncos"? :-)
Converts and Catholics moving to Texas from other states make up the majority of registered members. Illegals don’t bother registering most of the time.
We're all familiar with the surveys conducted a few years ago that seem to lead to the conclusion that only about twenty-seven percent, I think it was, twenty-seven percent of Catholics believe in the Real Presence as the Church teaches it.
Several years ago, The New York Times ran a poll about belief in the Eucharist. All of us understand the limited value of polls, but this one deserves careful attention. It seemed to show that only about a third of Catholics believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist!
Knights Of Columbus
C'mon, Steven ... the Broncs are sorry enough on their own, they don't need me to add to it. ;o)
Boy, that's a sad state of affairs. There were times in the past when I wondered if I was in the right church. The pull of the Eucharist is what kept me from leaving. I'm glad I didn't give up ... God has blessed me so much since then.
Let me see what I can find. It might be tomorrow before I post anything (darn work getting in the way of FReeping).
The vast majority of Catholic parish and school closings are due to the fact that Catholics are moving out of these parishes. The problem is that many places where Catholics are moving to the Church has little or no presence, particularly here in the South.
I live in a small unincorporated town of about 15000 in South Carolina. The Catholics met at a school here for many years with about 300 attending. The diocese finally decided to build a church here two years ago that would seat 450. They thought it would give them room for future growth. Since it opened they have five Masses every week that are standing room only. By the diocese's own admission, they had no idea there were so many Catholics in the area.
The Catholic Church has done a poor job here in the US in dealing with a mobile society. 100 years ago they were fairly quick in moving into areas where Catholics moved into. But today they are reticent in closing old churches and schools where there are few Catholics and building new ones where the Catholics have emigrated.
As a result Protestant churches in the South are growing from the influx of Catholics that have no church home. About one quarter of our church are former Catholics.
Oh sure take your shots now but don't come cryin' to me when they win the SB.
That's because there are people in this world anxious to announce the demise of the Catholic Church so they can celebrate it. I can smell some of them right here in this thread.
Converts? Immigrants?
A surge in immigrants from Latin America also is reshaping the church. Hispanics now make up between 20 percent and 30 percent of the Catholic population nationally and two-thirds of the Catholics in the Dallas Diocese.
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/tx-dallas/Dallas-2001.htm
Good info. Thanks. But there's still not concrete numbers and it's old data. A lot has changed in a lot of parishes since 2001. I'm going to keep looking for further info.
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